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ON the economic front, there is much to cheer about with the GDP growing at 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2010-2011. There is now hope that the annual growth rate this fiscal year will be 9 per cent which means that India will be catching up with China soon

Everyday fears of violence against women have sharpened in the recent past. However they are increasingly being addressed by new prescriptive do and don't lists of precautionary measures for women. This is happening even while we consistently assert that the onus need not be on the women to keep themselves safe.

Growth is too weak in Europe today to support the necessary fiscal consolidation of the Member States. And without growth, there will be no budgetary and fiscal consolidation, says Pierre Sellal underlining the need for a growth pact.

While the common man or woman has to save for hard times and cut corners on everything, the same is not happening to the budgets of the Central and state governments.

The 2625 kg GSAT-7, developed at a cost of INR 185 crores, will be India's first dedicated satellite for maritime communications, providing UHF, S-band, C-band, and Ku band relay capacity over the Indian landmass and surrounding seas.

From a strategic perspective, the successful launch of the GSLV means India is self-reliant in the area of satellite launching, including heavier satellites. This also means that India will not have to depend on foreign agencies to carry their heavier payloads.

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

If it is any yardstick for a vibrant democracy, India today has six former Prime Ministers around. Only two of them, namely, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and P V Narasimha Rao completed a full term, and thus became mascots of political stability in their time. Yet, subsequent elections proved that stability was not the only concern of the Indian voter. To him, political stability is a vehicle for his deliverance and in ways he understands.

Gujarat has the required natural resources, human potential and entrepreneurial spirit to become the engine of India¿s economic growth and achieve a growth rate of 20%.

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 7, 2008: Mr. Inder Kumar Gujral, former Prime Minister of India, on Thursday released a book on "Small States Security Dilemma: A Maldivian Perception" at Observer Research Foundation.

While India's economic presence in the Gulf region has transformed from merely an exchanges between merchants and human capital, as a geopolitical player, India's role has remained subdued.

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?

The story began on March 18th, when Pakistan¿s leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf casually mentioned in an interview with CNN¿s Aaron Brown that it is likely that Pakistani troops have surrounded a ¿High Value Target¿ in the tribal ¿agency¿ of South Waziristan. Some enterprising Pakistani ¿intelligence official¿ leaked to the eager

Of all the reasons, there is one reason why the world must pay immediate attention to what is happening in Balochistan. Here, a military dictator ruling without any political legitimacy for more than five years has now launched an ethnic cleansing which, to say the least, is colossally retrogressive and inhuman.

With the Chinese refusal to take charge of the operations at Pakistan's Gwadar Port and a series of handicaps and security issues, this facility may fail to achieve its intended target of building it into a strategic asset.

The author, who was part of the ORF delegation which took part in discussions with Chinese party and government officials, says that the possibilities for India and China to collaborate must transcend boundary disputes and other age-old issues.

The Haqqani Act of the US Congress, and last week's decision in the US Senate to delay the confirmation of a new US ambassador to Kabul, are now adding to the pressure on the State Department. The next few weeks are likely to see intense parleys between Washington and Rawalpindi to find a way to delay.

Did New Delhi’s ‘big-stick’ approach make Beijing pipe down on the LAC?

As the Year 2005 draws to a close, it is worthwhile to find out where are we today on the path of reconciliation with Pakistan? Is there a process to the peace?

Professional diplomats will find little that is new or startling in the Wikileaks cables. For them the quality and content of reporting in the leaked cables is quite standard fare. Transmitting to Headquarters information gleaned from contacts, assessing its worth,

Agriculture remains the world’s biggest employer and the most important source of food and raw material for various economic activities. The fulfillment of a number of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is anchored on the performance of the sector. This brief examines the most crucial negative consequences of how modern agriculture is practiced, and how these will make it difficult for the world to realise the SDGs. Drawing on examples fr

India and Nepal are fellow riparian nations in South Asia and thus could potentially use their shared water resources as avenues for collaborative effort. Using water to generate hydropower for maximum benefit comes from a place of mutual interest, allowing for optimum leverage for the socio-economic development of both countries. This brief outlines a history of the India-Nepal hydroelectric power scenario, and offers recommendations for growth.

Forests help mitigate the impacts of climate change, provide economic benefits for the country, and meet specific facets of India’s sustainable development goals. It is essential, therefore, to revisit India’s forest governance and evaluate the country’s efforts at forest restoration and conservation. This brief examines the current state of India’s forests, explores the effectiveness of forest restoration and conservation measures, and r

The thaw in the India-Pak relations has opened a new window of opportunity. In the first stage, it will assist in India hosting the Heart of Asia conference next year and may also lead to a fruitful visit by Modi to Islamabad for the SAARC Summit.

Overall, the infrastructure sector is the winner in this year's budget. The allocation to the sector will go up by 700 bn rupees in 2015/16 over last year. But this sector needs consolidation in policy framework starting from approval to implementation and an institutional mechanism for fair pricing and competition.

Despite renewed efforts, the complex integration of the aerial refuelling probe on the Tejas fighter hasn’t been properly accomplished.

Bangladesh's bilateral relations with India got a major boost with its Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Tripura on January 11 and 12. Sheikh Hasina visited the north-eastern Indian State to attend the convocation of the Tripura Central University at Agartala.

President Barack Obama's State of the Union address to the US Congress begins with America's recent military engagement in self congratulatory terms. Among the more modest claims is: "For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country".

ORF Chennai chapter pays tribute to R K Mishra, Chairman of the Observer Research Foundation.

The essence of SSC is pivotal & sincere. But it is not devoid of criticism. The use of the word, ‘South’, itself reflects the colonial hangover that developing countries are trying to shed

Healthcare in India could use the help of better data and analysis from both public health systems and private sector interventions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented stress on India’s urban public health infrastructure, underscoring the need for urban planning to account for increased demand for health amenities during crises. This paper evaluates the city of Mumbai’s 1991 and 2034 development plans and finds inherent infrastructural inadequacies. It calls on urban-policymakers to complement development plans with robust dynamic health strategies that conside

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

The story doing the rounds in Delhi is that in another exhibition of generosity, India is about to withdraw from the Saltoro Ridge (commonly referred to as the Siachen Glacier) in the interest of peace, but without securing the country¿s strategic interests.

If Hindu extremism prevails, India will have little to give the world and be in no mood to learn. Unless the PM acts now to check these negative forces, Modi and the agenda for India could end up being a minor part of the vast collateral damage.

At a roundtable on the situation in Bangladesh, experts underlined the need for ensuring a credible election in Bangladesh for the country's stability and the strengthening of India-Bangladesh relations.

If internecine clashes in the eastern Afghan city of Herat are a sign of the things to come, peaceful political evolution of the country seems to be a messy affair. Around 50 people had been killed in those clashes that continued for eight hours in one of the more stable cities of Afghanistan.

In Delhi, the Army still honours its martyrs in the airport parking lot as, ostensibly due to security concerns, it doesn't have access to the reception area built last year.

West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan thinks that India must carve out an area of influence for herself as China has made it clear that it is not going to restrict itself to Western Pacific, and so, there is high likelihood that China will come into the Indian Ocean because of its interest in oil.

It is becoming increasingly clear that a resolution to the Kashmir dispute cannot be delayed much longer if the peace process between India and Pakistan is to yield tangible results in the foreseeable future. This period cannot be longer than five years.

It is time that the Modi Government carried out a comprehensive assessment of our internal security structures and put in place measures to enhance their efficacy. Also, the feasibility of the earlier proposal by the army for permitting lateral movement of its personnel into the CAPF needs to be re-examined.

The government has to free India's top 50 institutions across all disciplines from the iron grip of UGC and AICTE. The institutions must be given the freedom to devise their own course curriculum. After all they have the best subject experts.

There is uncertainty in the availability of domestic coal and in this context there is probably a need to rethink India's energy security strategy based on domestic coal