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The Eighth Review Conference( Revcon) of the Non Proliferation Treaty ( NPT) at New York narrowly eked out a victory from the jaws of defeat before its close on May 28, 2010.

The recent 19th AU Summit was dominated by the drama of the election for the post of the Chairman of the AU Commission. Many analysts feel that the fight for the post has divided the Continent and done a great deal of damage to African Unity.

Sooner than later, India will have to start evaluating its e-governance projects. And in the near future, the focus will shift to the outcomes of e-governance initiatives.

An increasing number of businessmen in BRICS' countries favour arbitration over overburdened litigation systems in resolving domestic disputes.

Earlier during his stint in office nearly 10 years back, Ranil Wickremesinghe had mooted the idea of building a bridge - literally - across the Palk Strait, linking his country to India. Now that he is back as prime minister and as part of a 'cohabitation arrangement' but through political consensus, unlike in the past, the two governments could consider reviving the proposal for mutual and greater benefits.

There were no big reforms and no major policy turnarounds in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It was a budget of small and tentative steps to help steady the ship and laid the foundation for big reforms in the months ahead.

The UPA government has allowed the withering away of the Prime Minister's Office as the ultimate source of authority in policy-making. The latest developments on the Indo-Pak LoC demand that the Congress party focus urgently on revamping the defence establishment and reclaiming the PMO's authority to coordinate national security policy.

Strangely, in Maoist circles there is near nostalgia for Shivraj Patil

India must seize the moment and rebuild the bilateral relationship

The release of the National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review and the Missile Defense Review reinforces the central message of the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy, which focuses on the current decade as being a ‘decisive’ one

New Delhi, Tehran and Moscow could coordinate their efforts on Afghanistan as the US exits

As Salman Khurshid pointed out to Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan has to demonstrate its bona fides by putting an end to the large number of incidents on the LoC.

That is the question that should be uppermost in the minds of analysts as they analyse the outcome of Pakistani President Gen.Pervez Musharraf's visit to India from April 16 to 18, 2005, and compare it with his first visit in 2001, which ended in a fiasco at Agra.

Rationing of gas makes the development of a unified gas market impossible. This means the prevalence of a dozen price levels confounding all - buyers and sellers, and investors on both sides. The spin-off leaves India struggling with the most poorly developed gas infrastructure.

Even as the debate on the Lokpal Bill hots up with the draft Lokpal Bill of the Government likely to come up before the Parliament during the ongoing session, we present below a shorter comparative analysis of the different Lokpal Bills.

This was not to be yet another budget speech. It came in the wake of a regime change where the electorate signaled its unhappiness with the direction of the country. Still, the FM came up with a modest Budget. But that is not the promise of the Modi government. The good days promised look far away.

This paper evaluates the importance of a space military strategy for India against China. It argues that in light of China’s advances in space weapons, New Delhi needs to seriously consider developing at least a limited menu of space weapons and integrate them into India’s defence posture. It draws on conceptual literature on nuclear deterrence, air power and sea power to show that space weapons, at least some variants, are usable military in

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has underlined the emerging realities of states’ air defence needs, including those for medium- and long-range air defence missile systems. The most important facet in the domain of air defence relates to terminal air defence—or the defence of a single object or a limited area like a ship, building or an airfield, now usually against air attacks and guided missiles. This report underscores the need for India to

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has underlined the emerging realities of states’ air defence needs, including those for medium- and long-range air defence missile systems. The most important facet in the domain of air defence relates to terminal air defence—or the defence of a single object or a limited area like a ship, building or an airfield, now usually against air attacks and guided missiles. This report underscores the need for India to

New Delhi today is articulating a new voice on the global stage and is confidently able to steer through some of the evident contradictions in its approach.

US President Joe Biden’s order of a deeper probe into whether Sars-CoV-2 leaked out of a lab is likely to escalate a confrontation with China, which refuses to countenance such a possibility

With consensus on legal measures remains elusive, a behavior-based approach is a good first step. A consequence-based approach to dealing with interference in space is a step further. 

India and the European Union (EU) share a deep political and strategic relationship that pivots around democracy, global rule of law, security, and trade. While the depth is obvious on paper, however, the partnership has delivered short on dividends expected by both sides. Yet diplomatic engagement remains robust, and in recent times is moving towards greater mutual understanding of the challenges of terrorism and the potential counterterrorism s

The ruckus at WCIT is all about the cosy relationship between governments, big businesses and commerce and not about Internet freedom.

The fact that a renewed idea of nation-building for Syria is now down to a non-traditional political entity with roots in extremism keeps the trajectory of the state’s future in suspension

On the eve of President George W. Bush's visit to India and Pakistan, both sides are racing to complete the nuclear agreement announced in the July, 18, 2005 communiqué between Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the time he reaches

This report evaluates India’s soft power strategies under the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 2014 to 2024. It looks into the ways in which the government has promoted cultural connectivity, diaspora engagement, and partnership building to strengthen India’s global image. It underlines the growth of India’s soft power in the past decade, becoming more coherent, strategic, and ambitious. In the past decade, India has initiated, f

The 2008 terrorist attack came during a sustained period of high economic growth in India.

Already, there are voices in the United States and Europe questioning the duration of the West’s support for Ukraine given the precarious economic state in most Western nations

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) was formed to foster socio-economic cooperation between its seven member nations – India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The group signed a free trade agreement (FTA) in 2004, but the pact is still not operational due to the lack of consensus on certain key issues. Some members like India are keen to finalise the terms of t

The Visegrad Four (V4) countries—Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary—are examples of communist states that have transitioned to liberal and democratic governance systems. In recent years, their visibility in the European Union (EU) has surged due to their contrarian positions on certain critical issues facing the Union, such as mass migration and, since 2022, the conflict in Ukraine. This paper analyses the impact of these trend

This brief studies India’s foreign policy preferences using an index based on historical voting patterns of member states at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). By visualising the trajectory of policy preferences for all member states in the UNGA, with a particular focus on India, this work identifies how India’s policy stance at the UN has evolved in relation to its peers. It finds that Indian policy has maintained an exceptionally h

George Perkovich is of the view that India is not a major power today though it definitely enjoys a substantial measure of autonomy. The essence of his argument can be summarised as follows:

The world is currently witnessing an increase in the prevalence of undernourishment as well as a rise in the incidence of overweight, obesity, and non-communicable diseases. Addressing issues of food security and nutrition would not be possible without adopting a food systems perspective—from farm to fork. Indeed, in 2021, countries developed national pathways to transforming food systems to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Developme

Modi's visit to Germany and France will give him an opportunity to discuss key political issues relating to Ukraine and the Middle-East. India is feeling the indirect impact of the Russian estrangement from Europe as this has led to closer strategic ties between Moscow and Beijing.

Advances in disruptive technologies have enabled scientists to engineer biological systems and create more efficient and sustainable products for a range of purposes. The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) with biotechnology has contributed to the development of therapeutics and vaccines, helped address food security, aided in generating innovative processes to mitigate the effects of climate change, and expanded the bioeconomy. However,

India and France must start looking together at the region and the world. A Franco-Indian vision document could be a vital first step towards developing a cooperative framework for stability and security in the region. And the relationship must be purposeful, nimble and creative.

The elimination of nuclear weapons is a pre-condition for peace in the 21st century. This was the key message delivered by the Hon'ble Senator Douglas Roche, renowned campaigner for nuclear disarmament in his address to Indian experts at the ORF campus in New Delhi.

Bangladesh was one of the few countries in the world to sustain a positive economic growth rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, however, it is experiencing symptoms that could stall such impressive record: rising divergences in the government’s fiscal balance; the precarious Balance of Payments situation; rapidly declining foreign exchange reserves; demand-supply gaps in the energy markets; and inflationary tendencies. The exogenous shocks

Narendra Modi is a post-Partition Prime Minister who has no family history linking him directly to the event. This could work to his advantage if he chooses to take a less emotional and more logical approach to the Indo-Pak relationship.

The G20 must foster linkages between traditional financial institutions, first-generation Internet users and the informal sources of their livelihood.

Western-centric institutions are being challenged, and the buzz is only growing.

We really do not understand inflation stickiness in India since 2010. However, the silver lining is that oil prices may not rise any further following the shale gas revolution in the US. The Finance Minister can certainly do something about growth and possibly pray for lower inflation.

Since his assumption to power in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been slowly stretching the arm of the country’s foreign policy into Pacific waters in furtherance of the ‘Act East’ policy. While India’s relationship with the Pacific island states (read, not Australia and New Zealand) is quite unestablished, Modi is attempting to set the foundations for prosperous future cooperation. In the form of a guidebook for India on Pa

India must persist as future of South Asia is embedded in a firm Delhi-Dhaka engagement.

The Indian Himalayan Region, spanning 12 Indian states, has long been absent from the centre stage of Indian policy.