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Washington needs to understand that India-US partnership is not about democracy or common values but about common interests. The real strategic glue in the relationship is the common concern in maintaining some sort of balance in the larger Asian region in the context of China's rise.

With the nuclear deal over, New Delhi and Washington need another big idea to power the bilateral relationship over the next several years. Space cooperation has the potential for being that next big idea.

The US-India Strategic Dialogue appears to have produced no big ideas for carrying forward the relationship. Both countries need to be more innovative and visionary, and identify cutting edge areas to cooperate - like space.

It is time for the India-US security partnership to be more than a Voldemort -that whose name shall not be spoken. India is capable enough to secure its interests within such a partnership. The trade relationship will always be contentious, that much is clear.

The US needs Pakistan to withdraw from Afghanistan and Pakistan needs all the money it can get. Pakistan also dreads that if the US leaves without helping Pakistan get what it wants from the Indians now, which is a concession on Kashmir, they will never have another chance.

India has significant interests in the Persian Gulf region, but it appears to have dealt itself out of the game by tamely skewing its Middle East policy in favour of the informal US-Saudi Arabia-Israel coalition. Iran was given short shrift as New Delhi went along with Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ policy on Iran. New Delhi’s motives may have been practical.

B. Raman, former head of the counter-terrorism division of India's external intelligence agency, suggested that India should continue the peace process with Pakistan and should not get involved in this matter involving the US and Pakistan. He said New Delhi should not pressure Islamabad further in Pakistan's hour of 'humiliation'.

Cross-border payment is one part of the banking sector that has yet to benefit from recent progress in digitalisation. Most international transactions are still processed using a 600-year-old correspondent banking system devised by the Medici.[1] However, this system of manual entry of transactions is not a scalable solution for the burgeoning digital payments space. While this may seem like an issue for institutions, a huge segment of the popul

The China factor has steadied the two nations’ strategic partnership, despite their differences of opinion on other matters.

Indian Army Vision 2020, the new publication of Observer Research Foundation, was released in Delhi on Tuesday (April 29, 2008) by the Vice President of India, Mr. Mohammed Hamid Ansari.

The India-U.S. Joint Vision and the mention of the South China Sea is India's strategic response to the growing Chinese naval profile in the Indian Ocean Region. In this context, US outreach to Vietnam and India's Act East policy are symbolic of India-U.S. cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

The "Pakistan" thesis doesn’t hold water because no other country can be so self-destructive as Pakistan is in its rivalry with India.

The string of financial fraud and chicanery that we have faced over decades has made the innocent suffer the most. We must make sure that public sector institutions are no longer the private entitlement of politicians.

It is highly likely that the voices from within Pakistan that want greater cooperation with India and greater economic integration with the South Asian region in general will be marginalised.

This Paper examines the evolution of India and Indonesia's military strategic mindset, from inward-looking powers to budding naval powers. It asserts that the two countries will have "no choice but to cast aside the antiquated aspects of non-alignment and move toward a more pragmatic approach to foreign policy, based on multilateralism."

Aircraft carriers for India have been somewhat of a waiting for Godot. By the time the elusive Vikramaditya joins the Indian fleet, India's lone and ageing Viraat would have completed nearly 60 years of service and reached the stage to retire.

Some two years into the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi paid a short visit to India last week.

If India continues to act rigid, it will result in the failure of the Doha round and bring misfortunes for small countries and tragic outcomes for all the members of WTO. India shouldn't get carried away and link its food security and subsidy issues to the Trade Facilitation deal

India is keen to join the world's export control regimes, all four of them including the Wassenaar Arrangement, as part of its efforts at integrating with the global non-proliferation architecture. While the Wassenaar Arrangement's predecessor, the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls, was established to control transfers of advanced dual-use technology in the North-South and East-West context, the Arrangement's objectives have

The seminar held in ORF Delhi called for a paradigm shift in understanding the various dimensions of the water crisis facing India

The demand for basic infrastructure and services in Indian cities has increased phenomenally due to rapidly growing populations. Such unmet demands often adversely affect the quality of urban life, the economic productivity, as well as the process of sustainable development. The main purpose of this brief is to highlight the problems involved in improving access to water supply in Indian cities faced with a severe water shortage crisis. A case st

This paper highlights the importance of water valuation and pricing for sustainable and efficient water allocation and management in India. An efficient water-pricing mechanism could be a tool to address the impending crisis of water scarcity, which necessitates a robust, objective, and holistic valuation technique. Every unit of water consumed for economic purposes has an ecological footprint, and this opportunity cost or externality factor need

Could there exist identifiable ways of thinking that are distinctive to the Indian and Chinese psyches, and if so, what might the implications reveal? Could they throw light on some frequently asked questions like: What explains the Chinese prowess in infrastructure and manufacturing? Will China ever become a democracy? Will China and India be friends? The author ponders on these questions, revealing some fascinating insights that could pave the

The need of the hour is to double down on defence reforms with strategic foresight.

Given its continent-like diversity, India’s epidemiological, nutritional, and demographic transitions are occurring in a staggered fashion, with high state-level variances. In many parts of the country, high rates of undernutrition co-exist with equally high and increasing rates of overweight and obesity. Further, the incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as a leading cause of mortality is increasing, even as the communicable, maternal,

Parrikar's statement on the changing the nuclear policy and re-calibrating it to keep up with the changing times has opened a Pandora's box.

Eight million Indians work in the region and send over $50 billion in remittances. This will change

Prolonged turmoil in the West Asia region could result in rising oil prices and interruption in India's trade with the region valued at $120 billion a year. India should have contingency plans in place to deal with unforeseeable consequences of a spreading conflagration.

At a time when India is struggling to establish itself as a global power, the position taken by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee on the sharing of waters with Bangladesh will only help strengthen the anti-India rhetoric in the neighbouring country.

Unfortunately countries like ours, generally content with being passive recipients of Western media, do not realize that it is the west which always ends up choosing the enemy (or friend) for us.

If the 20th CCP meet, which began on Sunday, enhances Xi Jinping’s power, it would reinforce trends associated with his tenure: Assertiveness abroad, no compromises on boundary issues, and a willingness to use the military as an instrument of policy

India has seen this movie before and it does not have a happy ending. As the idea of a nuclear deal between the United States and Pakistan gains some traction in Washington, Delhi is unlikely to lose much sleep.

Studies done in ORF estimate that even with everything in our favour, India will be hard put to exceed a thermal coal based capacity beyond 300 GW. In such a scenario, how do we better harness our oil and gas potential and fulfill the great promise that lies hidden in our vast unexplored acreages.

In January 2019 employees of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) in Mumbai held an eight-day strike to demand, among others, higher wages. The strike affected nearly three million daily commuters in India’s financial capital. It also highlighted the crises that have crippled Mumbai’s municipal public transport service for years: after the cross-subsidies from the electric supply division of BEST to its public transport ar

In any case, given that the elections have become controversial even before a single vote has been cast means that the legitimacy of the next government, especially one led by Imran, will be constantly questioned and challenged.

DEWs are yet to be deployed by any country’s military, but are widely seen as a critical part of future warfare.

There is a need for better coordination and cooperation among the armed forces of the two neighbouring countries...

A closer look at a recent interaction between the two sides.

A closer look at what the recent trip meant for bilateral ties between Seoul and New Delhi.

The Observer Research Foundation, CRM held a focus group meeting on the topic 'What do falling Crude Prices mean for India's Fiscal Deficit?' on February 9, 2007. Shri S C Tripathi, former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, chaired the discussions.

This new mini-lateral grouping of the US and three of its allies could coordinate actions with the Quad for regional stability

If India is not celebrating too much, it is because India has not been able to get membership in the group that New Delhi covets most — the NSG.