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Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal on Sunday stepped down from his post, a day after his self-imposed deadline to resign ended on Saturday, August 13. He admitted to have failed in bringing major political parties on-board to advance the peace process.

Why has Modi chosen to be India's first prime minister to visit Mongolia? Mongolia is indeed a very sensitive neighbour of China, and the investment of the PM's time in Mongolia seems worthwhile. To be sure, there has been a geopolitical dimension to India's engagement with Mongolia.

Given the ground realities - where China's power exceeds ours by orders of magnitude - we need allies. That is where relationships with the US, Japan, ASEAN and Australia come in.

Prime Minister Modi has come to symbolise an aspirational India who has been chosen as "an agent of change rather than continuity." Experts think it is unfair to judge him in such a short time. His success depends on whether the rhetoric of the elections would translate into governance.

The rise of Narendra Modi from the Gujarat chief ministerial chair to that of the prime minister of the world's largest democracy within a short period of 18 months as a phenomenon is being studied, analysed and written about across the world but there is more to come.

Modi's strategy to navigate the impossible trinity of US, China and Europe-Russia is clear. Engage with the US, Japan and Germany aggressively and integrate into their value chains. Keep expectations low but exchange lofty targets with the Chinese and the Russians.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun yet another important foreign visit, this time to all the five Central Asian republics. It is a well-timed visit. India cannot possibly replace or compete with China and Russia, but it can definitely improve its visibility in the region and provide much needed room for strategic manoeuvrability.

Posturing for domestic audiences on Pakistan in election year is easy. But dealing with the challenges emanating from an increasingly unstable Pakistan will not be. And if we don't draw the right lessons from Manmohan Singh's failures, there will be no end to the tragedy of India's Pakistan policy.

Dr. Manmohan Singh's recent successful visit to Japan and his sixth annual summit meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister formed one more significant milestone on the road to strengthening and consolidating India's partnership with Japan.

As Manmohan Singh meets Myanmar's President in the sidelines of the Bimstec summit, this will give an opportunity for the two leaders to further deepen bilateral ties. As part of the two neighbours growing relations, a border security pact is expected to be signed during Dr Singh's visit.

India has to be realistic enough to understand that heightened engagement between India and China in BRICS or any other multilateral fora has serious limitations - limitations imposed by the underlying Chinese objective of keeping India bogged down in South Asia as a regional power.

Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, has made an impressive case for "economic statesmanship" which he said would ensure inclusive growth and stability in India as well as globally.

To stop the coronavirus, the government will have to be there for its people in unprecedented ways.

To convert Modi's vision of more governance and less government into a quantifiable experience requires a change in the prevailing mindset of electronic governance as an exclusive issue of hardware and connectivity. The approach has to be reoriented towards intelligence, analytics, real-time data points, interlinked cross-tabulation and smart solutions.

PMJAY योजनेने तमिळनाडूमध्ये अपेक्षेपेक्षा जास्त यश मिळविले. तथापि, प्रभावी नफा असूनही, काही आरोग्य सेवा आव्हाने अजूनही आहेत.

The composite dialogue between India and Pakistan has reached a critical juncture. In the past 20 months, there have been countless discussions on a variety of issues that have been plaguing the relationship between the two neighbours.

Starting with the challenges faced by Indian petroleum sector in its hydrocarbon discoveries, the scenario remains to be unimpressive even after nine rounds of NELP bidding. Out of sedimentary basin area of 3.14 million km2 only 22 per cent has been well explored, while similar percentage is poorly explored.

Recent years have highlighted the global headwinds against China's increasingly aggressive moves in the Indo-Pacific region. Vulnerabilities associated with an overdependence on the country for several critical goods, including electronics, have exacerbated prevailing anti-China sentiments. This has provided the impetus for diversifying electronics supply chains, an opportunity India is well positioned to leverage. This brief assesses Ind

This paper examines the various constraints faced by India’s small and marginal farmers, which severely affect the productivity of their lands, and thus their incomes. These obstacles cover the gamut of farming activities, from production to storage, and accessing markets. A recent government survey has said that four of every ten of the country’s farmers disliked farming, and would prefer another occupation if given a choice. While the gover

This brief assesses the recent trends in India’s defence exports and analyses the institutional and policy frameworks that have enabled a change in the country’s approach towards defence exports, resulting in an upward trajectory. It offers specific policy recommendations to allow India to pursue its target of US$5 billion in defence export revenue. However, a discussion on the types and forms of weapons, platforms, systems, or sub-systems ex

Government agencies at the city, state and central level are paying greater attention to sustainable transport as the way forward for India’s mobility sector. However, for sustainability measures to have lasting outcomes in policy and practice, institutional reforms are urgently needed. The National Urban Transport Policy, which governs India’s urban mobility policymaking, was amended in 2014 to create city-specific, low-carbon mobility solut

It is easy to be cynical about the elections in Iran to choose a new president. After all, the elected president does not dominate Iran's complex political system. That privilege belongs to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This does necessarily mean the current elections are inconsequential.

Thailand is one of the few developing countries in the world that have successfully implemented Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Beginning three decades ago, Thailand’s UHC first covered the poor, then the near-poor, the formal sector employees, and the children and the elderly, through various publicly funded and contributory schemes until it reached 71 percent of the entire population in 2000. The government elected in 2001 implemented full-p

सवाल उठता है कि क्‍या ट्रस की माफी के बाद ब्रिटेन में राजनीतिक संकट खत्‍म हो गया है. ट्रस की मांफी मांगने के पीछे बड़ी वजह क्‍या है. कंजर्वेटिव पार्टी की क्‍या दुविधा है. क्‍�

Brigadier V R P Sarathy (retd) initiated a discussion on Political Developments in Pakistan and Impact on India on Saturday 22, 2007 in ORF Chennai. He started his discussion on Pakistan's political development with Stephen P. Cohen's words: 'Pakistan is cursed by history but blessed by geography - always at the right place at the wrong time'.

The BJP, which benefited the most from the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi temple dispute catapulting it to power in 1998, would be faced with a serious dilemma in either case of the two possible judgments of the Allahabad High Court on September 24.

There has been a large degree of unpredictability with which political movements have gained weight in the region, making providing humanitarian aid to affected areas very difficult, according to the chief of the International Committee of Red Cross.

Cauvery water-sharing problem requires a political solution driven by consensus among politicians, civil society & people of the two states-an event report

Although mired in a state of conflict for the past two decades, the year 2011 has turned out to be particularly bad for Somalia. The United Nations declared famine in regions of Bakool and Lower Shabelle on July 20.

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, announced on November 14, 2003 that the forthcoming mid-term elections to the State Legislature would be fought on the issue of ¿crushing¿ the Naxalites. He declared in Hyderabad, in the presence of the national media, that Naxalite violence was hampering development and progress in the State.

Delhi must pay close attention to several pioneering initiatives undertaken by a number of Indian states to address service delivery challenges.

For a person who knows his business economics well, the Railway Minister obviously realises that he will need money to make that happen. That is why his speech contained so many references to the need for budgetary support from the government.

With the decisive verdicts in these Assembly elections, and more Assembly elections slated in Uttar Pradesh and a host of others States before 2014 general elections, the voter has put Governments and leaders on notice, when it comes to performance and accountability.

The Electric Vehicle (EV) segment in India has gathered momentum in recent years, but a mismatch in intent and action has resulted in limited on-ground adoption of EVs. However, the expected growth of the automobile sector (especially in the personal-mobility space), due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and people’s increased understanding of vehicular emissions, creates immense scope for the exponential growth of the EVs industry in India. Ess

Prof. Feng Zhongping, Vice President of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, feels that US's rebalancing strategy in Asia is not entirely designed to contain China but also based on economic considerations.

At an Interaction of the ORF Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation on 5 January 2008, Mr K J M Varma, until recently the Special Correspondent of the Press Trust of India (PTI) at Islamabad, spoke on 'Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto'

Uncertainty in financial arrangements is crippling and its trauma lingers. The good news is that this sell off is temporary. Stock markets are now back to where they were just two weeks ago.

Attention has to be focussed on Saudi Arabia as it enters a period of transition and uncertainty in the wake of reports about a deterioration in the health of King Fahd, who has been admitted in hospital. In the absence of authentic reports on his health, rumours are rife that his end may be near.

As Rwanda commemorates 1994 genocide, now it has become a global example of successful post-conflict reconstruction. A talk at ORF by Rwandan High Commissioner Ernest Rwamucyo focussed on post-genocide Rwanda's unique story where ownership and innovative "home-grown solutions" helped re-construct the nation.

What are India's options to make Space Based Solar Power a real viable option given the cost factor and technology? Can the governments and the private sectors of both India and the US make serious commitments to take the first step towards R&D investment on SBSP?

It is high time that enlightened Pakistanis realize that the real threat to the existence of the Pakistani state comes from their own army which has usurped authority due to debilitated political institutions and geo-political concerns of western powers.

This paper examines the pre-pandemic slowdown, and subsequent contraction, in Indian economy. Utilising an analysis of broad macroeconomic and sectoral fundamentals, the paper argues that a notable lack of consumption and investment demand had already persisted before the pandemic; COVID-19 heightened those trends. Henceforth, India’s economic revival will be crucially dependent on demand generation by direct government fiscal intervention. The