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Libya's future looks uncertain. The no-fly zone may not be enough to unseat Gaddafi. If Gaddafi survives and maintains his hold over Tripolitania, the world may have to contend with his wrath and a potential rogue state, uncomfortably close to Europe.

New aircraft carrier Vikramaditya will undoubtedly have a major role to play as force multipliers and strategic game changers in the region, but as a ship without even the basic defences against air borne threats, it will be extremely vulnerable, obviating its usage to its potential to the maximum.

While Ms. Sitharaman’s flip-flops have seriously damaged the credibility of the Central Government, sadly the wishy-washy comments of the Northern Army Commander, as well as the lack of any public statement from the Army Chief in support of his troops, has not helped matters.

For over a year, China is running a huge anti-corruption campaign. More than 1,82,000 officials have been punished, including high ranking military officials, four national leaders and senior executives of state companies. However, this type of arbitrary and high-handed posture could backfire and become a catalyst for political crisis if it continues in the present way.

The 9th India-Japan bilateral is taking place in New Delhi this week-end. PM Abe is reaching Delhi on December 11. Two of the main issues that need to be resolved to take the partnership to new heights are the civil nuclear agreement and the supply of Japan's indigenously made US2 amphibious aircraft to India. Will Abe and Modi be able to achieve this?

The end of INF will have strategic implications well beyond Russia and the United States.

With Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif making common cause in opposing Pervez Musharraf, democracy is back in reckoning in Pakistan. Will democracy return to Pakistan? This is the question which is being raised both within Pakistan and outside, especially after two former Prime Ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, decided to bury their hatchets, sit across a table in a London hotel and agree on a Charter of Democracy last month.

The rise in the price of food grains may be cushioned by the enormous stocks held by the government's FCI godowns. But higher vegetable, fruits, eggs, fish and meat prices will contribute to food inflation as they have done in the past.

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has a fairly heavy political agenda before him. The foremost is his firm resolve to introduce constitutional reforms. If he wins the December 14 elections, Abe would have bright chances to win another term as the LDP president in September next year and stay at the helm for three more years.

New Delhi is correct to be cautious about the effects of the Masood Azhar listings.

His imprint on trade, security and Asia policy will last. His influence on immigration, climate change may not

Udan — the new regional air connectivity scheme will correct the historical wrong done to the air transport business in India

The arrival of the French in Mali could well be the beginning of link ups across the oil and mineral rich regions stretching from Sudan across Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Western Sahara.

It is a pity the Spring ushered in by Arab youth has been willfully wasted by the West. Indeed, the shaken monarchies and the remaining dictatorships have rallied around the US and Europe to protect themselves.

From India’s perspective, Israel and the UAE are undoubtedly our two closest friends in the Middle East. PM Modi has invested considerable energy in developing both relationships and they have stood by our side when we have needed their support. Normalisation of ties between them augurs well for us, opening up exciting new possibilities for collaboration.

The decade that began on January 1 will be Africa's decade. Unprecedented opportunities are opening up for India-Africa cooperation in Africa's rise in several areas, notably higher education, industrialisation and agriculture.

In the Union Budget, the Finance Minister needs to restore the confidence of the middle class investor who now have little faith in anything other than gold and real estate as the means of preserving and growing her savings.

Diplomacy is almost always about timing. Chinese President Hu Jintao offered a lesson in the virtues of diplomatic timing by showing up in Cambodia over the weekend.

India had recently decided to partner Russia in a joint project known as Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA). A project like this is a rarity, like Brahmos, that India can ill afford to lose. Prudence would demand employment of a realist strategy of engagement by India in convincing the Russians to expand the scope of involvement.

Bush Blair duo is finding it extremely difficult to justify the invasion of Iraq to the world in general and to their local constituency in particular. The United States military has been unable to locate WMDs in Iraq in spite its best efforts. This has led the entire world to believe that the war was an unjust war.

The Chinese premier's speech on Friday in Beijing, with its promises of transparency, open markets and a focus on quality, indicates that China has taken on board the various critiques of the BRI.

Chinese leaders are steeped in the realist tradition and appreciate the logic of power politics. Premier Li Keqiang might respond more positively to a frank discourse from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh than Delhi's self-deceptions that have so misled India's Chinese interlocutors.

Citizens of India and Nepal enjoy mutual rights of residence, freedom of movement, ownership of property, and can participate in each other’s industrial and economic development without discrimination.

There is a serious terror threat posed by ISIS fighters returning to their home countries after losing the Syria expedition. While it was important to trace the routes taken by these foreign fighters — both in and out of Syria — one needn’t go to Syria to become radicalised through the ISIS ideology.

We should be prepared for a lower rupee unless the RBI steps in and boosts the rupee by releasing a huge amount of dollars. In this situation, wooing back the FIIs would not be easy. Proping up exports will also not be easy. It would be very difficult for the rupee to regain its former value unless commodity prices decline.

Election season has begun in the country as in the next two months, five states are going to have assembly elections which are being billed as mini-general elections. Soon thereafter, parliamentary elections will be held in the first four months of the next year to elect the 16th Lok Sabha (lower house).

The politics of India is changing. The change will come not just through macro measures like the introduction of large-scale manufacturing or modern agriculture, but in a number of small ways - better schools, safer cities, better urban facilities, mental institutions and jails, fairer purvey of justice and so on.

Xi Jinping has outlined what the new thrust of the CPC will be.

An increasing number of startups and new businesses have been founded in India over the last decade, the majority of them by men. While many Indian women have entrepreneurial ambitions, it is often more difficult for them to succeed. This brief examines the impediments to greater participation of female founders in India’s economy by first gathering available data to describe the situation of women entrepreneurs in the country. It then explores

As someone who started wearing uniform 56 years ago and then saw life from a cadet in the Academy to the Chief of the Army Staff, I feel disappointed with the unfair manner in which the whole issue of women in the Army has been dealt with in public.

Even today, the Army continues to be organised on the basis of regional, linguistic, caste and religious affiliations. Nearly 70 years since Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose raised combat units in which personnel from all over India served together, it is time that our Armed Forces seriously consider these issues of regionalism, ethnicity and deployment of women in combat roles.

That the Yadavs also constitute the political class is a fact but in this instance neutralized by the backward environment in which women of intermediate castes live

From recent events it is evident that misogyny and patriarchal attitudes cut across party lines, ideologies, sexes and classes. Worse still is the fact that whatever is being won by the serious and concerted efforts of those who really 'care' is being squandered by those who do not.

Gender disparities in economic participation and opportunities remain significantly large across the world. To bridge these gaps, G20 countries are working to advance women’s entrepreneurship through financial assistance, knowledge creation, and governance for supporting enterprise. India, in particular, has introduced a number of government schemes to promote entrepreneurship among women, such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and the Prad

Having created unprecedented diplomatic opportunities in the first term, the UPA has managed to squander them in the second. India's ambassadors, gathering in New Delhi this week, are in a better position than most to reflect on the undeniable reversal of India's international fortunes in the second term of the UPA government.

The Madras High Court¿s notice to authorities in some coastal districts of southern Tamil Nadu over the ¿public hearings¿ on the Sethusamudram project proposal has brought out a new facet in Central-State relations unnoticed by many. Coming under the Union Shipping Ministry, the Tuticorin Port Trust, entrusted with the Rs 3000-crore project,

ORF Director Sunjoy Joshi said the seminar on "BRICS trade, investment and finance cooperation"is part of the ongoing research agenda which will feed into the South Afr ican Summit to be held next year.

Regional security in West Asia stands at a precarious intersection.

The ORF Chennai Chapter of Observer Research Foundation (ORF) brought together eminent, senior retired civil servants and police officials, well-known academicians and journalists and policy makers for two days, on January 28 & 29, 2005, at a Workshop on the Naxalite Movement. Mr D Raja, National Secretary, Communist Party of India, inaugurated the Workshop, which was conducted under the guidance of Mr B Raman, Distinguished Fellow and Convenor,

On 15 and 16 March 2007, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, and the Center on Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation of the Fourth Freedom Forum, USA, convened a two-day South Asia Regional Workshop, "Security and Liberty," which examined the relationship between human rights and counter-terrorism. This Chairmen's Report highlights some of the themes and recommendations put forward during the workshop.

A two-day workshop on international terrorism in the South-East Asian region and its likely implications for South Asia was organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) at its headquarters at New Delhi on April 28 and 29, 2004, under its International Terrorism Watch Project.

Delhi, which saw President Obama build on Bush's strategic initiative towards India, has no dog in the presumed fight on foreign policy between the Democrats and Republicans in this election. There is no argument between the two candidates on the US relationship with India.

Let first one thousand days of life get a chance to unleash the potential of the child to live a life with dignity.

The world sees India as not contributing positively to the international trade negotiations and this makes it difficult for India to actively participate in ongoing major plurilateral trade negotiations, according to Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh, India's former DDG to WTO.

If the world rapidly forgot about the Indian role in the Second World War, independent India did a lot worse. Its political leaders trivialised the war by dismissing it a colonial enterprise. Seventy years later, the time has come for political India to put the war in its proper historical context and celebrate the extraordinary contributions of the Indian people.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War-II. This day should have been used to reflect on the pain inflicted by the war. Unfortunately, this anniversary appears to be degenerating into a political battle, that could have a critical impact on Japan's diplomacy and reputation, especially in Asia.

Pakistan is facing an unprecedented power crisis, the worst in its history, with the deficit estimated to be over 8,000 MW. Rather than a shortage in its installed capacity.