  Present work reports a detailed investigation on the magnetoresistance and
magnetocaloric behavior of Ni and Cr-doped Mn$_5$Si$_3$ alloys with general
formula Mn$_{5-x}$A$_x$Si$_3$ (where A = Ni/Cr; $x$ = 0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.2).
Both pure (undoped) and doped alloys show a reasonably large amount of
magnetoresistance (MR). Doping at Mn-site, both by Ni and Cr, results in a
monotonic decrease in MR values. Magnetocaloric effect (MCE), on the other
hand, is found to be interesting, and all the alloys show both conventional and
inverse MCE around the magneto-structural transition temperature. Among the two
types of MCE observed, the inverse MCE is found to decrease with increasing
doping concentration and consistent with the MR behavior, whereas doping
results in a significant increase in conventional MCE values.
