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India presents a unique case of balancing decarbonisation efforts with industrial growth. While notable progress is being made in decarbonising the power and transport sectors, reducing industrial emissions poses a formidable challenge. To meet its decarbonisation targets, India will need massive capital flows, projected at US$10.1 trillion by 2070. While green finance will support technologies that align with the Paris Agreement, transition fina

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. This brief makes an economic case for using treated water to plug the increasing demand-supply gap by comparing key learnings from successful global models and highlighting how

The Maldives and Sri Lanka show how they can bargain with bigger powers to their advantage.

The Biden administration’s climate agenda is a crucial plank to restore American commitments to climate actions and reinstate US leadership globally. However, the agenda has been slow on results. Although the climate fight has been linked to most other federal goals, such as economy, jobs, infrastructure, and procurements, the Biden administration faces both domestic and external challenges that continue to limit how much it can achieve

Cyber-sanctions have emerged as a preferred tool for Western governments to deter cyberattacks emanating from their adversaries’ territories. As they implement such sanctions, however, these states face various challenges one of which is the difficulty in attribution. Moreover, the sanctions have only partially curbed the malicious cyber activities. Yet, the regime continues to expand, and many allies of the United States are emulating its prac

A second Green Revolution is in the offing given the recent announcements by the central government. The highlight of Finance minister Mr Jaswant Singh¿s January 9 pre-poll sops was the setting up of a Rs. 50,000 crore Agriculture Infrastructure and Credit Fund, to be operational in four weeks and providing end use credit at 200 base points below PLR.

The legacy cross-border payment infrastructure is replete with issues of high costs, limited access, low speed, and opaque structures, which have limited the potential of cross-border payments to enhance international trade and foster economic growth in emerging economies. The increased demand for transparent, accessible, faster and cheaper solutions in the financial sector has pushed the private and public sectors to accelerate investments in in

While India-China competition and Chinese assertiveness have triggered some changes in Bhutan’s foreign policy, recent developments suggest that continuity still looms large in Bhutan-India relations

Under the Vibrant Villages Programme nearly 3,000 villages selected along the 3,400-km-long border are set to get better infrastructure facilities

Nepal signed the framework agreement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with China in May 2017. Of the initial 35 projects that Nepal had proposed, the final number eventually came down to nine. Seven years later, none of the BRI projects have been completed. In 2023, the tenth year of the BRI, controversies surrounding China’s attempt to co-opt even ‘non-BRI’ projects under the framework, and Nepal’s efforts to secure more grants inst

An era of Taliban rule, followed by the 18-year-long war between the United States and the Taliban, has left Afghanistan in massive disorder: the country’s infrastructure is dilapidated, the quality of life is poor, and basic amenities such as healthcare are absent. While the post-Taliban Government of Afghanistan has tried to rebuild the healthcare system, it remains largely dependent on foreign aid. Over the years, India has tried to help reb

New Delhi must take full advantage of the geopolitical opportunity that the Japanese connection offers us. As democracies, both India and Japan are open societies and committed to a liberal world order. Through visits and agreements, the two sides have now laid the infrastructure for their strategic partnership.

This paper undertakes an analysis of the gender-disaggregated data from the National Statistical Organisation’s Time-Use Survey 2019, and finds that Indian women spend eight times more hours on unpaid care work than men. The patterns are similar across educational qualification, and employment or marital status: women with higher education, or earn their own incomes, do not spend any less time on unpaid care work. Shifting mindsets and rebalanc

Every disruptive technology sparks excitement, investment, and the risk of a bubble—and AI is no different. Before deciding if AI dreams will materialise, the parallels between past bubbles and the current AI race need to be understood.

Arguably the most ambitious health insurance programme in the world today, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) gives India the chance to transform its healthcare infrastructure. Launched in September 2018 and foreshadowing the general elections of 2019, PMJAY is equal-parts political and economic. It aims to address the healthcare needs of India’s poorest 100 million households and has the potential to deliver what its predecessors ove

In China, villages have the same facilities in housing, water, drainage, medical care as in towns. If the government of India wishes to reduce the migratory flows, then each village has to be transformed to a small town ? at least in infrastructure.

Pragmatism is redefining India-Sri Lanka relations

As Africa asserts its position in the international world order, it needs strong, determined efforts to make it a 21st-century global power

India's ability to successfully execute a 10-year agreement on the Chabahar port showcases New Delhi's continuing ability to manoeuvre in a geopolitically fragmented world.

The new RBI Governor would have to restore the confidence of foreign investors in the economy's growth potential. Foreign investments are needed for infrastructure and industry. The Governor will also have to attract more FIIs. The choice before him would be: whether to control inflation or to promote growth.

New Delhi must sharply raise its preparedness to deal with a Beijing that seems bent on aggression

China, a late entrant in Latin America, has now emerged as the region’s major economic partner. Bilateral trade between the two stands today at more than USD 200 billion. By augmenting investments and trade in Latin America, Beijing has managed to project itself as an alternative to the United States, which had previously enjoyed overarching influence in the region. The US’ inability to lead Latin America into a path of sustainable econ

The decision of key American allies like the UK, Germany, France, South Korea and Australia to join the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Development Bank (AIIB) marks another step forward in the shaping of a Chinese-led Asian economic and, possibly, security order.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is central to the country’s ambitious policy reorientation. The energy sector accounts for nearly 40 percent of all investments under the BRI, with significant geostrategic and geoeconomic implications. In recent years, China has adopted a “greening the BRI” strategy, emphasising green energy projects. This brief analyses China’s BRI investments in the energy sector to establish the potential trend

This brief evaluates the state and development of China’s cruise missile capabilities, specifically that of its air-launched and ground-launched missile forces. It finds that China has developed a formidable inventory of cruise missiles, which poses a threat to India’s own military infrastructure.  The brief lays out the imperative for India: to build up its long-range cruise missile forces. It argues that India’s current capabilities woul

China’s long game in Africa is not just about economic influence or military strength. It is also about the subtle art of diplomacy and influence

Beijing’s Southeast Asia outreach may complicate the U.S.’s efforts to build a coalition to isolate or deter China economically.

India’s ties with Beijing have frayed even as relations with Moscow lose warmth because of their actions

It is almost certain that cities will script the story of our future. If India is to capitalise on this megatrend, it becomes essential for the country to engage in widespread and deep reforms, which go beyond infrastructure and focus on reforming governance mechanisms and empowering local government.

India’s critical water infrastructure must be built to withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from climate disruptions

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed most economies into recession and heightened inequalities within and across countries. Mitigating current challenges requires greater solidarity, innovative thinking, and more effective international development cooperation. This paper makes a case for triangular cooperation as an instrument of development cooperation in current times. It outlines its advantages, examines the challenges involved in such partnerships,

The United States and Luxembourg have adopted domestic space laws granting certain legal rights to space mining companies. These moves have initiated a debate on the future of this industry, as well as the passing of relevant laws governing outer space and its resources. This paper makes an assessment of commercial space mining activities in the broader context of the emerging space economy. It finds that entrepreneurs are increasingly looking at

Open defecation (OD), an age-old practice in India, impacts the health of individuals as well as their communities. To tackle the problem, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2014, aimed at making the country open-defecation free (ODF) by October 2019 by giving more attention to community-based approaches. However, while such approaches have helped solve the sanitation riddle in many countries, curbing OD in India

Notwithstanding the partial admission of the allegations made by India about the Mumbai attackers, Pakistan's complicity in allowing Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), the terrorist group behind the Mumbai attack, to retain most of its extensive infrastructure and capability to pursue its terrorist activities calls for an intense global scrutiny.

In recent times, the centre of gravity for global trade and economic activities has shifted to the Indo-Pacific and, consequently, there is heightened competition between global powers that have stakes in the region. The importance of connectivity has therefore come to the forefront, covering domains like digitisation with interoperable regimes comprising data protection and cyber security, along with cross-border infrastructures that need attent

Japan wants to assist India to improve the investment climate to attract more FDI so that New Delhi can be linked more closely with Japan–ASEAN-based supply chains.

The details of the proposed loss and damage funds need to be worked out

Cyber attacks are not a security challenge that can easily be eliminated. No kind of infrastructure is absolutely impregnable and the adverse impacts can at best be minimised by emphasising on risk containments, according to experts.

The norm to protect the public core of the internet, originally advocated by the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, can be operationalised in two ways. Both a layered approach and a functional approach to defining the public core of the internet provide productive ways to discuss safeguarding the functionality and integrity of the core logical and physical infrastructure of the internet from unwarranted state interventions. Thi

Access to, and development of indigenous digital platforms and cutting-edge technologies is imperative for robust socio-economic development and national security. In turn, such process needs to be democratised, and undertaken in a sustainable manner. India is a first mover in this novel idea of democratising technology and developing Digital Public Goods. Operationalised in the digital infrastructure called India Stack, India’s strategy aims t

India, like much of the rest of the world, is faced with the twin but opposing conditions of economic potential and social concerns that need to be negotiated to realise the digital dividends from artificial intelligence (AI) and achieve sustainable and balanced growth. AI systems involve layers of technological dependencies that necessitate and enable social and institutional interdependency between stakeholders, enabling conditions, and resourc

India will become a digital society. It is also deploying all the right pieces and infrastructure for a digital economy. The foundation for both will be the cloud ecosystem, which, however, needs to be protected through a robust policy and legal framework.

Setting up of a national mission on river Brahmaputra would play a pivotal role in formulating and implementing key action plans on disaster management, hydrological data monitoring as well as infrastructure development.