Recent Updates

BIMSTEC countries and climate change: Imperatives for action
Sustainable Development | Climate Change Jun 27, 2019

BIMSTEC countries and climate change: Imperatives for action

This brief discusses the climate change challenges facing the member states of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and the initiatives taken by them to mitigate the effects. The South Asian countries within BIMSTEC are particularly vulnerable to global ...

Leveraging disruptive technology innovations for healthcare delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa
Healthcare | Cyber and Technology Jun 26, 2019

Leveraging disruptive technology innovations for healthcare delivery in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) constitutes 23.82 percent of the global disease burden but less than one percent of health expenditure.[1] The region has a severe shortage of trained medical personnel[2] and health delivery has low coverage. This brief outlines the most crucial challenges facing SSA’s healthcare ...

Food sovereignty and local agency: Pathways to urban sustainability
Urbanisation May 30, 2019

Food sovereignty and local agency: Pathways to urban sustainability

The traditional urban narrative does not conceive of the relationship between food and city in direct terms. In this narrative, urbanity can be industrial, technological, cultural and innovative—and by extension, its spaces can host factories, institutions of all kinds, governments and corporations, and entrepreneurs. But ...

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana: An assessment of India’s crop insurance scheme
Indian Economy | Agriculture May 28, 2019

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana: An assessment of India’s crop insurance scheme

Agriculture remains the primary sector of the Indian economy. While it accounts for merely 16 percent of the country’s GDP, approximately 43.9 percent of the population depends on it for their livelihood. In recent years, indebtedness, crop failures, non-remunerative prices and poor returns have led ...

The Indian Air Force, Sub-Conventional operations and Balakot: A practitioner’s perspective
Internal Security | Indian Defence May 13, 2019

The Indian Air Force, Sub-Conventional operations and Balakot: A practitioner’s perspective

India’s employment of offensive air power in sub-conventional operations has evolved rather slowly for several reasons, primary of which is the quest for restraint in the application of force against internal fissures. There is also a popular reluctance to recognise the capabilities of air power ...

Protecting India’s built heritage against natural disasters
Sustainable Development May 08, 2019

Protecting India’s built heritage against natural disasters

India’s built heritage—rich and diverse, an amalgamation of the country’s multi-millennial interactions with different cultures—is managed by governmental agencies at the national, state and local levels. These bodies have their respective mandates in protecting and preserving the country’s ancient monuments and other structures of historical ...

A Decade of Aadhaar: Lessons in implementing a foundational ID system
Cyber and Technology | Privacy and Surveillance May 03, 2019

A Decade of Aadhaar: Lessons in implementing a foundational ID system

In many parts of the world, questions have multiplied on the idea of establishing national digital identity systems. These issues relate to privacy, the concentration of power in the hands of governments, and the role of technology in society. Similar questions have been raised in ...

India and the global geoeconomics of climate change: Gains from cooperation?
Indian Foreign Policy | Great Power Dynamics | Indian Economy | Climate Change May 01, 2019

India and the global geoeconomics of climate change: Gains from cooperation?

Worsening climate change will have impacts on global politics, creating new vulnerabilities as well as opportunities. India, given its emerging power status and high vulnerability to climate impacts, holds a key position in global climate action. This brief looks at the ways in which India ...

From theory to practice: Perspectives on Climate-Smart agriculture in India and Africa
Climate Change Apr 24, 2019

From theory to practice: Perspectives on Climate-Smart agriculture in India and Africa

As global food production faces the negative consequences of climate change, best practices in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) must be promoted to achieve food security. This requires adequate financial and human resources to be channeled to the upscaling of CSA activities in high-impact, priority areas. Considering ...

In the eye of tempestuous Bay of Bengal: Measuring the disaster resilience of major ports on India’s east coast
Maritime Infrastructure Apr 22, 2019

In the eye of tempestuous Bay of Bengal: Measuring the disaster resilience of major ports on India’s east coast

The Bay of Bengal—home to a number of major ports that are lifelines for the economies and populations in India’s east coast that depend on them—is highly prone to extreme weather events. This brief examines the disaster-resilience of three of the ports on the Bay ...