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This brief assesses the growth of Armenia’s defence deep-tech landscape, and the geopolitical ramifications of its development for India, in particular. Tracing its historical development and current status in light of the current strategic volatility in the South Caucasus, the brief highlights the scope for closer cooperation between Yerevan and New Delhi in the deep-tech domain, shaped by such factors as issue-based convergences, Armenia’s

India has been proactive in the Arms Trade Treaty debate and has submitted its views on the issue. Currently, the debate is shifting towards the content of the treaty. Differences continue to exist, but India feels the final treaty should emerge by consensus.

The broader convergence of strategic interests between India and Singapore is the driving factor for these engagements.

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

At the congress of the Communist Party of China last week, Xi Jinping announced reforms for the People’s Liberation Army.

Logistics is meaningless if it cannot do what is central to war—fighting. In order to bolster the logistical capabilities of all the major service branches of the Chinese military—including the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), PLA Air Force (PLAAF), and the PLA Rocket Force (PLARF)—the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under President Xi Jinping established a Joint Logistic Support Force (JLSF) in 2016. To what extent does the JLSF

The India-Japan strategic partnership has been growing stronger, and this also extends to their cooperation on matters of outer space.

China is showing Nepal that the Himalayas may not be a trade barrier for rail-based trade with Asia or Europe or even maritime trade through the South China Sea. The landlocked country is now actively considering the use of alternative routes from India’s sea ports to China’s, once its roads and rails log into the BRI. This brief examines three learnings from Nepal’s growing engagement with China through the Belt and Road International Trad

As China’s two-ocean push looms large, India and the Philippines are closing ranks

The fact that drones made from scrap and duct-tape carrying improvised explosive devices are able to damage conventional aircraft on ground, worth millions of dollars, brought forward a new set of challenges for defence policymakers

This brief examines the role of West Bengal as a leverage for India to enhance its relations with its eastern and southeastern neighbours. It identifies the domestic and geo-economic aspirations of the state, and outlines the impact of certain misplaced policies and the state’s conflictual relationship with the union government on West Bengal’s development goals. The brief calls on India to nurture a pragmatic, cooperative brand of federalism

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

Now that BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi is approaching what could possibly be the pinnacle of his career, the last thing he wants is to box himself in by his own rhetoric. It is for this reason that in his Haryana speech, he also invoked Atal Bihari Vajpayee's policy, which used the Kargil crisis to get the world community to pin down Pakistan on avoiding the use of violence in relation to Kashmir.

While the FCC and TRAI chairmen may share similar goals, India’s telecom regulator should pick and choose what it wants to take away from the US debate.

India requires a “consensus” — a new proposition that will not only guide its own trajectory for the better part of the 21st century, but one that appeals to communities around the world.

Given the Indian government's taste for pushing unilateral mechanisms for governing the internet at an international level, and Indian civil society, which for the most part seems to vocally support a multistakeholder approach, the Indian elections might bring about a new opportunity for both sides to find clarity.

Despite being on the backfoot as the country’s civil war intensifies, the military regime is showing no interest in a democratic transition that may be the country’s only hope. India must explore various options for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and provide humanitarian assistance to displaced people

India has been at the forefront of helping its neighbors in times of crises

When it comes to Asean, the challenge for India is to scale up trade and investment. While ease of doing business is improving and projections by the IMF are all positive, there is long way to go to tackle corruption, energise the bureaucracy and cut through bureaucratic red tape that deters business and trade

The pressing interest between India and ASEAN has to do with the emerging Asian strategic order and the respective roles for India and Southeast Asia in it.

The report examines India's urbanization, highlighting rapid population growth, metro rail expansion, sustainable transport policies, and financing challenges, while assessing efforts in localization and revenue enhancement for metro systems.

The European Union’s (EU) and India’s paths towards becoming “cyber powers” could hardly be more different. The EU has a long tradition of protecting personal privacy rights and patents, while urging to enhance multilateral norms on cyberspace. India’s thinking on cybersecurity has continuously been boosted by the cyber threats emerging from China and Pakistan. It has further been shaped by India’s domestic Information Technology indu

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 series of high-level calls, including between Biden and Modi, suggest a possible trajectory for relations between India and the new U.S. administration.

The transition from “looking” east to “acting” east signalled India’s intent to play a more active and strategic role in the region emphasising the four Cs: Culture, Connectivity, Commerce, and Capacity Building.

At the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference last week, India backed AUKUS in the face of Russian and Chinese opposition.

India's Navy has for too long been neglected when money has been allocated. The latest defence budget suggests that may be starting to change, though much of the new allocation will be used to pay off previously acquired expensive naval platforms.

The ORF Report on "Attitudes towards water in India" is a culmination of 165 qualitative interviews of key stakeholders of the water scene in India under a collaborative research project between ORF and Chatham House.

His Excellency's address to the ORF Faculty delivered on May 3, 2012.

Senator Chris Evans visited the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi on July 22 and spoke on the close cultural ties that have been forged between the two countries, the safety of Indian students in Australia and migration prospects in the future.

Australia would be holding a skills Expo in India next year which would inform prospective migrants about the employment and lifestyle opportunities available in Australia

Underlining the need to develop an India-US-Australia trilateral, Mr. Rory Medcalf of the Lowy Institute says the recent US pivot to Asia is an opportunity for this relationship to burgeon.

Rediscovers relations after falling out with China

After the first trilateral dialogue between Australia, India and Japan in June 2015, another trilateral process immediately got underway. is paper makes an assessment of the prospects of this new formation in the light of history, contemporary coalescing interests, and the inadequacies of the existing trilaterals. While the conventional view is that this trilateral is merely an offshoot of US foreign policy and ranged against China, this paper ar

Ashok Malik sets the agenda for the upcoming Indian Ocean Region - Association for Regional Cooperation Dialogue, steered by the three nations.

New Delhi and Canberra have had to bear the brunt of increasingly belligerent Chinese behavior in the Indo-Pacific, pushing their bilateral relationship to new heights.