In the era of the digital world, supply chain systems and processes have changed in an unprecedented manner. Digital technologies and AI related applications have impacted the way in which supply chains are operated compared to traditional and linear supply chains in the previous era. Supply chains in this era are able to be agile, resilient and smarter. Some of the drawbacks of linear supply chains are addressed in the modern supply chains with the application of digital technologies. The future of supply chains now lies in focusing on achieving sustainability by leveraging the advantages provided by the technologies. Sustainability has gained increased focus both in the academic discipline as well as among industry practitioners especially after the development of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations. However, most of this development is limited to large scale enterprises and there is a need to improve it in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Startups. In Particular, startups require a lot of support in developing their ecosystem in the initial days of their existence. Two major practices of supply chain are found to impact the entrepreneurial ecosystem of startups. The first one is smart supply chain related practices and the second one is sustainable supply chain related practices. This article focuses on the influence of these practices on the entrepreneurial ecosystem of startups. Both these supply chain practices are found to positively influence the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. An empirical survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire as a survey instrument in 85 pharmaceutical companies in India. The director of SMEs of Telangana state government was used to qualify the startups and SMEs based on different criteria. A total of 220 responses were received from these companies. Convenient cluster sampling technique was used to select the sample size. The responses were analysed using regression and ANOVA through SPSS. It is found that the smart and sustainable supply chain practices can foster the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of startups. The outcomes of this study provide high value-addition to researchers, academicians, students, policy makers, budding entrepreneurs and startup owners and employees.

Lesotho faces fiscal deficits due to high government expenditure as characterized by the huge wage bill regarded as one of the highest in the world (UNICEF, 2018). The aim of this research paper is to investigate the tax revenue impact as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on economic growth in Lesotho. This research is provoked by the theoretical postulations and empirical evidence that their relationship is positive up to a certain optimal level which is the point at which economic growth rate is maximized. The study used data from 1988 to 2017 to investigate the relationship between tax burden and economic growth in Lesotho by applying the log-linearized model of Scully’s tax optimization model transformed into an ARDL bounds testing framework. Granger causality test and error correction model was employed to investigate the long run relationship between tax burden and economic growth in Lesotho. The findings of study revealed a long-run relationship between economic growth rate and tax burden with a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to tax burden. Granger causality revealed no causal effect running from tax burden to economic growth in Lesotho despite expectation of significant causal effect following both theoretical and empirical literature from various studies. Error correction results further supported a co-integrating relationship running from economic growth to tax burden with 100 percent speed of adjustment in the short-run towards a long-run equilibrium level. An optimal tax burden could not be established as the variables of interest were negative and insignificant signifying the insignificance of tax policy in stimulating the economic performance.