The analysis aims to examine the impact of eco-innovation and financial efficiency on CO₂ emissions and renewable energy consumption in highly polluted Asian economies, including China, India, Russia, and Japan. For empirical analysis, we have applied the ARDL pooled mean group (ARDL-PMG) model. The long-run estimated coefficient of environmental innovations is positively significant in both renewable energy models and negatively significant in the CO₂ emissions model. These results imply that environmental innovations help facilitate renewable energy consumption and reduce CO₂ emissions. On the other side, the estimates of financial development are insignificant in both renewable energy and CO₂ emissions models. However, the estimates of financial institution efficiency and financial markets are positively significant in both renewable energy and CO₂ emissions models, implying that financial institutions and market efficiency increase renewable energy consumption and decrease CO₂ emissions.

Diarrheal disease is a significant public health problem leading to mortality and morbidity among children aged 0–59 months in rural India. Therefore, the rationale of this study was to identify the sociodemographic and environmental predictors associated with diarrhea among under-five children in rural India. A total of 188,521 living children (0–59 months) were studied from the National Family Health Survey-4, (NFHS-4) 2015–2016. Bivariate and binary logistic regression models were carried out from the available NFHS-4 data for selected sociodemographic and environmental predictors to identify the relationship of occurrence of diarrhea using STATA 13.1. In rural India, children aged 12–23 months, 24–35 months, 36–47 months, and 48–59 months were significantly improbable to suffer diarrheal disease. Children of the female sex, as well as children of scheduled tribes (ST) and other backward classes (OBC), were less likely to experience diarrhea. The disease was more likely to occur among children of scheduled castes (SC); Muslim or other religions; children belonging to central, eastern, and western regions; children with low birth weight; as well as children with improper stool disposal and rudimentary roof materials. In the rural parts of India, sociodemographic and household environmental factors were most influential. Effective community education; improved handwashing practices; pure water supply; and proper waste disposal, including building and utilizing latrines, would help reduce the burden of diarrheal disease in children.

This study accesses the impact of lady health worker (LHWs) visits in the community and distance to a healthcare facility on the nutritional status of under-five children. Additionally, it explores the perceptions and attitudes of the community about the performance of LHWs. A self-administered instrument was applied to gather data on different parameters, such as children’s height, age, weight, and socioeconomic status from 384 rural households in a marginalized district of Punjab province with the help of a purposive random sampling technique. The binary logistic regression model was employed for the computation of the probability of malnutrition. The prevalences of stunting, underweight children, and wasting in the district were 34.8%, 46.1%, and 15.5%, respectively. The logistic results illustrate that those households in which LHW visits occur regularly within 15 days (OR = 0.28 with 95% CI: 0.09–0.82) have a lower probability of malnutrition prevalence among their children. The distance to the health facility shows that the odds of malnutrition were higher from 3–4 Kilometers (Km) (OR = 2.61, 95% CI: 0.85–8.14), and odds were also higher for the ≥5 km category (OR = 2.88, 95% CI: 0.94–8.82). Children from richer families had lower chances of being malnourished (OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.07–1.14). Furthermore, the respondents show a positive attitude towards LHWs. They have given the first rank to their performance being beneficial to mothers and childcare, especially on checkups and safe deliveries, while they have shown negative responses and given lower ranks to their performance due to irregular visits (6th rank) and poor community awareness (7th rank). We conclude that LHWs’ regular visits to targeted households and less distance to healthcare facilities reduce the malnutrition risk in under-five children.

This study is aimed to identify the impact of credit rating announcements on the stock returns in stock markets and for this purpose, four different sectors of Pakistan stock exchange were selected and from each of these four sectors, different business organizations were selected, i.e. total 32 business organizations were selected. The credit rating announcement data were collected for these 32 business organizations belonging to four different sectors. Totally 101 credit rating announcements were selected and the time period for which the credit rating warnings were selected include last three years period, i.e. from 2014 to 2016. The collected data were analysed by calculating abnormal returns for each of the selected security and average abnormal returns, and cumulative average abnormal returns were calculated for four different sectors. Event study methodology was applied, and t-test and t-stats value were calculated and results were analysed on the basis of t-statistics. The results of analysis identified that credit rating announcements have a significant impact on stock prices and investors and other market participants are earning abnormal returns during two-day period after the announcements are made. In addition, these abnormal returns were either negative or positive, depending upon the nature of credit ratings announced. If the credit rating announced was upgraded, investors enjoyed positive abnormal returns while in case when credit rating announcements were downgraded, then investors bear negative abnormal returns. Finally, the findings of the study identified the applicability of random walk hypothesis on the Pakistan Stock Exchange and Pakistan Stock Exchange confirms the efficient market hypothesis with its semi-strong form of efficiency.