Track: Transformations in Modern Financial Markets
Where Financial Insight Sparks Innovation
Financial markets across the world are undergoing significant shifts driven by digital innovation, evolving investor expectations, macroeconomic realignments, and a growing emphasis on sustainability. These transitions present both opportunities and challenges for policymakers, investors and institutions.
This track invites research that helps us better understand how modern markets are being reshaped, and how financial insight can lead to more innovative, resilient, and inclusive financial systems.
Sub Track I. Capital Market Efficiency, Structure & Investor Behaviour
Global capital markets have become more technology-enabled and interconnected, yet questions remain about efficiency, integration, and investor psychology—particularly in emerging markets.
Key Themes
Market Efficiency & Pricing Dynamics: IPO underpricing patterns, post-pandemic pricing behaviour, information flows.
Behavioural Drivers: Retail investor biases, heuristic-driven trading, decision-making under uncertainty.
Market Integration: Comparative studies across BRICS/G20 on co-movements, spillovers, and diversification.
Institutional & Structural Features: Time-horizon effects, liquidity, and regulatory influences on price discovery.
Encouraged Approaches
Empirical studies, behavioural experiments, comparative market analysis, India-focused research, and market microstructure perspectives.
Track II. Investment Strategies, Portfolio Construction & Performance Metrics
The investment landscape has seen the rise of passive strategies, quant-driven models, alternative datasets, and more nuanced risk evaluation tools. This sub-theme focuses on how investors construct portfolios and evaluate performance in a rapidly evolving environment.
Key Themes
Active vs. Passive Debate: Evidence from emerging markets and implications for long-term investing.
Performance Persistence: Insights from mutual fund behaviour in India and other economies.
Advanced Risk Measures: Use of Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR), downside risk metrics, and factor-based analytics.
Macroeconomic Sensitivities: Effects of inflation, interest rates, and global shocks on asset pricing and factor returns.
Encouraged Approaches
Quantitative finance methods, econometric modelling, machine learning applications, portfolio attribution frameworks.
Track III. Alternative Investments, Start-up Finance & Sustainable Capital Markets
New forms of capital allocation—from early-stage venture funding to green bonds—are redefining the boundaries of financial markets. This sub-theme examines the role of innovation, sustainability, and entrepreneurial ecosystems in shaping future financial flows.
Key Themes
Start-up Valuation & Financing: Drivers of valuation in early-stage ventures, unique features of the Indian start-up landscape.
ESG & Sustainability: How ESG disclosures affect firm valuation, risk perception, and investor allocation decisions.
Green Finance Instruments: Economic impacts of green bonds, sustainability-linked loans, and climate-aligned financing frameworks.
Sustainable Investing Trends: Comparative insights from emerging and developed markets.
Encouraged Approaches
Interdisciplinary studies, policy evaluations, comparative sustainability research, impact assessment methodologies.
Methodologies & Contribution Types Encouraged
This track welcomes a diverse range of scholarship that combines analytical depth with real-world relevance.
Submissions may include:
Empirical research using market data, firm-level information, macro-financial indicators
Conceptual or theoretical models on evolving financial behaviour and structures
Case-based work, particularly focusing on India or other emerging economies
Behavioural experiments and survey-based studies
Policy-oriented analyses relevant to regulators, exchanges, and financial institutions
Interdisciplinary contributions connecting finance with sustainability, technology, or behavioural sciences