Does green finance mitigate the effects of climate variability: role of renewable energy investment and infrastructure.

Few researches have inspected the task of green finance in reducing CO2 emissions, while earlier studies have inspected the influence of economic development on carbon emissions. A green finance development index is built using four indicators to fill in this knowledge gap: green credit, green insurance, green securities, and green investing. Using data spanning the years 2005-2019, a panel quantile regression is applied to investigate the links between green finance, renewable energy, and CO2 emissions. Increases in renewable energy use and advances in the green finance development index have contributed to a reduction in CO2 emissions from BRICS countries. CO2 emissions on the other hand slowed the growth of renewable energy use, slowed the flow of investment to green projects, and ultimately hampered the development of green finance. There was also a clear policy-driven influence on renewable energy spending in the countries of the BRICS region. Green finance policies, on the other hand, have consistently failed to have a long-term impact. Therefore, rising the consumption of renewable energy and creating a carbon trading market are all part of this study's recommendations for green finance policy improvement.

Pseudomonas spp. Mediate defense response in sugarcane through differential exudation of root phenolics.

Pseudomonas spp., a ubiquitous biocontrol agent, protects the plants from phytopathogens by suppressing them directly by reinforcing the plant's intrinsic defense mechanism. Root exudated phenolics play an important role in establishing the rhizobacteria population and cross the host boundaries in beneficial plant-microbe interaction. In this study, Pseudomonas spp. HU-8 & HU-9 antagonized the sugarcane red rot pathogen (C. falcatum) and showed a positive chemotactic response against different concentrations (10-30 µM) of synthetic phenolic acids like p-coumaric, vanillic, and 3,4 di-hydroxybenzoic acid. In a pot experiment, they effectively colonized the sugarcane rhizosphere and mediated defense response in sugarcane plants challenged with red rot pathogen C. falcatum by regulating the exudation of root phenolics under hydroponic conditions. They significantly induced the activity of the antioxidant enzymes CAT (1.24-1.64 fold), PO (0.78-1.61 fold), PAL (0.77-0.97 fold), and PPO (3.67-3.73 fold) over untreated plants in sugarcane. They also induced the total phenolic contents (TPC) in sugarcane in the presence (6.56-10.29 mg/g GAE) and absence (2.89-4.16 mg/g GAE) of the pathogen quantified through the Folin-Ciocalteu (FC) method. However, their effect was lower than that of the pathogen (4.34-8 mg/g GAE). The Pseudomonas spp. significantly colonized the sugarcane rhizosphere by maintaining a cell population of (1.0E + 07-1.3E + 08 CFU/mL). A significant positive Pearson's correlation was observed between the root exudated total phenolic contents, antioxidant enzymatic activities, and rhizospheric population of inoculated bacteria. The 16S rRNA and rpoD gene analysis showed sequence conservation (C: 0.707), average number of nucleotide differences (k: 199.816), nucleotide diversity, (Pi): 0.09819), average number of informative nucleotide sites per site (Psi: 0.01275), GC content (0.57), and polymorphic sites (n = 656). These diverse Pseudomonas spp. could be an ideal bio-inoculants for a broad range of hosts especially graminaceous crops.

Assessing the efficiency and total factor productivity growth of the banking industry: do environmental concerns matters?

This paper investigates the efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of the Pakistani banking industry and determines the impact of risk and competition on the efficiency and TFP growth. The data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist productivity index is used to measure efficiency and TFP growth of the Pakistani banking industry. The generalized method of moments (GMM) model is applied to observe the impact of risk and competition on efficiency and TFP growth. The motivation behind the use of GMM model is its ability to overcome unobserved heterogeneity, autocorrelation, and endogeneity issues. The results of the study show that the credit and liquidity risks have positive while insolvency risk has negative effect on the efficiency and TFP growth. The competition leads to improve technological efficiency but declines the technical efficiency growth. Among other explanatory variables, operational cost management, banking sector development, GDP growth rate, and infrastructure development show significant relationships with various efficiencies and TFP growth. The banks also facilitate for the purchase of carbon-intensive products in order to reduce carbon emissions. Strong banking development successfully allocate their financial resources for the development of energy-efficient technology while banking sector development is found to be negatively related with environmental sustainability. The strong banking sector possesses a significant negative influence on carbon reduction and environmental degradation.

Trilemma association of energy consumption, carbon emission, and economic growth of BRICS and OECD regions: quantile regression estimation.

Recent research has shown a huge impact of non-renewable energy (NRE) production on environmental health. In this context, this work analyzes the effects of GDP growth and long- and short-term consumption of renewable and non-renewable energy (RE and NRE, respectively) on carbon emission in BRICS and OECD economies. The quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) model was employed on the panel data from 1980 to 2016. Findings suggest a negative GDP-carbon emission correlation and a positive NRE-carbon emission correlation in the considered economies. Furthermore, carbon emission decreases with increase in gross capital formation, whereas trade openness does not have any significant effect on carbon emission. It has been determined that the application of the error correction method (ECM) has less effect on energy consumption as compared to the past levels and changes in energy consumption. In the long-term, a positive correlation of carbon emission and energy consumption is observed, whereas limited short-term effects of energy consumption on carbon emission are observed. Therefore, an RE-based energy production approach is recommended in the selected region for the future projects.

Impacts of risk and competition on the profitability of banks: Empirical evidence from Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of risk and competition on the profitability of the Pakistani banking industry. Data are retrieved from the annual statements of banks, the Ministry of finance Pakistan and the World Bank covering the period of (2007-2017). Two steps Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) with the collapse command is used as an estimation technique to overcome endogeneity, unobserved heterogeneity and autocorrelation problems. The results of the study showed that the liquidity risk has positive while credit risk, insolvency risk and competition hurt negatively the profitability of Pakistani banks. The results of the study also revealed that capitalization, size, taxation and GDP growth rate positively affect the Banks' profits while banking sector development and infrastructure negatively affect banking profitability in Pakistan. The operational cost management positively affects net interest margins but negatively affects ROA and PBT in the Pakistani banking industry.

Bacillus spp., a bio-control agent enhances the activity of antioxidant defense enzymes in rice against Pyricularia oryzae.

Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are found to control the plant diseases by adopting various mechanisms. Induced systemic resistance (ISR) is an important defensive strategy manifested by plants against numerous pathogens especially infecting at aerial parts. Rhizobacteria elicit ISR by inducing different pathways in plants through production of various metabolites. In the present study, potential of Bacillus spp. KFP-5, KFP-7, KFP-17 was assessed to induce antioxidant enzymes against Pyricularia oryzae infection in rice. The antagonistic Bacillus spp. significantly induced antioxidant defense enzymes i-e superoxide dismutase (1.7-1.9-fold), peroxidase (3.5-4.1-fold), polyphenol oxidase (3.0-3.8-fold), phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (3.9-4.4-fold), in rice leaves and roots under hydroponic and soil conditions respectively. Furthermore, the antagonistic Bacillus spp significantly colonized the rice plants (2.0E+00-9.1E+08) and secreted multiple biocontrol determinants like protease (1.1-5.5 U/mg of soil or U/mL of hydroponic solution), glucanase, (1.0-1.3 U/mg of soil or U/mL of hydroponic solution), siderophores (6.5-42.8 µg/mL or mg) in the rhizosphere of different rice varieties. The results showed that treatment with Bacillus spp. enhanced the antioxidant defense activities in infected rice, thus alleviating P. oryzae induced oxidative damage and suppressing blast disease incidence.

Molecular Identification and Genetic Characterization of Macrophomina phaseolina Strains Causing Pathogenicity on Sunflower and Chickpea.

Macrophomina phaseolina is the most devastating pathogen which causes charcoal rot and root rot diseases in various economically important crops. Three strains M. phaseolina 1156, M. phaseolina 1160, and M. phaseolina PCMC/F1 were tested for their virulence on sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) and chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). The strains showed high virulence on both hosts with a disease score of 2 on chickpea and sunflower. The strains also increased the hydrogen per oxide (H2O2) content by 1.4- to 1.6-fold in root as well as shoot of chickpea and sunflower. A significant increase in antioxidant enzymes was observed in fungal infected plants which indicated prevalence of oxidative stress during pathogen propagation. The M. phaseolina strains also produced hydrolytic enzymes such as lipase, amylase, and protease with solubilization zone of 5-43 mm, 5-45 mm, and 12-35 mm, respectively. The M. phaseolina strains were identified by 18S rRNA and analyzed for genetic diversity by using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. The findings based on RAPD markers and 18S rRNA sequence analysis clearly indicate genetic variation among the strains collected from different hosts. The genetically diverse strains were found to be pathogenic to sunflower and chickpea.