Search

A two-day deliberations by 20 experts from India, China and U.K, have underlined the need for a collective regional action to ensure environmental security in South Asia. The meeting was organised by Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with Royal United Services Institute, London and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.

Address by Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister, at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi, on November 3, 2011 on Colombia's Agenda for Domestic Prosperity.

The UPA's policy failures on Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have generated much bemoaning in Delhi's national security establishment about the breakdown of the rules of the republic that made the conduct of foreign policy the sole responsibility of the Centre. A closer look reveals that it is not the states that are exercising a veto over foreign policy decisions.

My revered teacher late professor Matin Zuberi had once remarked that major states in global affairs, real or aspiring, end up possessing superfluous arsenals often times through superficially planned and mostly ad hoc manners.

The year 2015 marks an important date in international history - the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. It is also the 50th anniversary of normalisation of relations between South Korea and Japan. And, it is a chance that both Japan and South Korea should grab with an aim to re-normalise their relations.

It is commonly recognised in Jerusalem, and elsewhere that the Likud PM, Mr. Benjamin Netaniyahu, nurses an adversarial chemistry with the US President. He went ahead with Jewish settlements in a most insulting reception to US Vice President, Joe Biden.

The foreign minister said the boundary issue between the two countries has not prevented mutually beneficial and functional cooperation in a number of areas

Senior Supreme Court lawyer and ORF trustee Lalit Bhasin moots a comprehensive law to replace the obsolete Aircraft Act of 1934

The Centre could start well with the creation of an independent 'fisheries ministry'. In the emerging situation, such a ministry may have to comprehensively address all issues of maritime concerns and interests.

Participants from India and the United States shared their respective viewpoints on the political, economic, and security environment to identify areas of mutual interest in East Asia. The discussion focused on identifying current and future challenges & opportunities in the bilateral relationship

THE United Nations Security Council (UNSC) achieved the almost impossible recently by adopting a unanimous resolution on providing access to humanitarian aid to Syria, breaking a deadlock that pitted Russia and China against the Western powers.

It is usually only the politically naive who are optimistic about the future of India's relations with Pakistan. The terms "enduring rivalry", "protracted discord" and "communal conflict in armour" have become part of the global political vocabulary because of the depressing saga of India-Pakistan ties.

It is sad that caught unawares, the nation is finding new ways to explain away the current puzzle that Jammu and Kashmir once again has become. Issues such as 'trust deficit' and 'governance deficit',

India has almost blinked to the King of Nepal on the question of arms supply. These supplies were put on hold on February 1, 2005, following King Gyanendra¿s coup against the democratic system and leadership.

The depth of the Congress's problems is evident from the party's inability to come to grips with the problem of party leadership. For structural reasons -- primarily the fact that it is a proprietorial entity -- this is the most critical problem for the party. This was evident from the reactions to P. Chidambaram's remark that a "non-Gandhi" could "someday" become president of the party.

The Congress' brain storming session at Jaipur seemed to suggest that the party is now in a mood to take big risks in the months ahead. The diesel price hike clearly was the most risky one, politically speaking.

India's Northeast remains disconnected from the rest of the country. This disconnect is not just in the geographical realm, but also at the level of the superstructure. With the advent of newer forms of communication, many research organisations or think tanks have come up to to study the eight States in the region.

The discussion on "Forthcoming Presidential Election" in India saw crucial issues impacting the election of the next Indian President being analysed and debated

Senior leader of the CPN-UML, K P Sharma Oli, feels that the Constituent Assembly of Nepal is unlikely to complete its task by the August 31 deadline and another extension is unavoidable.

In the backdrop of the ever-evolving global situations and demands of sustainable development, there is now an increasing need to widen the scope of the discourse on the Centre-State relations, expanding to include new areas of concerns and the various arms of the State.

Ms Menaka Guruswamy, Supreme Court lawyer, who has been associated with Constitution making in Nepal, outlined four major areas of divergence in Nepalese Constitution. Federalism is one such area which is highly contested.

A constitutional crisis that was threatening to undo all the achievements of the popular struggle against the Nepalese monarchy and establishment of a republic was averted on Sunday.

The internal dynamics of Jammu and Kashmir have assumed significance in the context of the ongoing India-Pakistan normalisation process, on the one hand, and the Centre's continuing efforts at peace-building with non-militant political groups in the State, on the other. Often, efforts aimed at understanding the complexities of the issues are bogged down by the past, or are confined to the 'Indian angle'. There is very little reference to Pakistan

The earth's geological past has seen violent climate shifts. The extinction of the dinosaurs, the Neolithic Revolution that followed the retreat of the last ice age, and the sudden demise of ancient civilizations, has been linked to climate change. While mankind has been altering the planetary environment ever since the Neolithic Revolution, it is only after the Industrial Revolution that it has attained the weight of numbers and technological ca

The present paper analyses the existing security relations and strategic perceptions of India and Nepal and attempts to identify the common and divergent perceptions existing, if any. It tries to understand the reasons for the erosion of mutuality and its impact on Indo- Nepal relationship.

Even as China becomes a maritime power to reckon with, Beijing has no desire to give up on its continental aspirations. Chinese President Xi Jinping's continuing tour of Central Asia this past week showcased the nation's rise at the heart of the Eurasian landmass.

The stage is set for a new terrorist confederation with the sole agenda of wreaking havoc across the heartland of India in the months to come. Ignorance or indifference to the clear signs of such an alliance - visible from Bangalore to Delhi, via Ayodhya, Nalgonda, Mulund and Varanasi - would prove suicidal for India.

India may have to apply capital controls in the future like Brazil has done to regulate the inflow of FIIs, and there could be more effective intervention in the currency market by the RBI to stabilise the rupee to promote export growth.

It is President Barak Obama's political requirement to have a calm Middle East so that he can keep a steady gaze on Afghanistan, the country on which the NATO Summit in Chicago must focus in May in ways that it is useful for his re election in November.

For Russia and even Central Asian countries, China can act as a catalyst to market their hydrocarbon resources to South Asia and beyond, opening an opportunity for gas exports too. Russia's $400 billion gas deal with China is a case in point.

On a proposal by Vietnam recently, ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), the overseas investment arm of ONGC, has decided to stay invested in Block 128. The decision was taken after Hanoi offered to provide additional data to make future exploration economically feasible and discovering hydrocarbons commercially viable.

राष्ट्रीय धोरणांमध्ये पर्यावरण रक्षणाला प्राधान्य,  हवामान बदल रोखण्याची महत्त्वाकांक्षा आणि  आंतरराष्ट्रीय सहकार्याला चालना देणे या गोष्टींमुळे भारत जागतिक नेतृत्�

While President Barack Obama is pursuing his two-pronged approach in Afghanistan that involves talking to the Taliban and handling over the security to the Afghan National Army (ANA).

China has sometimes been cordial to sanction imposers depending on the issue-salience of the sanction, yet its posture towards international sanctions regimes remains cold, especially when they conflict with its national interests.

The pending Companies Bill provides for in an increase in the corporate funding to political parties from 5% to 7.5% of the average net profits. This increase is despite the fact that the presence of strong corporate funding laws has not hindered companies to squeeze out crores in bribes.

At a workshop on responsible corporate governance at Observer Research Foundation, it was noted that corporate governance and business responsibility are no longer add-ons to markets; they are integral to them.

There had always been a nexus between the Congress party and big business. After all, Mahatma Gandhi?s Ashram at Sevagram was financed by Jamnalal Bajaj; Gandhiji was assassinated in Birla House, New Delhi.

There is nothing more anti poetic than the image of Suresh Kalmadi and his alleged shananegans. Yet the mind, that strange instrument, moved mysteriously to Josh Malihabadi one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

Though Myanmar's reforms are mostly'cosmetic' now, the changes can have unintended consequences, as witnessed in the case of Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost & Perestroika in the erstwhile Soviet Union, says Bertil Lintner, author of many books on Myanmar.

If Richard Nixon sought a breakthrough in China after failure in Vietnam, George Bush had a breakthrough with India after failure in Iraq, Barack Obama could work on a legacy that is a breakthrough with Iran after failure in Afghanistan.

Young Suryanarayana is a life that has been cut in its prime. He was the vic- tim of a bigoted doctrine taught in Pakistan for nearly three decades; for the Taliban are only another manifestation of the Islamist drive of General Zia-ul-Haq. The Indian died in a terrorist act after his abduc- tors demanded that all 2,500 Indians in Afghanistan vacate immediately. It was an absurd demand and no government would ever have agreed to it.

The Council of Councils Seventh Regional Conference brought together experts from 20 leading institutions from around the world to discuss and debate critical regional and global issues.

There is a need for governments to engage the private sector in counter-terrorism and counter-propaganda initiatives. Counter-terrorism doctrines and strategies have been framed in the last decade with a focus on religious extremism and have failed to encompass other ideas, feel cyber expers.

The outcome of the Third Plenary meeting of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China which ended on Wednesday in Beijing is like a typical iceberg -- you see some of it above the water, but most of it is below. The leadership knows well that if reforms of the financial sector and of creating a legal governance regime are delayed, the economic miracle could well turn into a nightmare.