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Even if GDP growth rises in India, there will be growing inequalities unless there are strong policies aimed at the uplift of the vulnerable sections and the rich are taxed in an efficient and judicious manner. There should be some insurance against unemployment and sickness which will enable low income families to live with dignity.

It's heartening to note that the two rounds of talks between the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Government on finding a political solution to the vexatious ethnic issue have gone off well over the past weeks.

India needs to better integrate electronic and cyber warfare into its future defense planning.

With the Supreme Court directing the Centre and the State Governments to create a National Police Commission and State Security Commissions to improve and monitor the functioning of the police system, and seeking a time-bound compliance scheme, time is ticking away for the Executive branch. The Supreme Court 'directives' of September 22, 2006 were contained in the judgement in the case of 'Prakash Singh vs Union of India and Others'.

To become a major industrial nation by 2030, as predicted by a Washington think-tank recently, India will require many changes in the economic structure of the country in which efficient and viable small and medium enterprises coexist with the big factory-based organised sector and with a middle class bigger than that in the US and Europe combined, to support it with their demand.

A former Ranji cricketer and writer has suggested regulation of betting through a comprehensive legislation to clean up fixing-scarred cricket. He has also voiced the need for converting the BCCI into a corporate entity along the lines of Cricket Australia.

There is an urgent need to focus on key legislations in the real world; expanding internet access in India by ensuring social and technological growth go hand-in-hand; and the complexity of bridging divides between various factions on the issue.

It may be useful if the post-poll political dispensation in New Delhi reviews the relevance of the office of the National Security Advisor in contemporary Indian context, and recasts the role, if its continued need was found to be justified.

Needs Based Sharing Model and hydro diplomacy were among the many solutions that were suggested by experts at a discussion on "River of Conflict or Rivers of Peace - Water Sharing between India and China'' at Observer Research Foundation, Kolkata.

The Australian presidency of the G20 has witnessed a focus on the fundamentals: trade, tax issues, infrastructure, employment and banking.

The National electronic Governance Plan (NeGP) has more or less got all the right ingredients. It just needs to be mixed in the right proportions.

As India's most influential voice on foreign affairs in the run-up to Independence and its chief diplomat for the first 17 years of the republic, Nehru said and did things that can't be stuffed into one box labelled "Nehruvian".

India¿s neighbourhood is on the boil. Pakistan is struggling to resolve its self-imposed dilemma of balancing politically aroused religious extremism and calls for domestic stability and international civility. Bangladesh seems all set to follow the Pakistani model if the series of bomb blasts all over the country last month were any indication.

New Delhi did well to respond decisively when tragedy struck Nepal. While the media and cameras, which have now flooded Kathmandu, will soon leave Nepal, the world's attention will turn to the next crisis. But India must stick around for the long haul.

It is almost a year since fresh elections to the Constituent Assembly in Nepal took place for the formation of a new government and the writing of a new constitution that would, as was expected then, be a breath of fresh air for a country long engulfed in political and social unrest -- and political and constitutional instability afterward.

In Nepal, another fierce battle for the top executive post has begun, putting the much important issue of Constitution-drafting in the back burner. As usual, the federalism debate has evaporated from the mainstream,

Nepal and China celebrated 1 August as the anniversary day of 60 years of establishment of their diplomatic relations. President Ram Baran Yadav and Chinese President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages on the occasion of the 60th anniversary.

Nepal is no stranger to Constitution drafting, having gone through six such rounds since 1948, with the seventh culminating in September 2015. is recent exercise, however, was unique as it was conducted, for the rst time, without the oversight of the monarchy. Certain populations of Nepali society had specic stakes in a new Constitution. For many of Nepal's marginalised communities such as the Madhes is, for example, the new Constitution oe

The United Communist Party of Nepal (UCPN-M or the Maoists), the single largest party in Nepal's Constituent Assembly, held its much-awaited sixth plenum at Palungtar in Gorkha district on November 21.

As China exerts greater pressure on the Communists-led Government in Nepal to curb all anti-Chinese activities emanating from its soil, those Tibetan refugees wanting to transit Nepal or seeking refugee status are having rough days ahead.

This paper analyses the debate surrounding federal restructuring in Nepal and the position taken by various political stakeholders. It argues that an early political consensus on federalism is imperative; otherwise, the country may slip into greater ethnic conflict. Nepal is currently experiencing perhaps one of the most turbulent phases in its contemporary political history. In 2008, Nthe 240-year-old institution of monarchy—for long seen a

India's flagship economic diplomacy programme, the grant of Lines of Credit (LOC), has had immense success in expanding the country's development cooperation around the world. In the African region, for instance, countries have found LOCs to be appropriate alternatives to traditional development assistance. LOCs are a popular tool among countries looking to fund their development goals. Closer to home, Nepal has received more than $1 billion in d

By most indications, India has arrived at a principled affirmation of net neutrality; the country must now turn its attention to its regulatory aspects. This essay examines whether the Competition Commission of India (CCI) can assume the primary role in enforcing net neutrality. It will trace the Commission?s short history to determine whether it has adequate jurisdiction and the strength of precedent to regulate the internet.

With increasing internet usage and acceptability, the threat perception from the medium will also increase. However, unless there is a paradigm shift in approaching the vexed subject of web regulation as different from traditional media, regulatory attempts will remain ineffective.

The onus of striking a balance between price affordability and environmental sustainability with regard to the fashion industry lies on the shoulder of the global community.

PM Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Party has decided on retaining the Executive Presidency and ‘power-devolution’ under the existing ‘unitary State’ model

After a long delay, the government has finally announced the much awaited new foreign trade policy, with thrust export promotion, reducing trade transactions costs, e-commerce, services exports and ease of doing business. It is a welcome relief to see that economic reforms on the trade front are back on track and in full swing.

The Maldives became the second country in South Asia, after Pakistan, to enter into a free trade agreement with China. The Yameen government pushed the FTA through the nation's Parliament, the Majlis, stealthily, with the opposition not attending the parliamentary session.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's recent decision to give the US a miss needs to be seen in the context of the changing narratives of internet governance and the control for cyber resources.

Was the new border clash ‘pre-planned’ & ‘carefully executed’? The use of Special Frontier Force is very telling.

While the state continues to exercise its regulatory capacity over digital spaces — a task it will likely keep in the coming years — the internet has magnified the rights and responsibilities of the private sector and end users across the world.

During a closed door discussion with US Assistant Secretary Nisha Desai Biswal, Indian strategic thinkers and foreign policy experts discussed the new opportunities lying ahead for greater India-US cooperation.

The NATO drawdown from Afghanistan presents new opportunities for long-term collaboration between the US and India. Successful coordination and collaboration during the next two years will do much to bring about a post-2014 Afghan scenario amenable to both our countries and the region at large.

The nature of work is changing, leading to the loss of some jobs and the creation of others that require radically changed skills. In India, as the requirements of this evolving labour market change, co-working spaces fulfil many of the new needs. The aim of this paper is twofold: to describe the development of the co-working industry in India, its driving factors, as well as the architecture, design and social aspects of the work environment; a

Can India, in its present state of economy, afford the colossal amount of expenditure and administrative confusion in creating new States? The answer is firmly in the negative. Therefore, it is advisable for the UPA Government to remain firm and refuse to accede to the demand for a new commission for the reorganisation of States.

The government has been firefighting since FY 2019 using mostly Band-Aids of the cheapest kinds.

Emerging technologies have the potential to reshape our world. These innovations, also called disruptive technologies, have started to seep into the area of finding solutions for mobility. Is existing infrastructure prepared for such technological advancements? These and related themes were discussed in a roundtable organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) on 8 February 2016. The roundtable, Urban Transportation and Disruptive Technologies

Three years ago, when the Planning Commission was transformed into Niti Aayog, expectations were high.

Child-friendly cities’ is an emerging concept in the urban management sector in many countries across the globe, including India, where it complements government schemes that aim to develop India’s urban spaces as centres of human capital development, knowledge hubs, and drivers of growth and prosperity. These flagship missions include, for example, the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT

The integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of India is the ultimate solution to the Kashmir problem, said Dr. Subha Chandran at an interaction on 'Jammu & Kashmir: Internal Threats and External Interests' at the ORF Chennai Chapter.

Mr. Brajesh Mishra, former National Security Advisor and now Trustee of Observer Research Foundation, recently gave an interview to Mr. Karan Thapar. The interview was televised by CNN-IBN. Given below is the text of the interview"

Power won’t leave India alone, even if Indians claim to be disinterested in power

As the NDA government recalibrates India's Kashmir and Pakistan policies, Delhi must do a much better job explaining the logic behind the cancellation of the foreign secretary talks, widely seen as abrupt.It must let the international community, especially Pakistan's friends, including the US, China and Saudi Arabia, know India is not abandoning the peace process with Islamabad.

Bhutan's honeymoon with democracy seems to be facing its first challenge, that too from unexpected quarters. For a nation that boasts of measuring its national wealth in terms of Gross National Happiness (GNH) and not conventionally in GDP.

Noises of peace are once again emanating in Maoist insurgency hit-Nepal. The Maoists have expressed their desire to sit at the negotiating table, while, at the same time, creating a blood bath in different parts of the Himalayan Kingdom.

The concept of non-alignment originated during the Cold War as a ‘third way’ for nations wanting to remain neutral between the capitalist liberalism of the United States (US) and the communism of the Soviet Union. Officially founded during the Bandung Conference in Indonesia in April 1955, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) today has 120 member nations, all of them from the Global South. Every African country, except for South Sudan, is a member

Observer Research Foundation organized a day-long interaction between some of India?s well-known experts and commentators on the north-east on November 18, 2004. The primary objective of the Interaction was to collectively introspect on some of the issues which have troubling the region for more than half-a-century.

The Trump administration is egging China on to take action against its proxy, using its considerable leverage with the North Korean regime.

China has to recognise that North Korean actions are triggering several developments that are not necessarily in the interests of China - like the major debates in Japan on becoming proactive in defending themselves, including the option of nuclearisation. Can a nuclearised East Asia be ruled out in the next decade if Pyongyang continues on the same path?