Search

Elections will not be won or lost because of events in Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka could be lost because of our electoral politics. Our PM's absence in Colombo at this juncture is akin to a public snub to Sri Lanka and the vacuum that we create and show little intention or urgency to fill, can only be filled by one country - China.

New Delhi declared unequivocal support for “all peoples striving for decolonisation”, only to keep conspicuously quiet.

Terrorism in Chechnya has three major trajectories ' first, the terrorist campaign of the Chechens and others who are a part of the international terrorist network and who derive legitimacy from Islamic fundamentalism and whose fight is not just against the alleged oppression of the Russian state, but also to establish Islamic rule in Chechnya and to facilitate its integration with the pan-Islamic world.

India, like much of the rest of the world, is faced with the twin but opposing conditions of economic potential and social concerns that need to be negotiated to realise the digital dividends from artificial intelligence (AI) and achieve sustainable and balanced growth. AI systems involve layers of technological dependencies that necessitate and enable social and institutional interdependency between stakeholders, enabling conditions, and resourc

India will assume the presidency of the G20 in 2023. One of the key policy challenges for India and other member states is how to regulate the global digital economy. Once a fringe policy issue, the global digital economy is now central to the G20 agenda, with significant implications for individuals, corporations, and governments. Bilateral cooperation within the G20 system can provide additional resources and capability to any presidency, which

India will become a digital society. It is also deploying all the right pieces and infrastructure for a digital economy. The foundation for both will be the cloud ecosystem, which, however, needs to be protected through a robust policy and legal framework.

Social media’s impact on mainstream media, and the way people communicate with one another and disseminate information, has become a subject of serious study for journalists, academics and policymakers alike. While it has been a significant equaliser as a vehicle by which the fundamental right to freedom of expression is guaranteed everyone irrespective of class, creed or geography, these very same platforms are also becoming spaces where—in

People in smaller cities of India were more hopeful about the prospects of Digital India than the people in big cities which are traditionally thought of as 'tech savvy', according to a survey conducted by Observer Research Foundation.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, released the draft Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 (DPDP Rules) in early January this year and invited feedback by 5 March 2025. On 18 February 2025, MeitY organised a consultative session on the draft DPDP Rules; the event, held in New Delhi, was attended by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). Based on the consultative session and discussions wi

The Kashmir floods have exposed our communication faultlines. Why is there no disaster management plan in the case of a communication blackout? This is perhaps even more pertinent given that the remote corners of India, be they coastal, mountainous or otherwise, are not well connected to modern telecom networks.

E-commerce has made massive inroads in India’s retail sector: 220 million people are expected to shop online by 2025, and the industry is predicted to grow to INR 13,97,800 crore (US$200 billion) by 2027. Yet, about 90 percent of grocery retail trade in India are still driven by small-format traders and neighbourhood kirana (grocery) stores. The evolving retail scenario and changing consumer demands mean that these kirana stores must swiftly em

India has projected its soft power for centuries, long before the concept was even defined by political analysts. In the past decade, the country wielded its soft power in a more systematic way in the practice of diplomacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in power since 2014, is becoming known for his passionate use of India’s soft-power assets through both an effective media management strategy and an intelligent use of social media. This Brief

When Lang Lang, a resident of New York, was invited by the White House for a piano recital at the banquet for Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington DC on January 19, no one really bothered to check the music he would play.

The existing NOTA option is just symbolic because even if the majority of voters in a constituency detest the candidates, one of them will still be elected.

Despite the Chinese government's repeated stress on disaster reduction and regards it as an important factor to realise the overall goal of sustainable development, more needs to be done on disaster management and prevention.

This brief seeks to understand the importance of Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) initiatives in the Bay of Bengal undertaken by the BIMSTEC countries individually, and the dynamics of their collaboration as a subregional forum. It opens with an analysis of the turbulent nature of the Bay of Bengal, because of which disaster management gains paramount importance for the littoral states. The aim is to understand the BIMSTEC countries’

By curtailing the effectiveness of the Armed Forces Tribunals, the Government is destroying the military justice system which is a disservice to serving and retired personnel

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given enough reasons for President Pervez Musharraf to feel at ease. His unambiguous expression of not letting the peace process between the two countries flag should lay to rest speculations and allegations in Pakistan about India's commitment to peace in the region.

With the idea to dispel doubts about the India story abroad, Observer Research Foundation brought together the spokespersons of the two rival parties, the ruling Congress Party and the Opposition BJP, at a platform arranged by the US India Business Council (USIBC) in Washington on 18 September.

The contest between China and Japan over tiny islands, Senkaku in Tokyo and Diaoyu in Beijing, has brought the militaries of the two nations face to face on a routine basis. Japan and South Korea and Japan and Russia are also squabbling over small islets in the Sea of Japan.

Following the defeat of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the House of Councillors' election, Prime Minister Naoto Kan's position has become much weaker and looks very much similar to that of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007.

At the Annenberg summit, Xi Jinping, quite apparently, was signalling China's rise and preparing for a bigger role but are the US and the world ready for a lesser US role? Also is there a meaningful Annenberg Declaration that might be Asia's Yalta? Can Russia be ignored in this calculus?

It has taken the sweeping 'brand Modi' poll campaign to tell the Dravidian polity in southern Tamil Nadu that their forgotten, traditional political and electoral campaign was always right -- and that they better return to the grassroots.

Intentionally or otherwise, the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu seems to be conferring on the 'Sri Lankan Tamil issue' the place that the State's voters did not attach during the critical weeks of the parliamentary polls in May 2009.

Delhi must focus on realising the full potential of bilateral cooperation with both the US and China, instead of precluding beneficial bilateral engagement with one in the name of avoiding conflict with the other. The current policy of "doing nothing" and finding reasons for inaction will steadily reduce India's relevance for both Washington and Beijing.

The promises made by key parties in the Delhi elections are in conformity with the national trend of offering populist schemes. One thought political parties of this 'enlightened' metropolis, that was turned to an epicentre of the nation-wide anti-corruption stir and gave rise to political newbie AAP, would beat this trend and offer something better.

China may be growing at an astonishing pace and registering record earnings, but it is the complex financial system in America that has been utilising these earnings

Globalisation reduces commodities and perceptions to a common destiny. Thus a spectre that is haunting the west, of Muslim group identity, seems to have reached India too.

Indo-Pak relations appear to be on hold largely because of complications created by the Afghan situation. Part of the problem are Pakistani suspicions about Indian ambitions in Afghanistan. Former Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri believes there are misperceptions on both sides.

The moment finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a mere 4% nominal increase in defence budget pegged at Rs 1,47,344 crore for 2010-11, members of Indian strategic community started showing their frustrations.

The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) of Stanford University and the Observer Research Foundation, had co-sponsored a conference entitled "Does South Asia exist? - Prospects for Regionalism in South Asia." As the title suggests there was considerable and intense debate on this subject during the two-day conference.

Why is the Navy procuring three different helicopters to fulfil three ends of the same capability spectrum? The Navy would be better off with a single platform to leverage engine and systems commonality reducing costs in the form of maintenance, acquisition of spares and the training of pilots and maintenance crews.

Does the United Nations really matter when it comes to war and peace in the 21st century? To ask this question when long promised reform of the UN seems at hand ¿ the report of the High Level Panel appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan will be out on Thursday ¿ and India is stepping up its efforts to become a part of an expanded UN Security Council sounds heretical.

On the eve of the February 18 elections, no two people in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi were agreed on the certainty of elections taking place. Elections cannot take place, it was argued then, because the establishment will not risk an open-ended process which might produce inconvenient results. In the Pakistani context, the establishment has always meant the Army, the bureaucracy, big landlords and the United States.

Taking more and more titles and power may actually be a sign that Xi Jinping is not being able push through his policies in the way he wants.

With the IMF being viewed by developing countries with skepticism, the G8 unrepresentative of current global realities and the UN too large, the G20 has done well to fill the gap in an effective global governance model. And the effectiveness of the G20 as an international body would be greatly determined by the structure it chooses to pursue.

If the selection for MMRCA so far has shown emphases on technicalities, the final selection should primarily be based on more concrete benefits that either company offers. The final MMRCA award would also reflect the abilities of the MoD in processing such complex contracts in the future.

The outcome of the months-long stand-off at Doklam is likely thanks to India’s enormous tactical advantage in the region.

Across the globe, more than 730 million women report ever having experienced some form of gender-based violence; those in low- and lower-middle-income countries are disproportionately affected. In the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the incidence of violence suffered by women in the hands of their intimate partners, owing to heightened stresses of loss of livelihood, disruption of social and protective networks, a

India has many reasons to nurse a nuclear grievance against China. For, Beijing's decision to arm Pakistan with nuclear weapons has given Rawalpindi the impunity to pursue cross-border terrorism against India. But Delhi has no reason at all to blame Beijing for its own failures on the nuclear policy front.

To explain the causes of the present unsatisfactory situation many in India would argue that a self-absorbed India has neglected its neighbourhood

Welcome, American liberals. Welcome to the special torment of discovering that you do not know your country.