Agarwood, a highly valuable fragrant wood of Aquilaria spp. has been widely used in perfumes, traditional medicine, religious rites and cultural activities. Due to the presence of aromatic and medicinal properties, the Agarwood has gained its economic importance in recent years. It has been providing livelihood and employment facilities to many people who are cultivating those. Owing to high demand and profitability, the people of Assam has started to cultivate Agarwood in a commercial manner in recent days. This study was conducted to examine the economic viability of Agarwood cultivation in Assam and to understand the problems of the cultivators to consider Agarwood cultivation as the primary source of income. The primary data were collected during the months of May and June, 2022 from 210 households using structured questionnaire. The cost-benefit analysis revealed that INR 100 of initial investment yields a net benefit of INR 623 which indicates that the return from the Agarwood cultivation among the cultivators are very high. Thus, the present study argues that the government should encourage the cultivators by providing the necessary support in the form of a legalized market, credit requirement, creating the awareness about the demand of Agarwood and making provision of training.

Purpose- Betel nut (Areca catechu) is one of the major plantation crops grown in Assam. However, due to inefficiency in production, the productivity of betel nuts in the state is very low. Therefore, this study attempted to measure the level of technical efficiency and the factors affecting the technical inefficiency of betel nut growers in the Nagaon district of Assam.Design/methodology/approach – Primary data were collected from 240 households in the Nagaon district of Assam. Based on the Cobb-Douglas Production function for betel nut growers, the present study uses stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the production frontier and examine the effects of exogenous variables on farm-level technical inefficiency. Findings - The findings of the study reveal that, on average, 85 per cent of betel nut growers are technically efficient in the study area. Moreover, experience in betel nut plantations and gender have a significantly negative effect on technical inefficiency. In contrast, the age of the grower had a positive and significant effect on the technical inefficiency of betel nut cultivation. The findings suggest the availability of space for an increase in the productivity of betel nut plantations in the study area and scope for increasing the level of output through technical efficiency without raising inputs.Originality/Value: This study contribute to the estimation of the technical efficiency of betel nut growers and examines the factors responsible for technical inefficiency.The dataset is original and was especially collected for the present study.

Background-The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has affected the global economy from its starting. Indian economy is also affected by the pandemic and experienced a lot of economic damages. India has become the global hotspot of COVID-19 during the second wave of the pandemic and recorded the second-highest position in terms of positivity rate after China. The present study attempts to analyze the economic issues that emerged in the first and second waves of the pandemic in India. Method/Approach-There is no econometric tools or analytical models used in the present study. This study attempts to evaluate the two research questions which are formed on the basis of some previous studies by various organizations and researchers. The research questions are as follow, First, what are the sectors those are primarily affected at the time of the first COVID-19 outbreak? Second, which economic issues and impacts emerged in the second wave of the pandemic? Results/ Findings-From the study, it is found that the second wave of COVID-19 is not much affected by the Indian economy. At this time, no nationwide lockdown was announced by the Government. But so, it was much severe in the time of the first wave of COVID-19. Many sectors were affected by the pandemic like agriculture, MSMEs, Tourism, etc., and these resulted in substantial unemployment problems in the economy. The study is trying to analyze these problems and concluding it with a few policy recommendations for the economy of India.