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Objective – This chapter assesses the extent to which previous economic and financial crises had a negative impact on health outcomes and health financing. In addition, we review evidence related to the effectiveness of different policy measures undertaken in past crises to protect access to health services, especially for the poor and vulnerable. The current global crisis is unique both in terms of its scale and origins. Unlike most previous instances, the current crisis has its origins in developed countries, initially the United States, before it spread to middle- and lower-income countries. The current crisis is now affecting almost all countries at all levels of income. This chapter addresses several key questions aimed at helping inform possible policy responses to the current crisis from the perspective of the health sector: What is the nature of the current crisis and in what ways does it differ from previous experiences? What are some of the key lessons from previous crises? How have governments responded previously to protect health from such macroeconomic shocks? How can we improve the likelihood of positive action today?

Methodology/approach – The chapter reviews the literature on the impact of financial crises on health outcomes and health expenditures and on the effectiveness of past policy efforts to protect human development during periods of economic downturn. It also presents analysis of household surveys and health expenditure data to track health seeking behavior and out-of-pocket expenditures by households during times of financial crisis.

Findings – Evidence from previous crises indicates that health-related impacts during economic downturns can occur through various channels. The impact in households experiencing reductions in employment and income could be manifest in terms of poorer nutritional outcomes and lower levels of utilization of health care when needed. Households may become impoverished, reduce needed health services, and experience reductions in consumption as a result of health shocks occurring during a time when their economic vulnerability has increased. Women, children, the poor, and informal sector workers are likely to be most at risk of experiencing negative health-related consequences in a crisis. Real government spending per capita on health care could decline due to reduced revenues, currency devaluations, and potential reductions in external aid flows. Low-income countries with weak fiscal positions are likely to be the most vulnerable.

Implications for policy – Past crises can inform policy-making aimed at protecting health outcomes and reducing financial risk from health shocks. Evidence from previous crises indicates that broad-brush strategies that maintained overall levels of government health spending tended not to be successful, failing to protect access to quality health services especially for the poor. It is particularly vital to ensure access to essential health commodities, which in many low-income countries are imported, in the face of weakening exchange rates. Focused efforts to sustain the supply of lower-level basic services, combined with targeted demand-side approaches like conditional cash transfers may be more effective than broader sectoral approaches. Low-income countries may need specific short-term measures to ensure that health outcomes do not suffer.

The 1994 elections had seen a near tectonic change in South Africa. The long run minority White regime was replaced by a majority Black government of the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela. He, along with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, did a magnificent job of avoiding a bloodbath and keeping peace between the races. A new Constitution was accepted by 1996 which subscribed to lofty ideals. Yet, they turned sour before long. Aspirations ran ahead of hard realities. Utopia seems to have morphed into dystopia. Greed, prompted by past deprivation, appears to have made opportunists of several while others became blind ideologues. In no time, the country turned to be totally corrupt. This spectacular failure of the system is explained in this chapter.

The COVID-19 pandemic had severely impacted global commerce, leading to market closure and travel restrictions. Due to the extreme limitations on shopping and market possibilities, consumers’ buying habits have changed significantly and they are still changing what they buy and how they purchase for everyday necessities. They are trying to shop locally, carefully, and economically. Consumers are buying their stuff from wherever goods are available. Purchasing nonessential items is restricted. Restaurants, tourism, apparel, and furniture are the industries that have been impacted the most. The objective behind this study is to find out the post-COVID-19 effects on consumer buying of essentials from a convenience store over hypermarkets and how consumer behavior will revive postpandemic toward retail shopping. In the study, responses were collected through structured questionnaire to explore the consumer buying behavior for their daily essentials both at convenience stores and hypermarkets. The study reveals that consumers prefer to buy essential commodities/goods of daily needs from convenience store compared to hypermarket due to the risk of being exposed to COVID-19 pandemic and this behavior will change future trend of retail shopping experience. The major limitation of the study is sampling frame. Future studies can replicate this study in different context with different target population. Pertaining to the current ongoing situations of the pandemic, a very high percentage of the respondents would still choose nearby convenience stores over hypermarkets. This study estimates the behavioral change in retail consumers in future; therefore, it suggests retailers adopt innovative marketing strategy in future.

On 20 March 2020, the four adult convicts of the 2012 Delhi rape case were executed after a long debate regarding the punishment for their crime. The Delhi rape case, unlike others, was also given to the fast track court because of the worldwide outrage India received in its aftermath. Otherwise, most rape survivors rarely speak out and if they do, their lives are often endangered and threatened, depending on the severity of the case itself and the perpetrator's rank in the society. Through the analysis of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's, 2016 film Pink, and Ajay Bahl's film Section 375 (2019), this chapter explores the different ways in which mainstream Hindi cinema deals with such questions, especially in its depictions of courts. Both these films foreground India's contemporary cultural systems of fear that silence the rape survivors. They also imply that in the court cases, unless the specific court case faces intense global publicity, as was the case of the Delhi gang rape, rape survivors will never want to speak out. Moreover, the rape survivors will also hesitate to file a First Information Report (FIR) – a document that records crimes by the police against their perpetrators – limiting any possibility for justice for them. The laws surrounding rape cases are obscure and complex and finding justice for a rape victim (unless it is on a global level) is not an easy venture in India. At the time of the #metoo movement, the rape laws in India are not designed in such a way to arguably encourage victim-survivors to speak up. Instead, if rape survivors do decide to confront their perpetrators, they not only face ostracisation from society but also the danger of losing loved ones and endanger their lives as well.

Introduction: The government has taken many initiatives for the overall growth of India after liberalisation and remarkably performed to make India an emerging economy. Due to changes in macroeconomic conditions, investment in companys’ shares includes the possibility of bearing high risk, which cannot be eliminated but, to some extent, minimised. The persistence of risks motivates investors to invest in different available options of investment. Gearing measures, a company’s financial leverage, represent the risk afforded within the company’s capital structure.

Purpose: The research aims to identify the risk-return analysis of financial geared stocks of Nifty 50 companies in India, which have debt equity ratios of more than 1.

Methodology: Convenience and cluster sampling techniques were used to identify companies with debt equity ratios of more than 1. The considered time period is 2010–2019.

Findings: This research found capital structure ratios, debt equity ratio, and total debt ratio. The total equity ratio does not have any visible effect on any of the dependent variables, i.e., Return on equity (ROE), Return on Assets (ROA), Earnings per share (EPS), Return on capital employed (ROCE). It explains the impact of high-levered firms’ performance on profitability and functioning. The study highlights that highly geared companies do not significantly impact the ROA, proving Modigliani and Miller’s (1958) irrelevant theory.