ComFin Research

Sustainable Development: Strategies for MSMEs

2025-07-31T06:42:22+00:00

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of the Indian economy, contributing significantly to GDP, employment, and exports. The MSMEs are very important pillar to the Indian economy, they uses their resources available in the region, provides employment to the locals. They are the one which bridges the gap between urban and rural economy imbalances. However, despite their critical role, MSMEs face numerous challenges, Labour shortage, Non availability of raw materials, Finance crunch, Market demand, Technology constraints, Infrastructure and regulatory hurdles. The government is supporting the MSMEs in all the ways, thorough various government schemes like SFURTI, PMEGP, ASPIRE, PM Vishwakarma scheme, PMEGP, SFURTI, and the Public Procurement Policy etc. This paper attempts to analyse the strategies for growth and sustainability of MSMEs in Karnataka The problems of each categories are studied. The strategies should address both short and long term problems. These strategies have to be reviewed regularly and to be modified accordingly to the situation for better results. The statistical results adopted for the problems (Labour, Finance, Marketing, etc.) yielded as the Cronbach Alpha is less than 0.6 and for 2022-24 it is more than 0.8, suggesting that the strategy were yielding good result. Also, the Anova of strategies show that the strategies during 2018-20 has more value than the Significant value indicating the strategies were not effective, but the Anova value for the period 2022-24 is lesser than the Significant value implying the strategies had effective results on the organisation performance. Findings of the paper emphasises on the fact that the COVID-19 was fully controlled and the business were running as normal the strategies were easily adopted and the problems were tackled, and the enterprises were running as normal. The problems and strategies discussed is for the small enterprise, the problems and strategies of other enterprise would give bigger picture for the MSME development. The other areas also can be considered as the environment is different and the problems would vary can give way for future research.

The Role of Digital Financial Services in Financial Inclusion Among Small-Scale Businesses

2025-08-01T13:04:50+00:00

Purpose: This study evaluates the impact of digital financial tools and services on financial inclusion for small-scale businesses, focusing on the Kozhikode district in Kerala, India. Financial inclusion is recognised as an enabler of economic growth and poverty reduction. Literature highlights that mobile banking, fintech, and digital payment platforms can transform access to finance for underserved firms. However, barriers such as low digital literacy, high transaction costs, and weak infrastructure often hinder the adoption of these innovations.
Methodology: Following a descriptive research design, a structured questionnaire was administered to 57 small-scale business owners across retail, agriculture, manufacturing, and service sectors. Descriptive and inferential statistics (percentage distributions, t-tests, and chi-square tests) were used to analyse the data.
Findings: The findings indicate that 73.7% of businesses held formal bank accounts (formal inclusion), while 26.3% remained excluded. Most (91.2%) reported using digital financial services regularly, with mobile banking apps as the most preferred platform. Common challenges included high transaction costs, poor internet connectivity, and limited digital literacy. Statistical tests found no significant differences in perceptions by gender, age, or education (p>0.05), suggesting similar experiences across demographic groups.
Implications: This study underscores the pivotal role of financial services, especially digital tools, in empowering small-scale businesses, particularly in underserved areas. Financial inclusion promotes economic stability, reduces poverty, and supports entrepreneurship by enhancing access to credit, savings, and insurance. The research highlights the need for inclusive policies and infrastructure to ensure effective adoption of digital finance, improve service delivery, and lower transaction costs. Practical insights can guide policymakers and financial institutions in fostering a supportive ecosystem that boosts small business growth and contributes to broader socioeconomic development.

Export and Import Dynamics of Gems and Jewellery: A Trend Analysis

2025-08-01T13:08:03+00:00

India being one of the larger importer of the gold in the world has made significant impact on the gold and Diamond jewel industry at the global level. India is one of the largest exporters of diamonds in the world has huge scope at the national level. The gems and jewellery industry of India contributes 7% to India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The industry employs more than five million skilled and semi-skilled workforce in the country. The sector contributes about 15.71% of India’s total merchandise exports, accounting for the third largest commodity share. During 2023-24 (until February 2024), the gems and jewellery exports to reach US$ 29.61 billion with a decline in growth of 15.31% from 2022-23. This paper tries to analyze the statistics related to export and import of Gems and Jewellery industry for the period ranging from 2013-14 to 2022-23. Commodities like Jewellery of gold set with Pearls, Jewellery of gold set with Diamond, Silver jewellery set with Gems and Silver filigree work with HS Code 71131920, 71131930, 71131120 and 71131110 respectively has been selected for the purpose of analysis. Mean and CAGR has been employed to analyze the collected secondary data. It has been found that export values are significantly much higher than the import values with regard to all the four selected commodities on the other hand, export values continuously declining write from 2013-2014 to 2022-23. Further, Gold jewellery set with pearls and Gold jewellery set with diamonds have earned more business when compared with Silver commodities. When it comes to Diamond business at the international level, India is standing a way forward from many other countries. Further research can be take up on more number of products from gold, silver and diamond segments with the data spanning for the longer duration for the more specific analysis of import and export dynamics.

A Study on Impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on Empowerment of Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu

2025-08-02T10:06:12+00:00

Purpose: This study looks at how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) empowers such rural women entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu and looks at the links between access and use of ICT and different aspects of women empowerment.
Methodology: This research uses a mixed method where qualitative and quantitative data are obtained in structured surveys and in-depth interviews by 300 women entrepreneurs in rural areas of five districts of Tamil Nadu through stratified random sampling. Data is analyzed using descriptive statistics, regression analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) of SPSS.
Results: The observations in statistical analysis show a strong positive interrelation between ICT access and dimensions of women empowerment. The most important discoveries comprise 92 percent mobile phone possession, 78 percent access to internet, 54 percent more monthly income after the usage of ICT and 68 percent more skills in the ability to make decisions. The SEM test further proves the existence of significant direct impacts of ICT access on economic empowerment (0.55, p < 0.001) and social empowerment (0.42, p < 0.01).
Conclusions: ICT can be used as an empowering mechanism of rural women in Tamil Nadu, particularly visceralizing the women economically independent, socially empowered and entrepreneurial. Nonetheless, the problems in digital infrastructure and literacy are present.
Future Research Directions: Longitudinal research that aims at gauging the long-term effects should be conducted further, and policy research should aim at creating sustainable development of ICT infrastructure and culturally-relevant digital literacy applications.

A Study on Major Factors Influencing Online Shopping Behaviour in Madurai City Before and After Covid-19

2025-08-02T10:13:29+00:00

Purpose: This paper argues why online shopping during the pandemic is changing the shopping patterns of consumers in Madurai city and gives reasons about the key aspects affecting the shopping behavior of consumers. The study will look into the important motivators of behavioral transformation and determine the magnitude of the traditional to digital shopping modalities shift.
Methodology: This was done by a comparative cross-sectional research study that used a structured questionnaire given to 200 respondents out of stratified random sampling of various demographic groups within a Madurai city. The data were collected both in terms of the pre-COVID-19 (retrospective) and after the COVID-19. The statistical analysis process has used descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, and the Structural equation model (SEM) to determine factors and causal relationships that are significant.
Results: The research indicates that the frequency of online shopping after COVID-19 has increased a lot, and the average scores increased by 2.7 to 4.1. It performed factor analysis and found three major constructs which describe 71 percent of the variance, namely Digital Convenience, Perceived Security and Shopping Motivation. The results of SEM analysis (CFI = 0 93, RMSEA = 0.04) revealed the significant effect of COVID-19 impact on online shopping behavior as mediated by the perception of risk. Convenience (b = 0.35, p<0.01) and security (b = 0.28, p<0.01) were the most consequential factors according to regression analysis and the model contributed to 62 percent of variance in post-COVID shopping routine.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic essentially altered the online shopping conduct in Madurai city, and the comfort and the sense of security became the prevailing motivators. The paper has empirically shown that the transformation of consumer behavior in the semi-urban Indian markets is high.
Future Research Directions: There must be longitudinal studies to determine the extent of the permanence of such behavioral shifts, although the studies of certain demographic differences and comparison among cities would elucidate more on the digital adoption patterns in the emerging markets.

AI Human Interaction with Teaching and Learning: A Comprehensive Analysis of Educational Technology Integration, Pedagogical Transformation, and Future Learning Paradigms

2025-08-02T10:21:52+00:00

Purpose: In this work, the author explores the complex nature of interaction between AI systems and human beings in educational settings, discussing how AI-powered technologies redefine the most established teaching practices and modify the learning process. The problem of the study is to examine the effectiveness of AI-human collaborative frameworks in improving educational outcomes, major factors contributing to successful integration, and examine the implications of such integration to future pedagogical practices.
Methodology: The SPSS version 29.0 was used to do a statistical analysis. Such a mixed-methods action has been taken: quantitative analysis of the learning performance data of 847 students of 23 educational institutions was carried out in combination with a qualitative interviewing of 156 educators and 25 developers of AI systems. The pre-post experimental design was used to quantify the learning outcomes with additional ethnographic observations of AI-based classrooms, and content analysis of educational technology implementations during a 24 months period.
Results: The results indicate that education with AI-human interactions remarkably improves the learning performance, where the student engagement level gets boosted by 34%, and 28% more knowledge is retained through human interactions with support of AI-based interventions. Adaptive learning systems achieve target personalization at 42 percent success rate compared to the conventional approaches. Nonetheless, the research reveals that the successful implementation is dependent on crucial digital literacy of the teaching staff, institutional support, and proper design of the AI system.
Conclusion: Education as an application of AI-human interactions is a sort of paradigm shift towards individualised, adaptive, and collaborative learning processes. Although AI systems can never substitute human teachers, there are also strong augmenting agents whose application is used to maximize the efficiency of instructions, offer individualized learning environments, and make educational decisions that rely on data. The study stated that the integration of AI needs an equal interplay of human and AI instead of substitutes to achieve success.
Future Research Directions: Long-term effects of AI-human educational interaction, the construction of ethical frameworks of AI in education, and search of ways of its application to various cultural and socioeconomic contexts of education should be researched.