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There is an urgent need to accept the reality of cattle trade across the Indo-Bangladesh border and the challenge is to bring about a change in the mindset of people on this issue, according experts and former policy makers.

The Centre's Notification of the Cauvery Award should encourage Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to work with the Centre and the other two riparian stake-holders to revive the proposal to build an additional reservoir to store the excess waters, to be shared among them.

Chemical-Biological and Radiological (CBR) threats are being increasingly perceived as the new face of terrorism. The possibility of non-state actors employing non-conventional weapons using CBR materials.

Indian Vice-President Hamid Ansari's recent State visit, coming after the visit by another important Minister (for Commerce and Industry), Anand Sharma, to Bangladesh, has highlighted New Delhi'sefforts and sincerity at improving the burgeoning relationship with its neighbour even more.

There is a need to fix the BRICS, by altering growth strategies, reducing external dependence, securing domestic demand and investments, providing jobs to the unemployed, and aiming at lowering untenable inequality.

The BRICS is growing more relevant and increasingly institutionalised. Economic growth rates continue to outpace the rest of the developing world. According to the UNDP, Brazil, China and India's combined GDP will be greater than the combined GDP of the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany and Italy by 2020.

In two sets of visits to the Central Asian region in 2013 and 2014, Xi Jinping set a scorching pace for Modi to follow. Unfortunately for India, even a super-star Prime Minister cannot do the impossible. He lacks the vast investible resources that China has already deployed and is deploying in the region.

Days before the historic talks between the separatist amalgam, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference under the leadership of Maulana Ansari, and the Government of India, there is widespread speculation as to the outcome of the same. After all this is the first time

The labour laws certainly represent a small step but the introduction of even small reforms in labour legislations was long awaited to keep at bay the rising discontent among domestic as well as foreign entrepreneurs from India's manufacturing sector.

While the debate on federalism is likely to continue before a consensus can be arrived at for amending the Constitution to strike a fresh balance between the States and Centre, it is worthwhile to explore possibilities for pushing the developmental agenda meant essentially for the people.

India's ability to successfully execute a 10-year agreement on the Chabahar port showcases New Delhi's continuing ability to manoeuvre in a geopolitically fragmented world.

The geopolitics around India’s play in Chabahar and Iran’s leverages are interesting

There is need for greater transparency in the Free Trade Agreement negotiations. There could be more information sharing with civil society groups and the general public so that the content of the negotiations would get public approval faster, making it easier to conclude the FTA.

New Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, known for his low profile political career, is now being called upon to manage his party (Democratic Party of Japan) that is driven more by internal power struggle than policies per se.

The new RBI Governor would have to restore the confidence of foreign investors in the economy's growth potential. Foreign investments are needed for infrastructure and industry. The Governor will also have to attract more FIIs. The choice before him would be: whether to control inflation or to promote growth.

When Dr. Hassan Rouhani takes charge as the new President of the Iranian republic on 4th August 2013, there are two most important challenges before him -- the mismanaged economy and the intractable nuclear negotiations that seem to have hit a road block.

The changing world order in the post cold war era has heralded the rise of economic globalization which has been dominated by the desire for symbiotic cooperation and economic intercourse between states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's problem is the sheer scale of the challenges he confronts. He has to juggle several balls at the same time, and though he may vary the juggling routine, he cannot afford to let any of the balls drop.

Any border settlement between India and China will be unsettling for important constituencies in both countries. If Modi has to get an agreement through Parliament and, before that, the Sangh Parivar, Xi needs to take his Politburo, if not his Central Committee with him. Both know that they can only do it now when they are at the height of their powers.

By sacking three crucial ministers, proroguing Parliament and telling the nation that she was ¿willing to discuss with the LTTE, a just and balanced solution within the parameters of unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka¿, President Chandrika Kumaratunga may have precipitated a politico-constitutional crisis with far-reaching consequences.

In an email interview with ORF Pakistan Studies Programme, well-known expert Hassan Abbas discussed a variety of issues about Pakistan. Dr Abbas, a fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government,

The emancipation of the Dalit is an even more recent phenomenon in North India. Hence the inability to stomach any comical casting of the solitary Dalit icon, B.R. Ambedkar.

The electoral system of India has flaws and there is an 'anti-democratic conspiracy of silence' to hide it, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Mr. Salman Khurshid said during a talk on 'Has the Indian Electoral System Failed?' organized by the ORF Mumbai chapter of Observer Research Foundation on January 24,

Under the 2008 Constitution, President Nasheed is to be succeeded by Vice-President Mohammed Waheed Hassan, who would complete the remaining two-and-half years of the presidency, until elections in October 2013.

While mandating CSR operations for large companies was a more justifiable social policy programme by the UPA-II than others, some of its provisions and recommendations reflect a lack of understanding of the Indian social and economic environment and of the real needs on the ground.

There has been a relative decline in the far reaching capabilities of the US

Though the recent Assembly polls in Bihar witnessed developmental agenda replacing caste and related equations, the power structure is yet to change at the societal level. There only the rich and influential mattered, with caste playing a dominant role, based on individual regions.

The Afghan-Pakistani region is in transition and the changing geo-political realities will have new implications, says Kamran Bokhari, Vice President of Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs at Stratfor. He says old paradigms cannot be used to gauge new realities.

It is not only President Obama who feels boxed in by the Lindsay Grahams and John McCains of his country but Rouhani too has formidable set of foes to fight, before either can climb down from his stated position. Not everyone in Iran wants his President to negotiate the country out of its present misery.

The ¿Mother¿s Day¿ on Sunday, May 8, and the ¿Akshaya Tritiya¿, or Akha Teej¿, falling on Wednesday, May 11 this year, may have marked a further turning-point in the traditional Dravidian mores. It had witnessed a revival and the peak through the 20th century Tamil Nadu, but evolving circumstances had begun rendering it inconsistent, redundant and irrelevant to the times in the last quarter.

Over the last few decades, particularly after the end of cold war, a distinctive feature of the strategic and security related environment has been the unprecedented and sheer dynamics of change in the concepts, paradigms and complexities of national, regional and global security.

Last fortnight's India-China joint naval exercise, however limited, may be a new opening in bilateral relations. Coupled with the politico-economic CBMs of the past years, the Shanghai naval exercise is an indication that both nations are learning to overcome the bitter past.

Traditionally, a newly elected South Korean President visits Washington first, followed by Tokyo. But the new President Park Geun-hye, as expected, did visit Washington first in May, but followed it up by a visit to Beijing and not to Tokyo. This is interpreted this to speculate that China has taken precedence over Japan in Seoul's diplomatic calculations.

During the past couple of weeks, Nepal Maoist chief Prachanda has given three significant interviews. He carefully picked up three influential and understanding media channels, ¿ Kantipur in Nepal, The Hindu in India and the BBC of London ¿ to send a strong message across to Nepal, India and the international community respectively.

India will likely struggle to achieve the SDGs for financial reasons. At present, a shocking 2-3 per cent of Indians pay taxes. Mobilising domestic finance ? including optimal tax collection reform ? can help supplement the traditional sources of aid.

Iran's cancellation of $500 million funding to Pakistan for the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline indicates Iran's clout in regional energy affairs. It is unclear why Iran took this sudden step. Is President Rouhani merely fine-tuning some of the policies of his predecessor? But there is certainly more to this than meets the eye.

President Pervez Musharraf has a number of reasons to be unhappy with India. It took only a few hours for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to dismiss the General's seemingly well-crafted and cleverly worded war-game plans for Greater Kashmir. The General's idea was simple.

Chennai may have lost out on the petroleum, petro-chemicals, pharmaceutical, and biotech fields, but it still remains the home-base of several solid market leaders from myriad industries.

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

The George Bush visit was a giant step forward for Indo-US relations and India was elated to be part of the Big League. Now that he has gone, the Left protests turned out to be only that much bushfire and the euphoria of the visit has evaporated somewhat, it is time to evaluate just what this winwin situation might mean.

India-Bangladesh relations got a major boost following Home Minister P Chidambaram's visit to Dhaka in July this year. The visit, described by Chidambaram as constructive, infused optimism about the resolution of some of the bilateral issues like border during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's scheduled visit to India in September this year.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) witnessed the beginning of a new era - Hu Jintao era, when the sixty one year fourth generation leader was elected to the post of Chairman of the Central Military Commission(CMC) during the Fourth Plenum of the 16th Chinese Communist Party(CCP) Central Committee (Beijing, September 16-19