Misuse and False Implication Under the POCSO Act: Can Child Protection and Procedural Fairness Be Reconciled?

@article{1723180,
      author = {Kunal Kumar Raikwar, Dr. Naish Zameer},
      title = {Misuse and False Implication Under the POCSO Act: Can Child Protection and Procedural Fairness Be Reconciled?},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2023},
      volume = {6},
      number = {9},
      pages = {573-582},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1723180.pdf},
      abstract = {Gold is widely considered an important alternative investment and is often associated with portfolio diversification, particularly during periods of uncertainty in financial markets. The relationship between gold and equities has therefore received considerable attention in financial research. In the Indian context, Mishra, Das, and Mishra (2010) examined the relationship between domestic gold prices and BSE 100 stock-market returns using monthly data from January 1991 to December 2009. Their study reported evidence of feedback causality, suggesting that gold prices and stock-market returns contained information useful for predicting each other. Building on this earlier evidence, the present study re-examines the relationship using a more recent sample and a different empirical framework. The study examines monthly gold returns and NIFTY 50 returns from January 2015 to May 2026, resulting in 136 usable monthly observations after return calculation. Gold returns are measured using Mumbai Standard Gold prices, while NIFTY 50 returns are used to represent Indian stock-market performance. India VIX is included to capture market uncertainty and USD/INR returns are included to account for exchange-rate movements.

The study employs descriptive statistics, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test, and multiple ordinary least squares regression as the primary empirical method. Multicollinearity and heteroskedasticity are examined using the Variance Inflation Factor and Breusch-Pagan test, respectively. Since heteroskedasticity is detected, HC3 heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors are used for the final interpretation of the regression coefficients.

The results indicate that gold returns have a negative but statistically insignificant association with NIFTY 50 returns. The coefficient of Gold Return is -0.0997, with an HC3 robust p-value of 0.4491, indicating that the study does not find sufficient statistical evidence that monthly gold returns significantly explain NIFTY 50 returns during the sample period. The overall regression model is statistically significant and explains approximately 31.7% of the variation in NIFTY 50 returns. USD/INR returns show a statistically significant negative association with NIFTY 50 returns, while India VIX does not show a statistically significant association.

The findings differ from the feedback relationship reported by Mishra et al. (2010), suggesting that the gold–stock-market relationship may not remain stable across different time periods, market conditions, indices, and empirical approaches. Overall, the present study does not provide sufficient evidence of a systematic monthly relationship between gold returns and Indian stock-market returns during the period examined.},
      month = {March},
  }