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An autonomous Judicial Commission can effectively nudge the judicial system towards its intended Constitutional mandate; apolitical, enlightened and efficient application of the rule of law and protection of the fundamental rights of private entities, against encroachment by the executive or the legislature.

If the term nationalism and the sight of the national flag generates a warm, comforting feeling in your heart, your government is doing a great job. If, however, this term and the flag, leaves you...

A deal with Taliban will bring war to rest of the world.

At the current rate of around thirty-four billion tons of CO2 emissions per year, we could exhaust our carbon budget in less than a decade

Emissions from fossil fuel-powered motor vehicles adversely affect air quality and contribute to global warming. The manufacture and use of electric vehicles (EVs) is among the ways by which this challenge can be mitigated. This brief evaluates the best practices adopted by countries in the forefront of EV adoption, and outlines the lessons India can draw from them to inform its own EVs strategy. It finds that in addition to strengthening

What should be India's approach towards the international internet governance discourse? This Issue Brief attempts answer this question by examining the Indian government's engagement with the global community, using the recently concluded NETmundial conference on internet governance as a case study. It also provides policy recommendations for the way forward.

The 2011 anti-corruption movement in India—characterised by a huge trust deficit in the political class—was the culmination of several such localised movements that marked the birth of a new civil society in contemporary urban India. This paper studies the profusion of middle-class-led associations in Mumbai fighting for good governance, and their increased political mobilisation in the city. It argues that a new civil society bypasses electe

India has been importing from Israel various weapons systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years, making India one of Israel's largest buyers of military hardware.

This report is part of the Observer Research Foundation’s “Financing Green Transitions” series which aims to find potential linkages between private capital, in all its forms, and climate action projects. The series will primarily examine domestic and international barriers to private capital entry for mitigation oriented climate projects, while also examining potential avenues for private capital flow entry towards adaptation and resilienc

The ancient idea of ‘Thucydides trap’ points at a ‘war’ between the titans

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive economic and social fallout for India, as it has across the globe. In India, large numbers of people lost their jobs, and supply chains across industries and agriculture have been disrupted. At the same time, environmental indicators—notably air and freshwater quality—showed improvements following the long period of a nationwide lockdown. This brief outlines why India must make a focused decision to mov

By some accounts, the economy is doing spectacularly well. At the same time, infrastructure has been deteriorating.

Discussions between the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) also saw a general agreement that the Taliban victory in Afghanistan will lead to a civil war with disastrous consequences for Pakistan

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed in 1981 to counter the emerging threat from an ideological rival, Iran. While it has served the purpose of keeping the GCC countries together over the decades, the changing regional dynamics are raising questions over its continued relevance in its present form. The Hamas terror attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the consequent Gaza war has led to irreversible changes, Israel and Iran have engaged

Will President Obama's passionate call for stricter gun laws from the pulpit bring any change, or will he go towards the sunset in 2016 with having done practically nothing on this issue?

In 2006, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh named  Maoist insurgency as “the single biggest internal-security challenge”[i] the country has ever faced. He would repeat the same warning in the succeeding four years.[ii] This paper argues  that today, the insurgency no longer poses the same degree of threat to the Indian state. It outlines the trajectory of the Maoist insurgency from its roots in the late 1960s, to credible domination over

Due to the persistent adversarial nature of the Sino-Indian border environment, and because China is now a de facto maritime neighbour as well, India needs to examine its options of leveraging sea power. This brief analyses some fundamentals of sea control and sea denial, and examines some misconceptions about these. By using factors of time, force and space, the brief argues that while maritime economic warfare (explained as counter-value operat

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to “leave no one behind’’ and directed all countries to work together to end poverty and other deprivations. Achieving the SDGs requires collaborative strategies aimed at improving technologies of the Least Developing Countries (LDCs) in the productive sectors such as agriculture. Understandably, in most developing countries, the agriculture sector is characterised by informality, small scale,

The future of the Wagner Group, a private mercenary conglomerate linked to Russian foreign policy, is uncertain, raising questions about its global footprint.

The increasing range of cross-boundary health issues has prompted the integration of health into the discipline of diplomacy, and this trend is reflected in India-Africa partnership. India’s development partnerships are, however, predicated on the idea of development effectiveness, which requires active private sector engagement. By focusing on four opportunity sectors — medical tourism, tele-health, frugal innovations, and the pharmaceutica

For a navy wandering the far seas with warships with mostly empty helicopter decks, the prospect of acquiring any helicopter is of utmost importance versus the acquisition of a superfluous seaplane.

This brief examines India’s defence budget for 2023-24. It outlines the economic context for India’s latest defence allocations, and examines the drivers of growth, the broad distribution of resources among the defence forces, and the impact of such distribution on modernisation and the domestic defence industry. The brief posits that the new defence budget, coming on the back of a hefty mid-year upward revision of the previous alloca

The central administration in China is wary of a protracted confrontation about the public in Hong Kong, and considering the nature of the demand, a prolonged protest would certainly be an embarrassment to China in the global political arena, says a China expert.

Though the devastating WannaCry ransomware attack was a failure on the NSA’s part, current UN cyber norms are far too weak to hold any international actor – let alone the US – responsible.

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the K-4 will be an intermediate range submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM).

The Quad statement is tantamount to the declaration of the New Cold War between the US and its allies and China.

Before the elections in the beginning of this year, the authorities of the Iraqi Government had announced warrants for the arrest of 29 Iraqis and foreigners, who, according to them, are either former members of the Saddam Hussein Government or part of the Abu Mus¿ab al-Zarqawi terrorist network of the Al Qaeda.

Issues between the US and China are not likely to be worked out quickly.

India's thinking about the Middle East, whether from the UPA or NDA, has tended to be ideological and rooted in their domestic political considerations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to break from this tradition and develop a strategy towards the Middle East that is firmly anchored in realpolitik.

In some ways, the real war began after 2009, as the US forces drew down from Iraq. The result was a carrots and sticks approach; the swelling to over 60,000 US troops in Afghanistan (with another 30,000 committed during the “surge”) coupled with greater economic assistance to Pakistan

It’s a fact that countries of the Global South, while not supportive of Russia’s war against Ukraine, also blame NATO and the West for its global impact. Europe needs to change its approach.

The stagnation in US-Russia relations does not augur well for New Delhi's strategic interests. It's a throwback to the Cold War, when India had to choose between the two countries

Aware of the economic threat posed by the US, the Chinese president has been pushing for economic reforms.

The furore generated in Pakistan over the al-Qaeda chief, Osama Bin Laden's death in 'Operation Geronimo' by the US forces is symptomatic of Pakistan's dilemma in the 'war against terror'.

Human rights issues have been a cornerstone of US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. This paper examines Washington’s human rights focus on India and China under former President Donald Trump, and identifies trends under the current Joe Biden administration. The paper notes an emergent US bipartisan approach to refocus on Beijing’s human rights record following a period of policy dissonance owing to concerns to protect its economic

The emergence of this new grouping is clearly an outcome of the Abraham Accords of Aug 2020 and the possibilities that they have created for Israel and the UAE to be on the same platform with India and the US. As President Biden moves to Saudi Arabia for the second leg of his visit to West Asia, we are likely to see a push towards integrating Israel through trade, technology, direct flights and people-to-people contact even with countries where f

We could soon see America leave Afghanistan's brutal war half-finished. The implications of this will be dreadful for ordinary Afghans. This is no good news for India either.

When a strategy yields no results, or worse, is counterproductive, then the wise move is to change it. Our strategy of not reacting to repeated Pakistani depredations or offering conciliatory gestures may have earned us international accolades but has not made Pakistan change its policy options or stance towards India.

In the 21st century global and regional contexts, it's too much for India and its southern neighbours to expect the US to stay away from the region, militarily. If the US is there, the assumption is that China will not be far away. India can make a difference to what could emerge as the re-emergence of a 'new cold war' in this region.

Noting that the objective of the armed forces is not to win wars but to prevent wars, there was a consensus at an ORF discussion that India needs to overcome its deficiencies in order to create a credible deterrence.

The treatment of mental health disorders is a difficult task due to the highly subjective nature of each case, the varying efficacy of drugs available, and the social stigma associated with mental illness. In India, the treatment gap is steep, but it can be reduced in a number of ways: through concerted efforts by the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries on novel drug development; by leveraging allied technologies such as data science, art

EU and UK are waking up to the Chinese threat, even as the convergence with India is growing

It is common knowledge that Corporates control most of the electronic media. That being the case, how has the media turned upon the hand that feeds? Intra corporate warfare?

An urgent warning comes from a Harvard University study (bit.ly/3dthqiv), which establishes a correlation between long-term exposure to air pollution and Covid-19 mortality. The study finds that people living in polluted cities are more likely to have compromised respiratory, cardiac and other systems — and, therefore, are more vulnerable to Covid-19.

Rather than allowing events to drift towards a political or even military showdown, Maldivian President Mohammed "Anni" Nasheed has shown great fidelity to democratic principles in a country where none existed before him by stepping down from office with grace and poise.

Bangladesh roping in China on Teesta project a challenge for India

This paper highlights the imperatives for India’s G20 Presidency for promoting development cooperation towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Given its unique development cooperation model—more precisely, its development partnership model—India can utilise its G20 presidency to push the sustainability agenda. This will help bridge the North-South divide in sustainable development financing. The paper recommends

The Brazilian economy is in a new period of transition. Its challenges today are of tax incentives in order to steer foreign investments towards the domestic shores and curbing rising inequality and urban-rural divide.

The year 2022 saw the global economic outlook deteriorate amidst high inflation, fiscal tightening, and supply chain uncertainties arising from both the Russia-Ukraine war and the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), after expanding by some 5 percent in 2021, contracted in the first half of 2022. This brief makes a case for gender lens investing (GLI) as a means to boost women’s participation in economic act