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Experts from India and Germany, including academics, practitioners and policymakers, took part in a day-long seminar titled "Deconstructing the Economic Crisis" organised jointly by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS), Berlin.

For both Myanmar and India, Suu Kyi's visit needs to be viewed as yet another important step towards strengthening relationship between the two neighbours. It will serve nobody's interest if the visit were to be seen as a political gain for a party at the cost of others in Myanmar.

The emergence of Bangladesh as the new hub of international Islamist terrorism, insurgency in Nepal and Maoist militancy across several states, add new challenges to national security threats that India traditionally tackles. Despite these, India's defence expenditure continues to decrease in real terms and as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) every year.

China has discarded the traditional emphasis on criticising the arms control agreements promoted by the Western powers and focuses instead on securing Beijing's national interests by actively participating in international and regional military negotiations and shaping the international military norms.

Defence needs to be viewed as an integral part of national planning so as to comprehensively quantify the overall requirement to meet our legitimate security needs and strategic aspirations.

There is need to re-prioritise the expensive items in the services' wish list in a manner that will not strain the economy, without necessarily increasing the vulnerability of the country.

Resources are constraining the modernisation drives of India's three services. The government has not been able to check the growth of manpower in the Army and paramilitary forces. This has a direct repercussion on the modernisation plans of the military.

While allocations for the defence forces have been prioritized, the country's policymakers still grapple with the question: Despite spending billions, how strong is our Defence?

The defence component of the national budget accounts for 14% of central government expenditure, but gets less than 5% of media space. Virtually no discussion on the issue takes place in Parliament either. A call for increased resources for national defence usually goes out only when defence spending by Pakistan and China makes headlines.

Modi Govt's defence budget will only sharpen the divide between an increasingly assertive China and the Indian security establishment trying hard to cope up with the Chinese military modernisation programme. China's 2014 military budget is of $132 billion while Indian budget is of approximately US $ 37 bn only.

An all inclusive Defexpo would not only add greater character but also help the Indian companies explore the markets through a comparative framework and in turn enhance their manufacturing capabilities in the long term.

With the Delhi Durbar at its weakest in decades and the national parties in a funk, India's ability to deal with externally induced challenges in the run-up to the elections and after is being undermined by an irresponsible domestic discourse.

If Maldives becomes the biggest radical Islamic cell using the present political situation in the country, it would affect every nation in the Indian Ocean region as a huge part of trade in the Indian Ocean passes through the Maldives, according to former President Mr. Muhamed Nasheed.

A five-member delegation from the Beijing-based China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) exchanged views with the ORF faculty on bilateral relations, media reportage, regional issues, international terrorism, and possible areas of research cooperation

President Wickremesinghe seems to have succeeded in conveying Sri Lanka's best intentions for India during his visit.

As New Delhi intensifies the effort to bring many others home after the successful evacuation of Kerala nurses, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must create a strong institutional framework to cope effectively with the recurrent crises involving Indian citizens abroad.

( At the time of the blasts, I was on a flight from Delhi to Chennai. Immediately on my return home at 9 PM on October 29,2005, I heard of the blasts. At the request of an online journal, I had given my initial reactions in a brief write-up titled " Delhi Blasts: The Message". This article is an attempt at a more comprehensive analysis on the basis of further information available at 8 AM on October 30,2005)

Campaign trends in Delhi elections indicate that parties are playing around the issues having popular appeal rather than the hard core issues of governance, statehood or even air pollution. In varying degrees, populist ideas such as free houses, free water and free electricity remain the core poll promises for all political parties.

The shockingly stunning victory of the two-year-old Aam Admi Party (AAP) in the assembly election in the national capital this week is expected to impact the national politics in a significant manner as it is bound to trigger the process of political realignment across the country.

Charismatic, centralised leadership, like Mr Modi's today and Indira Gandhi's earlier, whilst have a huge advantage in national elections, cannot single-handedly carry a local election. Delhi is likely to make this point to leaders yet again.

India will be hosting the next India-Africa Forum Summit in 2014 and it is trying to implement as many decisions of the earlier two Summits as possible, according to a senior official at the MEA.

The relative degree of success of President Barack Obama's visit to India will depend on the extent to which the tough US demands on defence trade be eased to accommodate India's strategic needs without compromising national interests from both sides.

During the recent "5th India-Bangladesh Dialogue" organised in Delhi, there was consensus among all participants on the need for strengthening further cooperation on border management and counter terrorism in order of tackle threats which are common to both the countries.

The relationship has its roots in history, but both States have ensured continuous engagement, crucial for contemporary South Asian relations

EAM S Jaishankar's visit to the Maldives marked a pivotal moment in India-Maldives relations, focusing on economic aid, developmental projects, and defense cooperation.

There is a genuine endeavour in the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi to enhance their public delivery mechanisms. And, its example of harnessing ICT can come handy for other states currently implementing Right to Service Acts.

Indo-Pak rapprochement has been stuck in a rut for some time with Pakistan insisting on tangible progress on Kashmir and India reiterating that it is necessary to first build confidence by resolving relatively less intractable problems.

The Observer Research Foundation¿s (ORF) Institute of Security Studies hosted a roundtable discussion on the ¿Demilitarisation of Siachen¿, on May 4, 2005, at ORF Campus, New Delhi. The discussion was chaired by Gen (Retd) VP Malik, former Chief of the Army Staff.

The South Asian region is witnessing some kind of democratic upsurge. For the first time, all the countries in the region have embraced democracy. Yet, democratic transitions in the region are filled with uncertainties and fragility. South Asian countries need to learn from each other's democratic experiences and support each other.

The Indian leadership has been able to earn a lot of goodwill by sheltering the Dalai Lama and his people, but after his life, the 90,000-strong community will become a political and economic burden.

One of Tunisia's leading politicians, Sheikh Rashid al-Ghannouchi, says the Middle East is not in crisis, but rather at a "crossroads." The Middle East can indeed achieve stability and peace through a process of democratic reconciliation and consensus. But the road will be long and involve building institutions, healing old wounds and forging compromises.

Though foreign policy is going to be an important issue in the US Presidential elections next year, the Democrat candidates for the party's nomination have surprisingly devoted little time to this aspect so far. However, as the campaign progresses and the less serious candidates drop out of the race, the issue is likely to gain greater attention.

With Iraq back on the chess-board of international diplomacy, there is Once again the talk of democratizing individual West Asian nations, if not West Asia as a region. Going by the neighbourhood experience in recent times, it has also raised the question if West Asia is ready to be democratized, if it is not through the barrel of the American gun.

Access to, and development of indigenous digital platforms and cutting-edge technologies is imperative for robust socio-economic development and national security. In turn, such process needs to be democratised, and undertaken in a sustainable manner. India is a first mover in this novel idea of democratising technology and developing Digital Public Goods. Operationalised in the digital infrastructure called India Stack, India’s strategy aims t

Pakistani establishment would have to be out of its mind to enter Osama bin Laden's Abbotabad hideout on a white charger. Such foolhardiness would swell the ranks of Jihadi outfits in Pakistan. Murderer of Punjab Governor, Salman Taseer would resurface as a model.

Some voices in India had advocated a tough response to the Chinese. This would be untimely and irresponsible. In retrospect, the handling of the situation which involved a symmetrical non-threatening military response by Indian forces, along with patient diplomacy has paid off.

Though the Planning Commission went by the Tendulkar formula, Rs 32 and Rs 24 look extremely low at today's prices and high inflation, and especially if we take into account that these amounts include other items of daily life like education and health.

In the past decade, Japan made certain critical changes in its defence and security policy. These include enhancing the country’s defence capabilities, introducing the right to collective self-defence, abandoning the ban on arms exports, strengthening its alliance with the United States, and promoting its vision of a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’. Japan has introduced these changes incrementally, as a response to changing strategic circumsta

Mumbai's public healthcare sector is approaching exhaustion. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), despite its untiring efforts to provide affordable healthcare through its general hospitals and peripheral centres.

The manner in which to determine the relationship between India and Africa is two-fold: micro analysis and macro analysis. This includes focusing on economic and energy diplomacy, political and security engagement and pan-African projects and strategies, says Dr. Arndt Michael of the University of Freiburg, Germany.

Nepal's former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has stressed on the need to develop "a joint approach" with India to exploit the huge hydro power potential of the country. He said Nepal has the potential of generating over one lakh megawatts of power.

The story of the Maotai town in the Guizhou province in South China is an interesting case study of developmental economics - how a relatively underdeveloped region was turned into a rich town.

Constructing a border of cooperation with Bangladesh should liberate India from one of major geopolitical constraints imposed on it by the Partition of Bengal. When he travels to Dhaka in the near future, Modi is in a position to unveil a genuine strategic partnership with Bangladesh.

Whatever be the academic arguments, the die has been cast in Dhaka for a definitive contest between the forces of progress and regression. The outcomes are likely to have a lasting impact on the subcontinent's political future and India's regional security environment. It is time Delhi's political classes paid some serious attention to the developments in Bangladesh.

Commander of the US Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Scott H. Swift, feels that dialogues and frank discussions are the best solution to the ongoing disputes in the Indo-Pacific region.