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India’s outreach to the Taliban isolates Pakistan further

Farooq and Omar Abdullahs are not sufficiently "provincial" to manage a province. They are cosmopolitan men with considerable potential on the national turf - and we are short of such personalities on the national stage.

Since 2010, Pakistan has already violated the ceasefire more than 222 times. In 2012 alone, there were 117 instances, mostly concentrated in the Uri and Krishna Ghati areas.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee's (on Personnel, Public Grievances, and Law & Order) decision to consider the possibility of recommending 'concurrent' or 'simultaneous' elections to the Lok Sabha and all State Assemblies across the country is a suggestion worth serious consideration, like very many other aspects of electoral reforms.

It is time to pause to remind Prime Minister Modi of his campaign promise "minimum government, maximum governance". It is sad this is one promise being heard less and less of each passing day.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, in his five years as the martial law administrator, has never faced challenges of the magnitude he is grappling with now. Internally, Pakistan is faced with a crisis on many fronts. Despite a stable Government for over five years, and scores of promises, there is no sign of democracy.

No other State seems to have treated its women as brutally as Uttar Pradesh routinely does. While UP comes after Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, let us not forget that that these two States are badly riddled with Naxalism which gives another turn to the discussion.

A two-day seminar 'Understanding China' was aimed at making an in-depth study of China's overall South Asian policy

BRICS has made strides in developing a digital agenda that promotes the use of digital technologies for development while trying to counter digital harms. The grouping has prioritised areas such as agritech and digital agriculture, technology for education, digital health, technology for climate action, and the use of data to further the development agenda. Additionally, bridging the digital divide, promoting cybersecurity, and furthering the rig

India is strategically investing in manufacturing and industrialisation or more accurately reversing what has been called a "premature de-industrialization". However, while precision manufacture will create value, it will not create jobs, certainly not as many as India needs.

India has become the largest and fastest-growing producer of audio-visual (AV) content in the world, with the highest number of hours of content every day. This brief discusses issues of intellectual property (IP) and competition in the AV content sector. Under India’s Copyright Act 1957, the owner of AV content is accorded exclusive copyright over their work, which includes the right to monetise. Effective copyright protection incentiv

The decision by the Pakistani and the Chinese authorities to cancel the programme for the formal inauguration of the newly-constructed Gwadar port by the Chinese Prime Minister Mr Wen Jiabao during his recent visit to Pakistan gave a clear indication of the further deterioration in the situation in Balochistan.

Several thousand Baloch men and women nationalists are known to have gone missing, and, as usual, the authorities have unleashed sectarian terrorists in Balochistan to discredit the nationalists by injecting their reliable hit men from the ASWJ, the successors to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. They have repeatedly killed Hazara Shias in Balochistan.

While there has been considerable commentary in Pakistan about what happened to jounalist Hamid Mir, there is silence about the fast unto death by a young Baloch, Latif Johar who has been seeking the release of Zahid Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch Students' Organisation.

As already pointed out in our earlier articles on this subject, the unrest is, inter alia, due to anger over the suppression of the nationalist aspirations of the Balochs by the Government in Islamabad,

Pakistan¿s largest province, Baluchistan, is again on the boil. Two rocket firing incidents took place in early December, 2005. The first incident involved firing on a helicopter carrying the Inspector-General of the Frontier Corps. In the second, a rocket was fired at a public meeting addressed by Gen Pervez Musharraf at Kohlu. These incidents appear to have provided an immediate provocation to launch an operation by the Pakistan Army and the F

A delegation of visiting Members of Parliament from Bangladesh, taking part in an interaction with academics, media-persons and ORF faculty, hoped that the new government in India would take the relations between the two countries to a different level.

It would be useful if India adopted a more generous approach towards resolving some of the contentious issues which have hindered a stronger bilateral relationship

Delivering the 4th RK Mishra Memorial Lecture, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister, Dr Dipu Moni, called for a Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin Regime, going beyond the boundaries of Bangladesh and India, to address the common realities of our region.

Rather than rushing to deport people, the new Modi government needs to carefully weigh a solution that will benefit all stakeholders. After all, friendly relations with its neighbors is in India's interests.

Bangladesh have witnessed changes in the last eight years, but they were not enough, according to speakers at a conference on India's relationship with Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's journey of democracy did not have a healthy start and it is still struggling with establishing a fully functioning democracy as is seen by the presence of confrontational politics and the dysfunctional parliament, according to former Bangladesh Major General Muniruzzaman.

Bangladesh, like many countries, is struggling with the challenge of the Chinese-origin Covid-19 as well as corruption charges against health officials.

Though the Hasina Government is pursuing an active counter-terrorism programme and has succeeded in controlling the activities of various radical organisations in the real world, it has failed to curb their activities in the virtual world.

Securing Bangladesh's energy supply in the face of its growing needs has been the primary motivation for the country to sign the recent agreement with Russia for cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

The so-called crack-down on religious extremist elements ordered by Prime Minister Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh has been selective.

Media in Bangladesh recently reported that China is all set to win the contract of the coveted deep-sea port in Sonadia, a small town of 9 sqkm offshore of Cox's Bazaar in Chittagong division.

On 5 January, parliamentary elections were held in Bangladesh. They were boycotted by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led 18 party alliance, allowing the Awami League to win the election with two thirds majority and with very little opposition.

The settlement of the maritime dispute between India and Bangladesh has ended the energy politics in the Bay of Bengal region. The verdict from The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has removed obstacle for Bangladesh to exploit the rich hydro-carbon reserves in the Bay of Bengal.

Recently security agencies arrested 12 activists of the banned militant organisation Harkatul Jihad in Bangladesh. These arrests revealed that the group was preparing merger with the South Asia chapter of the international militant organisation Al-Qaeda.

India-Bangladesh relations got a major boost with Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao's three-day visit to Bangladesh in June this year. This has also brightened the prospects of visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmonhan Singh to Bangladesh.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pankaj Saran had a narrow escape as his car was attacked in Khulna. Initial investigation showed that the bombs were of low intensity.

Bangladesh witnessed the worst kind of political violence in the past few weeks following a series of protests called by the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

The ongoing upazila elections in Bangladesh are a move to deepen democracy at the grassroots. Since the election came just after the parliamentary polls that took place in January and was boycotted by main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP),

After a year of comparative stability in 2014, politics of hartal (street agitation) is back in Bangladesh. The country is almost paralysed for almost a month following strings of hartal staged by opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for its campaign to oust Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government.

Last week Bangladesh celebrated the Bengali New Year, the biggest festival of the country with much fanfare. Celebration of Bengali New Year has special significance for the country as it marks the values for which Bangladesh fought for -- its culture and the liberal values.

In a rare move, the Bangladesh government has taken up the task of correcting the history by trying the 'war criminals' of the 1971 Independence War. In the nine-month-long freedom movement, 2.5-3 million people had died.

Bangladesh, once described as 'basket case' by veteran US strategist Henry Kissinger, has gathered new prominence in US' South Asia policy. The visit of US Secretary of State by Hillary Clinton in May this year that resulted in signing of a joint statement

The political situation in Bangladesh is reverting to the bad old days of hartals and blockades. Major countries which could influence the Sheikh Hasina government, including India, seem reluctant to pressurise her. India has been clearly backing her for the time being, knowing that the alternative could be worse.

The recently-concluded elections to three city corporations of Dhaka North, Dhaka South and Chittagong put forward some interesting trend about the present political situation in the country.

With six months left for parliamentary election in Bangladesh, politics is likely to warm up, charting a new course in the process. Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) landslide victory in five city corporation elections suggest that the party has gained strength after facing a humiliating defeat in the 2008 parliamentary election.

Politics in Bangladesh got a new twist this week following the formation of a new poll time government. The main purpose behind the formation of this government was to ease up the political crisis regarding the nature of government to supervise the general elections.

BRICS is in transition and cannot afford to lose growth momentum. Multilateral institutions such as a BRICS Bank can aid in sustaining directed, equitable and resilient growth.