Search

The 'multiple identities' of the Tamil-speaking people in the country have suddenly acquired an urgent need for mutual understanding between the State and the citizen. There are contextualised circumstances, which may not provide for a yard-stick to measure 'national interests' or prioritise them.

Today, the Government(s) should not be looking into questions like 'Why Telangana?'. It has lost the luxury of thought process already. Instead, it should be looking at the when and how of it.

The trilateral maritime cooperation initiative by India, Maldives and Sri Lanka, and the Outcome Document signed recently by the NSAs of the three countries, has the potential for further improving naval ties in the shared Indian Ocean Neighbourhood.

The real objective of the historic Indo-US civil nuclear initiative was to end decades of alienation between the world's largest democracies and build a genuine strategic partnership. Delhi and Washington knew that there could be no real partnership without resolving differences on non-proliferation that had so severely poisoned the bilateral relations from the early 1970s.

9/11 and 11-M (11th March). Two traumatic experiences ---one for the Americans and the other for the Spanish.

Senior leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mr Satish Chandra Misra, has claimed that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) Ayodhya Yatra in Uttar Pradesh, supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is an attempt to communalise the political atmosphere in the State.

While enough has come out with regard to the 1971 India-Pakistan conflict, it is imperative to ensure that the humane side of 1971 is brought to the fore, though this may not have any bearing on policy making and future geo-political developments.

The 1971 Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation was probably the most seminal foreign policy arrangement entered into by India in the 20th century. It had a profound effect on the politics and geography of South Asia, cementing what many thought was the pre-eminence of India in the region

Because of the confusioni created by different agencies in calcuating the loss to the national exchequer caused by the 2-G scam, it is imperative that the exact figure and dimensions of the scam should be arrived at by an expert body.

The US is currently training various African economies on how to meet common value systems standards, and India along with other economies, needs to press for a more inclusive system where countries "pressurise on how to manage concerns and reach viable solutions."

While the year 2003 saw many acts of terrorism in South, South-East and West Asia, as well as in Chechnya in Russia, very few major acts of terrorism were reported from Central Asia. In fact, ever since the US-led coalition went into action against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Central Asian Republics (CARs) have remained largely free of major acts of terrorism

Twelve innocent civilians, 11 of them Indonesian nationals, were killed in an explosion on August 5, 2003, in the US-franchised JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta. The Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) was suspected. If the JI is ultimately established to have been responsible, it would be the second major post-9/11 terrorist strike organised by it

There has been no credible evidence so far of any mastermind having orchestrated the various serious acts of jihadi terrorism reported during 2003, whether from Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq or Turkey. The available evidence indicates that all these incidents were planned and executed by local elements, which share the pan-Islamic ideology of Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda and the International Islamic Front (IIF), b

While the United States suffered some strategic reverses, it has also made a few gains. It is not yet time to write off the United States of America.

The best thing we can say about 2012, from the nation's point of view, is that it has ended. We don't know what surprises Dr. Manmohan Singh will spring upon us in 2013? Till then ignorance is bliss.

The distinction between individual aspirations and a national dream is clear to the Chinese government where there are contradictions between the political system and the consumerism-driven economy, according to US university professor Dr. Tansen Sen.

Relations between India and Australia have reached a new maturity, based on deepening connections between their societies, economies, education sectors and policy establishments. This positions these two democracies well to work together to advance their interests in a shared Indo-Pacific region.

The focus on broadband expansion in the Union Budget is timely to take the IT revolution to the next level: social inclusion, e-commerce, media, and distance education for India?s small towns and rural pockets.

Here is a look at the 2014-15 Budget, presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, through a series of graphs on allocations to various key sectors from the time of the previous NDA government.

What India needs to understand is that legislation or institutions by themselves do not bring about social change. Countries of Europe or the United States, too, had a history of political corruption. But over the years they have cleaned up their act considerably because of popular sentiment, as well as institutions and laws.

The recently concluded NPT review conference ended without a consensus document. While there is need for the NPT member states to resolve their differences sooner rather than later, the impact of the absence of a final document need not be overstated.

The year 2015 is likely to be rosy for India. There is no more doomsday scenario awaiting the country on the economic front in the year. There will be problems but India will remain a global giant with its huge, mostly young, population, a big market and vast resources.

The bottom line assessment of the third Plenum of the 18th CCCPC is that the Plenum outcome keeps Chinese economic and political developments on an evolutionary path, rather than a revolutionary one. In other words, it has sought to tweak policies, rather than offer up a radical menu.

The 4th BRICS Academic Forum has urged Summit Leaders meeting later this month in New Delhi to consider studying the establishment of financial institutions such as a Development Bank and an Investment Fund that can assist in the development of BRICS and other developing countries.

The 5th BRICS Academic Forum, comprising experts and scholars from the research and academic institutions of India, China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa, met on the 11th and 12th of March 2013 in Durban and has come up with a 5-point recommendations.

The Eighth Review Conference( Revcon) of the Non Proliferation Treaty ( NPT) at New York narrowly eked out a victory from the jaws of defeat before its close on May 28, 2010.

The recent 19th AU Summit was dominated by the drama of the election for the post of the Chairman of the AU Commission. Many analysts feel that the fight for the post has divided the Continent and done a great deal of damage to African Unity.

Sooner than later, India will have to start evaluating its e-governance projects. And in the near future, the focus will shift to the outcomes of e-governance initiatives.

Earlier during his stint in office nearly 10 years back, Ranil Wickremesinghe had mooted the idea of building a bridge - literally - across the Palk Strait, linking his country to India. Now that he is back as prime minister and as part of a 'cohabitation arrangement' but through political consensus, unlike in the past, the two governments could consider reviving the proposal for mutual and greater benefits.

There were no big reforms and no major policy turnarounds in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. It was a budget of small and tentative steps to help steady the ship and laid the foundation for big reforms in the months ahead.

The UPA government has allowed the withering away of the Prime Minister's Office as the ultimate source of authority in policy-making. The latest developments on the Indo-Pak LoC demand that the Congress party focus urgently on revamping the defence establishment and reclaiming the PMO's authority to coordinate national security policy.

Strangely, in Maoist circles there is near nostalgia for Shivraj Patil

As Salman Khurshid pointed out to Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan has to demonstrate its bona fides by putting an end to the large number of incidents on the LoC.

That is the question that should be uppermost in the minds of analysts as they analyse the outcome of Pakistani President Gen.Pervez Musharraf's visit to India from April 16 to 18, 2005, and compare it with his first visit in 2001, which ended in a fiasco at Agra.

Rationing of gas makes the development of a unified gas market impossible. This means the prevalence of a dozen price levels confounding all - buyers and sellers, and investors on both sides. The spin-off leaves India struggling with the most poorly developed gas infrastructure.

Even as the debate on the Lokpal Bill hots up with the draft Lokpal Bill of the Government likely to come up before the Parliament during the ongoing session, we present below a shorter comparative analysis of the different Lokpal Bills.

This was not to be yet another budget speech. It came in the wake of a regime change where the electorate signaled its unhappiness with the direction of the country. Still, the FM came up with a modest Budget. But that is not the promise of the Modi government. The good days promised look far away.

The ruckus at WCIT is all about the cosy relationship between governments, big businesses and commerce and not about Internet freedom.

The Russia-China partnership has grown steadily in the past decade, driven by Moscow’s widening rift with the European Union. As Western markets closed to Russia in 2014, Beijing emerged as an economic partner, importing Russian energy, defence goods, metals and minerals, timber, and other natural resources and exporting manufactured goods, technology, and dual-use goods. The partnership reached new heights following Russia’s invasion of Ukra

George Perkovich is of the view that India is not a major power today though it definitely enjoys a substantial measure of autonomy. The essence of his argument can be summarised as follows:

The world is currently witnessing an increase in the prevalence of undernourishment as well as a rise in the incidence of overweight, obesity, and non-communicable diseases. Addressing issues of food security and nutrition would not be possible without adopting a food systems perspective—from farm to fork. Indeed, in 2021, countries developed national pathways to transforming food systems to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Developme

Modi's visit to Germany and France will give him an opportunity to discuss key political issues relating to Ukraine and the Middle-East. India is feeling the indirect impact of the Russian estrangement from Europe as this has led to closer strategic ties between Moscow and Beijing.

Advances in disruptive technologies have enabled scientists to engineer biological systems and create more efficient and sustainable products for a range of purposes. The convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) with biotechnology has contributed to the development of therapeutics and vaccines, helped address food security, aided in generating innovative processes to mitigate the effects of climate change, and expanded the bioeconomy. However,