The study examines the efficiency of private sector banks in India with the help of Window DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) for a period from 2005 to 2017. With a window of three years, the period was divided into 11 windows. The study outcomes show that 59.9% of all private sector banks in India operate at more than 0.9 level of efficiency, and there are only three occasions when banks were operating at the efficiency value between 0.6 to 0.7. Further, the consistency in the efficiency scores of the banks has also been analyzed using an efficiency mapping matrix, and the mean efficiency score of the bank in each window is studied. The score of standard deviation was interpreted accordingly for these banks. Banks that are showing the highest efficiency scores also have a higher variance of efficiency scores. There was no bank identified in the matrix that promises high-efficiency ratings with low variability. The study concludes that the analysis of the efficiency mapping matrix indicates that, as a DMU escalates in the efficiency scores, the standard deviation reflecting the risk in overall efficiency scores also tends to rise. The findings complement the concept of higher risk to higher return or greater efficiency

This study empirically examines herd behavior for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector stocks under varied market return conditions and the period during the global financial crisis and its aftermath. We examine the sample of stocks trading on the Nifty FMCG Index of the Indian equity market from January 2008 up to December 2018 using the dispersion measure of cross sectional absolute deviation and examine its relationship with the market return to explore herd phenomenon. Quantile regression estimate is used and the results of the study validate rational asset pricing models as the sector does not display herding. In contrast, anti-herd behavior at lower and median quantile values is observed. A possible reason can be the non-cyclical nature of the industry where investors rely more on the fundamentals rather than crowd chasing. We also findthe absence of herd phenomenon during the market asymmetries of bull and bear phases, extreme movements, the period of the global financial crisis, and afterward. We further examine herding under the impact of the information technology (IT) industry and conclude that significant return movements in IT sector impact dispersions in the FMCG industry. Also, there is a co-varying risk between the two sectors confirming the spillover in an integrated market.