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The unsolicited US$ 18.5 billion bid for acquisition of the petroleum major Unocal by China National Offshore Oil Company (Cnooc), the Honk-Kong based subsidiary of China's third largest oil company, has sent the business, and political, world into a tizzy.

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in India is enshrined in the Constitution and mandated under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009. Yet, its implementation remains tentative for many reasons, primary of which is the absence of a clear government guideline regarding which Ministry is tasked with policymaking and implementation. This brief attempts to offer an answer for the government. It examines the conc

India's ranking in the World Bank's ease of doing business index is 134. Ease of doing business has ease of settling commercial disputes at its centre. With the Arbitration and Conciliation (amendment) Bill coming in place, India could play a greater role in shaping the way forward.

India’s ties with Europe have grown notwithstanding its stance on Russia over Ukraine

Indians may be suspicious of China and the Chinese of India. But it is the West which does not want to accept the strategic consequences of a rising Asia.

A discussion with Dr. Sonika Gupta on “China: Thirty Years After Tiananmen” at ORF, Chennai, on 3 August 2019, questioned whether the ongoing Hong Kong protests could be seen as a continuation of Tiananmen?

As political stalemate characterises present-day Nepal, analysts are worried over the impending economic fallout of the same in the erstwhile Himalayan kingdom. Already struggling with eight-hour power shortage which at times stretches up to 16 hours a day, the country is faced with a severe economic crisis.

The Indian diaspora in the US has been instrumental in deepening and strengthening India-US relations and will continue to do so in the future, says State Senator Ellen Roberts from Colorado Legislature and Minnesota State Representative Paul Thissen.

South Asia is one of the most populous region in the world, representing about 24 per cent of the world's population. Most countries in the region are in various stages of economic development, and aspire for regional economic integration.

India's agricultural growth had not been at the targeted level of 4 per cent in the past few years, but it was 4.6 per cent in the last quarter. Due to a good monsoon, the agricultural growth rate is likely to be higher at around 4.9 per cent. It will lead to higher demand for goods and is likely to give a fillip to industry this year.

After a successful launch in January this year in Berlin, the Economic Policy Forum, a new alliance of think tanks from emerging economies and selected developed economies, met at a conference on 'Resources Policy: Energy and Environment.' The meeting also facilitated an initial conversation on 'The Prospects for Regional Integration.'

The main culprit for the sharp rise in the current account deficit is the increase in gold imports and the hefty payment for oil imports. People are buying gold because they are apprehensive about the outlook on inflation. They think of gold as a reliable asset whose value has appreciated the most in the past few years.

This brief discusses the education component of cooperation between India and the countries of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). It argues that nurturing the education link within BIMSTEC can play a transformative role in augmenting people-to-people contact and cementing a more fruitful regional connectivity. While progress has been achieved—to which India has contributed considerably�

It is interesting to note the accommodations that China made in its educational system to inspire its exponential growth in economic and defence capability. Its educational reforms aimed at transitioning China from a manufacturing hub to a leader in innovation. Today China has the largest network of primary education in the world.

Saying that there is a proven link between the two types of terrorists - sectarian and Taliban -- Maj. Gen. Mahmud Durrani stresses the need for carrying out educational reforms and popularising a counter-narrative to Taliban's interpretation of Islam.

The combination of high food inflation, general inflation and lack of sufficient job opportunities due to slow growth in the manufacturing sector can spell disaster for a highly populated country like India.

These are not cheerful times for South Block in its dealings with neighbours or nations as distant as Italy. But there is a whole range of countries, in the Arab world which have traditionally been warm to New Delhi and who have been sending senior envoys to plead their respective cases and seek Indian support bilaterally and in multilateral forums.

Egypt and India have long had good relations with each other. Over the last few years, however, both nations have tended to be preoccupied elsewhere and their bilateral relationship has been left untended.

Even though the Egyptian army has refrained from taking over governance in the interim period, analysts say the fear of repeating the same mistakes are legitimate. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether or not this political transition will have a long-lasting impact on Egypt's nascent democracy.

What are Catherine Ashton and William Burns up to in Cairo? How can they convince a legally elected President overthrown by a discredited Army to share power and work together?

On New Year's Day, 2015, just before Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad and a week before the killings at the Paris-based Charlie Hebdo magazine office,

During a discussion on the critical phase of the post-revolutionary period in the Egyptian political system and society, a major part was focused on the nature of demands the discontented Egyptians had when they took to the streets in 2011.

Recognising the critical nature of the situation in Egypt, and the role that a successful free and fair elections will have as a stabilizing factor in the establishment of a 'new' Egypt, Observer Research Foundation invited Justice Hatem Bagato,

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been engaged in significant diplomatic activism since he took office. He has met with regional leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE and has emerged as a key pillar in Riyadh's attempts to consolidate a Sunni bloc in the region.

India’s 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, which empowered local self-governments (Panchayati Raj Institutions) and reserved one-third of electoral seats in these bodies for women, has elevated women’s participation in rural governance. India is among the foremost countries for women’s participation in local governments, with over 1.45 million women shaping local decision-making. Women leaders are a critical link between local governance, s

A day after the Myanmar elections, conflict started between the army and a faction of the Karen ethnic armed group, pushing thousands of Karen villagers into Thailand. This incident does not suggest smooth beginning for the country's political transition and the possibility of more such conflicts cannot be ruled out

The strategy of the 16-party United Iraqi Alliance is to institutionalise Shia majority and defer confrontation with the U.S. to a later stage.

This paper assesses how a transformational technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used by malicious actors to manipulate information and influence election results. It analyses the impact of such activities, and explores ways by which democratic polities can address this challenge. Reviewing cases from India and other countries in South Asia, and the United States, the paper also looks at the required regulatory landscape. It outline

While Elections-2007, which returned the ruling BJP and Chief Minister Narendra Modi to power against the expectations of the English language media in the country, it only helped focus on what has now come to be termed as the 'Gujarat model of development'.

At the heart of the debate on electoral reforms lies the vexed issue of campaign finance reform. There are four fundamental questions that need to be answered to understand this conundrum. A related but standalone issue is that of state funding of elections.

In recent years, more governments have been giving greater attention to developing their countries’ electric vehicles (EV) sector as a strategy for minimising the harm that mass transportation can cause to human health and the environment. This paper tells the story of India’s EV initiative. It offers an overview of the national mission to push the manufacture and adoption of EVs; appraises the policies introduced by governments of select sta

Dr. Anupam Chander, Professor of Law at UC Davis, says a specific rule which necessitates the consent of data subject in order to process the data coming from foreign countries in India is effectively discouraging foreign investments in India.

With electronic snooping here to stay, the larger question is not of ethics or privacy, but of regulation, protection and the provision of strong legal remedies

Why do Indian and Pakistani leaders succumb to the predictable? There's so much déjà vu about their peace process being derailed by border firings and terrorist strikes that the wider world has begun to yawn

Nepalese Prime Ministers generally prefer to call on New Delhi for their first foreign visit after assuming office. The urgency for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's visit was, however, accentuated by nearly a week-long effective blockade of Kathmandu imposed by the Maoist insurgents.

India and the countries of Africa share common challenges in their education systems, among them, weak teacher capacities and lack of basic infrastructure. In India, technological interventions have been able to address some of the challenges at scale. Africa has met with less success in this regard, as governments prioritise the provision of hardware without addressing the systemic issues that hamper the adoption of such technologies. Cu

The presence and influence of the Naxalites are increasing dramatically and rapidly in various parts of the country while we remain engaged in endless debates on how to address the problem.

As part of a three-year research project undertaken by ORF and PRIO to study and analyse urban governance, urban security and environment related trends and concerns in selected regions of India, an international conference was organised on "Emerging Challenges in an Urbanising India: Governance, Security and Climate Change".

With Al Qaeda far from being vanquished, and Pakistan and Bangladesh inevitably turning into jihadi outposts in the emerging pan-Islamist network in Asia, India is more than likely to be caught in the vicious tail-wind of the next wave of terrorism, gathering momentum since 9/11.

Non-conventional weapons, specifically, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN), pose threats to civilian safety, national security, and environmental sustainability. These threats are amplified by the use of emerging technologies such as Large Language Models, 3D printing, and drones, which can make the development and deployment of CBRN weapons easier and the implementation of countermeasures more challenging. This brief discusses

While the idea that emotional appeal is central to political persuasion may serve common intuition, the dynamics underscoring how and why this is so, remain underexplored. This primer collates insights from neuroscience and political psychology to show why emotions are essential to vote choice. It explores the effects of emotional appeals on voter perceptions using examples from campaign advertisements in US elections. The analysis finds that pol

A single deft move in the 18th century secured the British empire in India many advantages over the advancing Russians. By sending five English dray horses along with a blue velvet upholstered coach to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore, upstream from Kutch, the British discovered that the Indus was navigable all the way up.

In the Indian context, the term, ‘Special Operations Forces’ (SOF) refers to all those forces that are especially selected, organised, trained and equipped for tasks that have an impact at the strategic level and are beyond the remit of conventional forces. India’s uncoordinated response to the January 2016 terrorist attacks on the 1 Pathankot Air Force base has again trained the spotlight on the issues of tasking, synergy and ‘jointnes

It were thousands of village pradhans who had to be "empowered" as the nodal points most in contact with the people. Legislators and policy makers have to develop institutional mechanisms to liaise with the Pradhans who implement policy at the village level.