Occasional Papers

Urbanisation in India | Urbanisation

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Mar 12, 2025

Urbanists are divided on whether high urban density is a boon or a curse. Its champions maintain that it promotes greater productivity, fosters innovation, and enables economical space utilisation. The other side argues that excessive compactness destroys a city’s permeability, heightens the ‘urban heat island’ ...

International Affairs

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Mar 10, 2025

The Arctic region, with its vast reserves of natural gas, minerals, oil, and hydrocarbons, presents energy and economic opportunities for countries, including India. India’s Arctic Policy, released in 2022, signalled the country’s intent to expand its engagements in the region beyond its historical focus on ...

Defence and Security | Indian Defence

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Mar 04, 2025

As the Indian Army (IA) integrates new and emerging technologies, it will also need technical specialists for innovation and their effective application in peacetime and wartime. This analysis makes the case that the IA can create a technical reserve drawn from the Technical Entry Scheme ...

Climate Change

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Feb 27, 2025

COP29 announced the full operationalisation of the Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund, a long-awaited step for developing countries, including small island states, least-developed countries, and African nations. This milestone marks persistent advocacy for climate justice. However, the fund’s current framework has notable gaps. This paper ...

International Affairs

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Feb 07, 2025

As United States (US) President Donald Trump took office for a second term in January, a critical assessment of the legacy of the Joe Biden administration may help inform the India-US bilateral relationship. Under President Biden, the bilateral ties between India and the US progressed ...

Neighbourhood | International Trade and Investment

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Feb 04, 2025

Sittwe Port in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is part of India’s Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport project. It connects India’s northeastern states to the Bay of Bengal, advancing the country’s Act East policy and strengthening regional connectivity. Operational since May 2023, the port has handled over 109,000 ...

International Affairs

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Feb 03, 2025

The Russia-China partnership has grown steadily in the past decade, driven by Moscow’s widening rift with the European Union. As Western markets closed to Russia in 2014, Beijing emerged as an economic partner, importing Russian energy, defence goods, metals and minerals, timber, and other natural ...

International Affairs

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Jan 14, 2025

This primer offers a comprehensive overview of the current state of the India-United Kingdom (UK) bilateral relationship. It describes India-UK cooperation in the key policy areas of trade and investment, security and defence, technology and innovation, and migration and people-to-people ties. The paper also explores ...

Artificial Intelligence

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Jan 03, 2025

Stakeholder groups have produced various guidelines on ethical Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years. However, translating principles into practice continues to be a massive challenge, as AI markets expand and AI risks are heightened. AI audits—or the process of investigating an algorithm against existing regulations ...

Urbanisation | Transportation

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Dec 21, 2024

The increasing demand for mobility and the rising rates of motorisation in India have substantially increased energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the road transport sector. As of 2021, road transport was responsible for 14 percent of the nation’s total energy consumption, 92 ...