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In Prague, the expensiveness of the custom of burial has become an issue. And this issue is of relevance to most urban societies including ours as pressure on urban land will result in pressure on graveyards.

The 9th India-Japan bilateral is taking place in New Delhi this week-end. PM Abe is reaching Delhi on December 11. Two of the main issues that need to be resolved to take the partnership to new heights are the civil nuclear agreement and the supply of Japan's indigenously made US2 amphibious aircraft to India. Will Abe and Modi be able to achieve this?

With Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif making common cause in opposing Pervez Musharraf, democracy is back in reckoning in Pakistan. Will democracy return to Pakistan? This is the question which is being raised both within Pakistan and outside, especially after two former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, decided to bury their hatchets, sit across a table in a London hotel and agree on a Charter of Democracy last month.

The rise in the price of food grains may be cushioned by the enormous stocks held by the government's FCI godowns. But higher vegetable, fruits, eggs, fish and meat prices will contribute to food inflation as they have done in the past.

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has a fairly heavy political agenda before him. The foremost is his firm resolve to introduce constitutional reforms. If he wins the December 14 elections, Abe would have bright chances to win another term as the LDP president in September next year and stay at the helm for three more years.

While the establishment of new Integrated Check Post at Attari is a welcome move, there are certain issues which have dampened the spirits of Punjab's traders. The Pakistan government has still not allowed trade of items freely from the Attari-Wagah land route despite it being the cheapest and shortest trade route.

The US may have lost interest in Iraq, but in Syria if it truly desires a diplomatic solution, then Iran has to be brought on board. This is what even the French are telling them. But will the US take the extended hand.

The question is whether the governments of the US and China can find a way to manage their differences in a way that does not ignite tensions. No one knows the answer to this. However, managing these tensions will require a lot of diplomatic effort and energy.

The arrival of the French in Mali could well be the beginning of link ups across the oil and mineral rich regions stretching from Sudan across Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Western Sahara.

It is a pity the Spring ushered in by Arab youth has been willfully wasted by the West. Indeed, the shaken monarchies and the remaining dictatorships have rallied around the US and Europe to protect themselves.

The decade that began on January 1 will be Africa's decade. Unprecedented opportunities are opening up for India-Africa cooperation in Africa's rise in several areas, notably higher education, industrialisation and agriculture.

A popular conclusion drawn by many in the Pakistan media is that Imran Khan has arrived. His Lahore meeting, which was a great success, should alarm the other political players of Pakistan.

In the Union Budget, the Finance Minister needs to restore the confidence of the middle class investor who now have little faith in anything other than gold and real estate as the means of preserving and growing her savings.

Diplomacy is almost always about timing. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered a lesson in the virtues of diplomatic timing by showing up in Cambodia over the weekend.

India had recently decided to partner Russia in a joint project known as Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). A project like this is a rarity, like Brahmos, that India can ill afford to lose. Prudence would demand employment of a realist strategy of engagement by India in convincing the Russians to expand the scope of involvement.

Bush Blair duo is finding it extremely difficult to justify the invasion of Iraq to the world in general and to their local constituency in particular. The United States military has been unable to locate WMDs in Iraq in spite its best efforts. This has led the entire world to believe that the war was an unjust war.

Chinese leaders are steeped in the realist tradition and appreciate the logic of power politics. Premier Li Keqiang might respond more positively to a frank discourse from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh than Delhi's self-deceptions that have so misled India's Chinese interlocutors.

We should be prepared for a lower rupee unless the RBI steps in and boosts the rupee by releasing a huge amount of dollars. In this situation, wooing back the FIIs would not be easy. Proping up exports will also not be easy. It would be very difficult for the rupee to regain its former value unless commodity prices decline.

Much of this month has witnessed a slow but steady build-up of Russian troops in Syria. The Russian move is of huge significance - militarily as well geopolitically - not by what it brings to the table, but by what it prevents the other protagonists from doing in that tragic conflict.

Election season has begun in the country as in the next two months, five states are going to have assembly elections which are being billed as mini-general elections. Soon thereafter, parliamentary elections will be held in the first four months of the next year to elect the 16th Lok Sabha (lower house).

The politics of India is changing. The change will come not just through macro measures like the introduction of large-scale manufacturing or modern agriculture, but in a number of small ways - better schools, safer cities, better urban facilities, mental institutions and jails, fairer purvey of justice and so on.

As someone who started wearing uniform 56 years ago and then saw life from a cadet in the Academy to the Chief of the Army Staff, I feel disappointed with the unfair manner in which the whole issue of women in the Army has been dealt with in public.

Even today, the Army continues to be organised on the basis of regional, linguistic, caste and religious affiliations. Nearly 70 years since Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose raised combat units in which personnel from all over India served together, it is time that our Armed Forces seriously consider these issues of regionalism, ethnicity and deployment of women in combat roles.

That the Yadavs also constitute the political class is a fact but in this instance neutralized by the backward environment in which women of intermediate castes live

From recent events it is evident that misogyny and patriarchal attitudes cut across party lines, ideologies, sexes and classes. Worse still is the fact that whatever is being won by the serious and concerted efforts of those who really 'care' is being squandered by those who do not.

Having created unprecedented diplomatic opportunities in the first term, the UPA has managed to squander them in the second. India's ambassadors, gathering in New Delhi this week, are in a better position than most to reflect on the undeniable reversal of India's international fortunes in the second term of the UPA government.

The Madras High Court¿s notice to authorities in some coastal districts of southern Tamil Nadu over the ¿public hearings¿ on the Sethusamudram project proposal has brought out a new facet in Central-State relations unnoticed by many. Coming under the Union Shipping Ministry, the Tuticorin Port Trust, entrusted with the Rs 3000-crore project,

ORF Director Sunjoy Joshi said the seminar on "BRICS trade, investment and finance cooperation"is part of the ongoing research agenda which will feed into the South Afr ican Summit to be held next year.

The ORF Chennai Chapter of Observer Research Foundation (ORF) brought together eminent, senior retired civil servants and police officials, well-known academicians and journalists and policy makers for two days, on January 28 & 29, 2005, at a Workshop on the Naxalite Movement. Mr D Raja, National Secretary, Communist Party of India, inaugurated the Workshop, which was conducted under the guidance of Mr B Raman, Distinguished Fellow and Convenor,

Observer Research Foundation on August 21 organised a day-long workshop on ¿ Access to Justice in India¿ particularly for the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. Drawing the attention of the participants, ORF Chairman R.K.Mishra, in his welcome address said there was no dearth of studies and recommendations on improving the justice delivery system in the country but the will to implement them was what was missing

On 15 and 16 March 2007, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, and the Center on Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation of the Fourth Freedom Forum, USA, convened a two-day South Asia Regional Workshop, "Security and Liberty," which examined the relationship between human rights and counter-terrorism. This Chairmen's Report highlights some of the themes and recommendations put forward during the workshop.

A two-day workshop on international terrorism in the South-East Asian region and its likely implications for South Asia was organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at its headquarters at New Delhi on April 28 and 29, 2004, under its International Terrorism Watch Project.

Delhi, which saw President Obama build on Bush's strategic initiative towards India, has no dog in the presumed fight on foreign policy between the Democrats and Republicans in this election. There is no argument between the two candidates on the US relationship with India.

The ISIS has the potential to become the unifying terrorist force in the South East Asia region, posing a bigger threat to the region, according to terrorism expert Mr. Vikram Rajakumar. He also pointed out the emerging pro and anti ISIS factions in the region, counter balancing the ISIS.

The world sees India as not contributing positively to the international trade negotiations and this makes it difficult for India to actively participate in ongoing major plurilateral trade negotiations, according to Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh, India's former DDG to WTO.

If the world rapidly forgot about the Indian role in the Second World War, independent India did a lot worse. Its political leaders trivialised the war by dismissing it a colonial enterprise. Seventy years later, the time has come for political India to put the war in its proper historical context and celebrate the extraordinary contributions of the Indian people.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War-II. This day should have been used to reflect on the pain inflicted by the war. Unfortunately, this anniversary appears to be degenerating into a political battle, that could have a critical impact on Japan's diplomacy and reputation, especially in Asia.

Pakistan is facing an unprecedented power crisis, the worst in its history, with the deficit estimated to be over 8,000 MW. Rather than a shortage in its installed capacity.

ORF holds a dialogue on the creation of Telangana where two Congress Lok Sabha Members of Parliament participated

To be relevant, the WTO cannot keep postponing handling the major sticking points. It has to fulfill its agenda of ending rich country farm subsidies and tackle issues like rules governing intellectual property rights - things that regional FTAs are already dealing with.

His appointment as the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission is a clear indication of the eventual change of guard in 2012

The Chinese diplomacy seems to have erred on the side of aggression. A golden opportunity "to make a new beginning" was lost mainly due to the face-off in Ladakh. Modi genuinely wanted a much higher level of engagement, but the Chinese President failed to seize the opportunity.

As Xi and Modi meet in first Ahmedabad and then in New Delhi, India has political and strategic issues that it will want China to respond to - the contested border and territorial issues, China-Pakistan cooperation on nuclear, missile, maritime and border infrastructure issues.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit and accompanying independent agreements with Maldives and Sri Lanka, on undefined maritime issues and cooperation, have the potential for causing greater concern not only in India, but in the shared neighbourhood and beyond.