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The controversy over the proposed single entrance examination for all engineering studies, including those at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), has brought serious issues into the open.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was sworn-in on May 26, has completed 100 days in power.

A battered UPA-II, battling to shrug off the 'policy paralysis' tag, appears to be regaining confidence after it managed to get its presidential and vice-presidential candidates elected.

Are national parties on decline? Can a non-Congress, non-BJP coalition come to power in New Delhi after the next General Elections due in 2014? Or even before, if a political crisis or coalition-accident leads to mid-term elections?

India may well be considered a middle power aspiring to be a great power of global importance. India¿s ruling class has successfully shrugged off its initial aversion to perceive power as a category having a place of its own outside the ideological fortress of morality.

Author and economic analyst M.R. Venkatesh says the controversies and court cases relating to the 2-G scam might have impeded FDI inflow. It shows that even agreements made with the Government in India are not fool-proof, he argues.

Prof. S.D. Muni, a Sri Lankan expert, says that it was unlikely that the 13th Amendment would be implemented, but the spirit of the amendment, i.e., accommodation, would play a much larger role relative to Rajapaksa's rule.

Maritime security concerns of nations, big and small, are for real. Livelihood issues too are for real. Neither can be compromised in the face of the other.

A host of issues that were crucial to the interests of developing countries, and to a large extent India's, were off the table at Bali. For instance, rich country farm subsidies. The US has still not budged from its position vis-à-vis farm subsidies, despite years of push from poor countries, including in Africa.

The Manmohan Singh government will sponsor a $5.4-billion policy to provide free generic drugs - a decision that could change the healthcare woes in India for millions of poor people.

Not recruiting from civilian and scientific talent pools risks a ‘failure of imagination’, hindering India’s ability to pre-empt previously unanticipated dangers.

This article makes a case for increased engagement of India’s scholars of international relations (IR), especially of the theoretical variety, with the global IR community. While India has increasingly been integrating itself in global economic and political orders, its IR scholarship is yet to become truly global. This article outlines the structural and domestic-level causes for the relative absence of theoretical IR works in India while argu

Indian investments in Africa, from both public and private sector entities, have increased considerably in the last decade. Yet despite the growing importance of Indian investments in Africa, only a few empirical studies have been carried out on the subject. This paper undertakes a disaggregated analysis of Indian foreign direct investment outflows to Africa from 2008 to 2016, and presents three main findings. First, it confirms earlier analyses

Perth hosted the second edition of the Indian Ocean Dialogue from September 5-7. Eighty-seven officials and representatives from think tanks and civil societies participated in the proceedings. The dialogue concluded with the release of the Perth Consensus.

Observer Research Foundation, with support from the Ministry of External Affairs, hosted the Indian Ocean Dialogue 2014. The event witnessed participation of delegates from the far corners of the Indian Ocean and beyond, capturing the vastness and diversity of the region.

Contemporary seabed warfare in Europe should be viewed as a warning for Indian Ocean littoral states, especially sophisticated regional maritime powers such as India and Australia. The Ukraine–Russia conflict has brought seabed warfare to the fore, as seabed critical infrastructure is once again the target of international conflict. This brief surveys European seabed warfare developments since 2021, how various European actors are responding, a

A decade and more after the ¿reforms regimen¿ caused a rethink of the ¿national agenda¿, the Indian polity may be at the crossroads again. If cascading fiscal compulsion was behind the earlier re-think, this time round it has more to do with the evolving polity and ageing personalities.

While Non-Congress parties spare no opportunity to accuse the Congress Party of psychophancy and a feudal culture, regional parties are not far behind. In fact, they have perfected the art of dynastic politics, beating the Congress Party.

India was among the few governments that did not sign the NETmundial outcome statement. It certainly seems that the weight and development of a billion people sits heavy on the shoulders of the government. The question is: does it need to lead them to the world wide web, or can they find it themselves?

The Indian subcontinent could be hit by water shortages in few years as increasing populations and growing development demands are placing tremendous pressure on the Indus Basin, according a recently released report, on Indus Basin

UK's Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai, Mr Bharat Joshi, has said that Indian investments in the UK have created over 5000 jobs while UK investments in Chennai alone have generated several thousands.

Instead, on Sunday, US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad left Qatar, where the US-Taliban talks were being held, the September 1 deadline having been crossed without any final agreement.

The Gorkhas, a Nepali military community, have long been recruited by the Indian Army into its Gorkha regiments. Gorkha youth are keen to join the Indian Army since its perks and payments are superior to those of the Nepali Army. However, India's new short-term military enlistment scheme, Agnipath, could alter this association. This brief discusses the impacts of the Agnipath scheme on military labour migration from Nepal to India, and on

Anulekha Nandi, Basu Chandola, Anirban Sarma, Eds., India’s AI Imperative Building National Competencies in a New World Order, January 2025, Observer Research Foundation.

This paper examines India’s role, and stakes, in the so-called ‘Arctic Paradox’: As the Arctic region witnesses an unprecedented rate of ice-melt because of global warming, new routes are being opened, paving the way for untapped hydrocarbon and mineral resources to be exploited. While India has been active in the Arctic for over ten years, it has not fully made use of its Observer status, and it must give new energy to its activities in th

In the face of geopolitical turmoil and a Chinese exit, India must negotiate its Indo-Pacific trade ties with caution

The deep-seated contradictions among member states on regional security and terrorism, combined with growing Chinese influence, have compelled New Delhi to perform a strategic balancing act.

While China currently enjoys enormous power in the Indo-Pacific region, a more assertive India could potentially challenge this status quo.

For Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus — targeting India is the best way to ensure their centrality.

With the advent of globalisation and increased interconnectivity, it has become less difficult for offenders in India to escape to foreign jurisdictions and avoid prosecution in the country. The importance of extraditing fugitives and bringing them before Indian courts cannot be stressed enough. Apart from providing timely justice and grievance redressal, it also serves as a deterrent against potential fugitives. However, India’s success rate i

Nuclear cooperation has brought a new dimension to India’s diplomacy in the 21st century. India’s status as a responsible nuclear power is predicated upon the civil relationships in the nuclear domain that it has established with major powers. This, despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and operating outside the ambit of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. This brief analyses the impact of key agreements with different count

India has a role to play in global climate diplomacy, with its large population, fast-growing economy, and vulnerabilities to the consequences of climate change. Utilising a review of existing literature, this brief evaluates the country’s involvement in international climate forums in the past decade, its negotiation strategies and policy coherence, and their effectiveness. It finds that India’s strategy for climate diplomacy has aimed for a

There are calls for India to declare a net-zero year and offset its carbon emissions by various processes of absorption and removal of greenhouse gases. For India, such calls are irrational; despite international pressure, it has avoided making pledges or setting hard targets beyond its commitments at the Paris climate conference in 2015. This brief argues that “net zero” is not possible with India’s current levels of reliance on coal. Its

Myanmar, which shares a border with four of India’s north-eastern states—Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, and Nagaland—is crucial to the country’s ‘Act East’ policy. India has a number of projects with Myanmar in the pipeline, seeking to improve physical connectivity through transport links, which in turn can assist in both countries’ development goals. Since the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, the country has been

Budget woes are unlikely to ease. The Chief of Defence Staff and the Army leadership are likely come under pressure to seriously think about downsizing the Army.

In the past decade, India has successfully demonstrated the three pillars of effective deterrence—capability, credibility, and communication—in its strategic posture towards China. It has bolstered its defence diplomacy with key partners in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and across the broader Indo-Pacific region, through regular joint military exercises, military officers exchange programmes, frequent high-level diplomatic visits, and the co

Maldivian President Yameen Abdullah Gayoom’s rejection of the Supreme Court’s decision to release the jailed opposition leaders to ensure a free and fair presidential elections later this year has brought to head the country’s brewing estrangement with its traditional ally, India. India faces a dilemma: How must it deal with the situation in Maldives? This report examines India’s options in the context of China’s expanding power in the

The United States (US)-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally altered global trade patterns, revealing critical supply chain vulnerabilities. US tariffs pushed companies to shift manufacturing to more favourable locations, accelerating “friendshoring” to countries like India and Vietnam. The “China plus one” strategy has bolstered domestic manufacturing and attracted foreign investment through Production Linked Incentive

The virus is only going to make a growth slowdown caused by declining investment even worse.

India’s attempts at strengthening its intelligence infrastructure and capabilities have historically been reactive and incremental, rather than holistic and sustainable. This was seen, for instance, in the aftermath of the Kargil War, and following the terror attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. India has rarely undertaken proactive reforms and done little to implement corrective measures subsequent to these crises. This brief offers recommendat

This brief examines the silent “water war” being waged in India in the form of conflicts over two opposing paradigms in water governance: the reductionist, colonial engineering paradigm, and the emerging, holistic paradigm of integrated water governance. The brief highlights the paradigm debate at the global scale, and outlines the canons of the integrated approach, contrasting it with the reductionist approach using examples in India. It mak

Energy transitions in developing economies like India are complex processes involving substantial financial and technological resources as well as appropriate innovation. These transitions are central to the climate debate, where emphasis is placed on increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change. This paper examines the historical attributes of energy transition and finds various critical