Issue Briefs

Healthcare

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Apr 08, 2021

This brief analyses the regulatory, security and ethical challenges facing states and the international community regarding emerging technologies in biotechnology, focusing on the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing system and artificial gene synthesis. It highlights the inadequacy of current mechanisms such as export control regimes to regulate ...

Healthcare

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Apr 06, 2021

The arrival of vaccines against Covid-19 gives hope in ending the pandemic that has claimed close to 2.84 million lives so far. However, inoculating millions of people all over the world would require the massive production of vaccines, followed by their equitable distribution. An impediment to ...

Domestic Politics and Governance | Law and Justice

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Apr 01, 2021

Madrasas in India offer basic literacy to millions of mostly poor Muslims, generally free of cost; they also serve as safe spaces for the preservation of Islamic culture. In many areas across the country, madrasas are the only option for poor Muslim families to provide ...

Sustainable Development | Climate Change

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Mar 25, 2021

As South Asia faces an increasingly complex and expanding disaster risk landscape, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the systemic gaps in risk management. There is a need for a paradigm shift in disaster risk reduction—from a single-hazard, single-sector perspective to a multi-hazard, multi-sectoral, and systemic risk ...

Sustainable Development

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Mar 22, 2021

In India, 600 million people face acute water shortages, and the demand for domestic water has risen by some 20 percent since COVID-19, as awareness about hygiene increased. The use of treated wastewater is among the strategies that can be employed to address the shortage. ...

Healthcare

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Mar 19, 2021

COVID-19, which is a highly infectious disease of zoonotic origin, serves as a serious reminder that human-nature interactions need to be based on sustainable development pathways. The recent surge in zoonotic infections in different parts of the world—among them, H1N1, Nipah virus, Zika virus, and ...

International Affairs | Great Power Dynamics

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Mar 11, 2021

The end of the Cold War in 1991 presented Russia and the European Union (EU) with an opportunity to reorganise their bilateral relationship. For more than a decade, they did manage to nurture close ties. Beginning in the mid-2000s, however, the relationship steadily declined, reaching ...

Media and Internet

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Mar 10, 2021

China’s tech giants and venture capital funds are making increasing amounts of investment in startups abroad. Startups, being key drivers of digital innovation, are attractive investment targets; the capital can in turn help them grow and scale. These Chinese investments, however, are also the subject ...

International Affairs

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Mar 08, 2021

Territorial disputes in the South China Sea are traditionally viewed through the standpoint of China’s military expansionism, where the threats are more visible. The environmental impacts of China’s activities, which will be long-lasting, remain underexplored. China’s island construction, drilling activities, and overfishing have pushed the ...