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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

China has avoided taking up regional and global responsibilities despite the United States' basic policy and efforts to make it a responsible stakeholder in the international community and help it take its rightful place as a global power, according to US scholar Dr Michael Auslin.

After years of calculated relationship between China and the Taliban, the strategic Wakhan Corridor has become a focal point of tension between them. Beijing would like to use the corridor to expand its political and economic influence over Afghanistan, while the Taliban seeks to control it to ensure its own stability and Afghanistan’s development. The new generation of the Taliban, often referred to as Taliban 2.0, regards this corridor as vit

This has been a longstanding policy of China, but more recently, Beijing has been perturbed by New Delhi’s proactive push in China’s periphery along the wider Indo-Pacific. Beijing is attempting to portray itself as the new leader in the emerging multipolar world

Iran and Saudi Arabia resumed bilateral relations in March 2023, following a deal brokered by China and ending a hiatus of seven years. The diplomatic breakthrough underlined Beijing’s political inroads into the Middle East. Indeed, China’s relations with Iran have grown in recent years due to an alignment in their geopolitical interests, while China-Saudi Arabia relations have also notably strengthened. The deepening of the strategic partner

2003 was an important year in the evolution of China¿s counter-terrorism policy. In December last, its Ministry of Public Security issued a list of identified 'Eastern Turkistan' terrorist organizations. Figuring in the list are the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the World Uighur Youth Congress (WUYC),

As part of its political transition from military to "civilian" rule, Myanmar adopted a new constitution through a national referendum in 2008 and conducted its first national elections in two decades in November 2010.

Since the early 2000s, China's debt profile in Sri Lanka has increased rapidly, with estimates indicating that over 20% of the overall debt stock is owed to China. Beijing's lending has been opaque on high-interest loans and has often contributed to several white elephant projects. Much of this lending comes from Chinese policy banks, such as China Exim Bank and China Development Bank that is entrusted to further Beijing's economic and commercial

China's rulers have a problem. They are not sure if they can continue to portray the image of a country interested in a peaceful rise without this coming into direct conflict with a desire to reassert newly defined core interests.

Chinese influence in Africa is high on the global agenda, as China within just a few decades has become a key political and economic power in the continent. Indeed, its emergence as a dominant economic and political actor might be the most important development in Africa since the end of the Cold War. This paper analyses China's economic and political relations with Africa beginning in the 1990s. It argues that the concern is not that China has e

As in Bandung 60 years ago, there is little consensus in Asia on how to build a new regional order. Prickly nationalism and persistent territorial disputes are making Asia into a geopolitical tinderbox. China's growing power has made it an attractive economic partner as well as the prospective political hegemon.

Well aware of China's growing influence in the Bay of Bengal and the changing power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region, Japan is now presenting itself as an alternative benefactor. With an eye toward Beijing, can the emergence of Japan in this region prove to play a balancing role?

As a rising China becomes the most important extra-regional partner for India's neighbours, India cannot simply wish away the Chinese influence in the subcontinent. The only way to limit the scope and structure of China's security profile is to expand India's own cooperation, including in the defence domain, with all neighbours.

China, a late entrant in Latin America, has now emerged as the region’s major economic partner. Bilateral trade between the two stands today at more than USD 200 billion. By augmenting investments and trade in Latin America, Beijing has managed to project itself as an alternative to the United States, which had previously enjoyed overarching influence in the region. The US’ inability to lead Latin America into a path of sustainable econ

The fifth meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing was used by China to reinforce its engagement with Africa. It is significant that despite it being only a ministerial conference, six Heads of State and two Prime Ministers attended the opening session.

China has clearly made very significant strides in its Space capability. However, it is still a long way short of matching U.S. capabilities and alarm bells need not ring just yet. It will need to undertake significant reforms before it supplants the U.S. as the world's leading Space power.

New Delhi has made it clear that it does not see China as a "threat" to India. The official position reflects a correct assessment of our security environment. China poses a challenge, not a threat, to India.

Given the past Sino-Russian relations the longevity of their entente is moot. Clearly, India is not entirely without options in this geopolitical competition, the only problem is to get New Delhi to play the game.

The Chinese growth story, triggered and driven by its industrial growth, is truly amazing. But now that industrial growth is slowing down because of higher wages and higher standards of living, to remain competitive China would have to outsource its production to cheap labour countries or move to another growth area - services.

While one could consider the establishment of a space station by China as a potential for collaboration, it would be more prudent of India to consider the military implications of such a move. A manned space station provides a greater thrust to PLA's combative capability.

Recently China reiterated its interest in constructing a deep seaport in Bangladesh. The Chinese interest in the project reportedly arises because of two reasons. One, to further strengthen its presence in the South Asia region,

Though the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and Japan is an achievement in Indo-Japanese bilateralism, much more needs to be done at the people-to-people level to broaden and strengthen the growing relationship.

Despite our hopes, China India relations are unlikely to see any dramatic upturn. China wants an all or none political relationship with India. This means that India must send the Dalai Lama away even though India has repeatedly and loudly pronounced that it has accepted Tibet to be an integral part of China.

If Indian economy begins to take off and it is able to overhaul its dysfunctional military system, India can emerge as a formidable second pole of the Asia-Pacific region, maybe just a shade inferior to China.

Japan's recently approved Defence White Paper has pointed out discomforting Chinese maritime activities in the region, military modernisation and the opacity about China's goals as challenges to Japan's national security.

China today is different! Quite different to what I saw seven years ago. The economic boom has not only changed its socio culture, at least in the Eastern and Southern part of China, but also the peoples' attitude, style of governance, and geo political outlook. That is the impression I gathered when I visited China recently.

If China wins the race in developing Space Based Solar Power as a feasible source of energy, which would meet the world's growing energy demand, it will result in huge economic and strategic gains for China.