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As the Sangh and its affiliates continue to push their toxic religious and cultural agenda, irrespective of the domestic and international audiences' deep sense of revulsion, it is clear as daylight that there are two Indias.

Article 370 is a burden on the people of Jammu and Kashmir which has been misused by successive State governments to stall the delivery of several public welfare initiatives of the Central Government, according to dean of Jammu Central University.

If China were to shape a world order that might be bereft of some of the universally accepted principles, it may be problematic for many countries, including India.

Now that BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi is approaching what could possibly be the pinnacle of his career, the last thing he wants is to box himself in by his own rhetoric. It is for this reason that in his Haryana speech, he also invoked Atal Bihari Vajpayee's policy, which used the Kargil crisis to get the world community to pin down Pakistan on avoiding the use of violence in relation to Kashmir.

Given the Indian government's taste for pushing unilateral mechanisms for governing the internet at an international level, and Indian civil society, which for the most part seems to vocally support a multistakeholder approach, the Indian elections might bring about a new opportunity for both sides to find clarity.

India being the closest neighbour with high stakes in the stability of Maldives, President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's India visit from January 1 to 4 would be keenly watched, nearer home in the two countries, and afar.

We should not be lulled into complacency about the nature of the militancy in J&K these days. Incidents can be few and far between. But when they occur, they can be deadly. The winding down of the US and NATO operations in Afghanistan could enlarge the area which could be used by anti-Indian jihadis to set up training camps.

India has been at the forefront of helping its neighbors in times of crises

When it comes to Asean, the challenge for India is to scale up trade and investment. While ease of doing business is improving and projections by the IMF are all positive, there is long way to go to tackle corruption, energise the bureaucracy and cut through bureaucratic red tape that deters business and trade

The annual gatherings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - at the ministerial level in July and summit level in November at the East Asia Summit - have become good indicators of Asia's volatile geopolitical temperature.

Asian concerns regarding a Space Code are important because future challenges to space cooperation may well come from Asia, not least because so many of the new space powers are emerging from this region. The EU was late in bringing India into the process.

India, which contributed a big part in shaping the outcomes of the two world wars, seems blissfully unaware of the importance of the two anniversaries. Turning a deaf ear to the nationalist passions in East Asia is not going to save India from the consequences of new Asian wars that now seem increasingly probable.

Security concerns in Asia are largely related to non-traditional security threats such as terrorism, piracy, disaster management and transnational crime. These threats are becoming more and more traditional as countries have to deal with them on a daily basis.

Success of Australia in Asia will be much of choice rather than chance, according to the Australian Consul-General at Chennai, Mr David Holly. He lists out the choices that Australians have to establish a cordial relation with the continent.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Wednesday (June 27) released the new ORF publication, titled The New Asian Power Dynamic, edited by Mr. Maharajakrishna Rasgotra, Adviser to ORF Chairman and convenor of National Security Advisory Board (NSAB).

While the simultaneous rise of powers need not always result in a clash, the four major powers in Asia - established powers Russia and Japan, and newly rising China and India - have had troubled historical relations.

Considering India's immense infrastructural needs, the AIIB has opened a fresh window for financing in which there will hopefully be fewer conditions and hassles. All other less developing countries will also be able to access loans easily.

India and China should focus on maritime commonalities and challenges rather than incongruence. After all, the sea unites while the land divides.

Asia has been the fountain of the greatest and some of the most ancient civilizations and religions of the world and possesses enormous human and natural resources. However, in modern history, the continent has seldom been at the centre-stage of world politics. Indeed, unlike Africans, for example, Asian citizens have never really had a feeling of oneness.

Observer Research Foundation and Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung recently organised the Asian-European Policy Dialogue 2013. The theme of the dialogue was local level politics, related policy areas and the role of the state.

The 'old boys' network has given Asim Umar an extensive reach among the jihadi groups active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He can tap into the Taliban network with as much ease as he could work with Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

A feature of the Syrian crisis which must please those ostensibly seeking the regime's ouster is that it is turning out to be a long drawn one. So long drawn, in fact, that the world is beginning to develop an amnesia about the Palestinian issue.

Legend has it that the nursery rhyme, 'Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush...on a cold and frosty morning', was first, sung by women incarcerated at the Wakefield Prison in England while they were doing their daily exercise around the mulberry tree in the prison compound.

In the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the picture remains unclear, with no party or no combination of parties being assured of forming the next government in March.

A lot of the things are hanging in the air because Indo-US relations are doing so as well. Given India's reticence in giving any kind of political shape to the partnership with the US, Washington is understandably stringing New Delhi along with promises. Modi's forthcoming visit to Washington DC could be an opportunity to move forward in some of the issues

Prior to the meteor hit in Russia and Asteroid 2012 DA 14's close miss, the Indian public and its policy makers likely could just not comprehend such a distant, seemingly un-real threat. Perhaps now, this will not be the case.

India's Navy has for too long been neglected when money has been allocated. The latest defence budget suggests that may be starting to change, though much of the new allocation will be used to pay off previously acquired expensive naval platforms.

As he packs his bags for the first foreign policy venture in the new year ¿ the annual summit of the South Asian nations in Dhaka ¿ Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has two options. The default one would be to let the foreign office bureaucracy work out an anodyne declaration of good intentions on future cooperation.

Curiosity drew me to the Yasukuni shrine during a recent trip to Tokyo. When I lived in Beijing in the Nineties, I had been struck by the close attention paid by the Chinese authorities to every visit by a Japanese minister to this Shinto place of worship.

It is the responsibility of people like film producers, club owners and other entertainment organisers to ensure that the shows or films do not carry vulgar contents which tend to excite the base instincts of men and encourage them to resort to violence for sex.

The ATT has finally been adopted. But it remains to be seen if the treaty could really be implemented as major players like China, India, Russia have not favoured it. Even the US could find it difficult to ratify ATT back home despite voting in its favour.

If the government wants to reduce poverty through FDI, then some fine-tuning in policies will have to be undertaken. FDI will have to be directed to labour-intensive sectors, especially from the unorganised sector. In Bangladesh, much of the FDI has gone to the garment sector which has enriched workers and reduced poverty.

His Excellency's address to the ORF Faculty delivered on May 3, 2012.

Senator Chris Evans visited the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi on July 22 and spoke on the close cultural ties that have been forged between the two countries, the safety of Indian students in Australia and migration prospects in the future.

When the rest of the world was kept in a state of shivering suspense by North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard quietly undertook an important visit to China -- her second official visit to Beijing in about two years.

Australia would be holding a skills Expo in India next year which would inform prospective migrants about the employment and lifestyle opportunities available in Australia

Underlining the need to develop an India-US-Australia trilateral, Mr. Rory Medcalf of the Lowy Institute says the recent US pivot to Asia is an opportunity for this relationship to burgeon.

Ashok Malik sets the agenda for the upcoming Indian Ocean Region - Association for Regional Cooperation Dialogue, steered by the three nations.

The relationship between Australia and India has reached a new maturity: that was key theme of a major bilateral dialogue convened from Sydney to Canberra to Melbourne, in early 2014.

The Australia-India Roundtable, the leading informal dialogue between the two countries, began in Sydney on Monday, 3 February.

Relations between Australia and India are poised at an historic moment. These two Indian Ocean democracies have struggled for decades to find political traction, but in recent years the ground has shifted in positive ways.

With India's annual inflation rate rising to a near four-year high on a point-to-point basis on the back of rising food prices, the search for policies to combat the price rise poses unusual challenges. The nature and causes of the current spiraling inflation in India has become a subject of intense debate, primarily because of the ostensible role of `imported inflation' in driving the domestic prices north. Issues like poor performance of the Pu

India need to do more to speed up its own financial sector reforms and make it stronger because the percentage of NPAs has reached a dangerous level of 4.45 per cent and could reach 6 per cent soon. Unless the banking system is strong, India cannot be on a higher trajectory of growth.