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Egypt and India have long had good relations with each other. Over the last few years, however, both nations have tended to be preoccupied elsewhere and their bilateral relationship has been left untended.

Even though the Egyptian army has refrained from taking over governance in the interim period, analysts say the fear of repeating the same mistakes are legitimate. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether or not this political transition will have a long-lasting impact on Egypt's nascent democracy.

What are Catherine Ashton and William Burns up to in Cairo? How can they convince a legally elected President overthrown by a discredited Army to share power and work together?

On New Year's Day, 2015, just before Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad and a week before the killings at the Paris-based Charlie Hebdo magazine office,

During a discussion on the critical phase of the post-revolutionary period in the Egyptian political system and society, a major part was focused on the nature of demands the discontented Egyptians had when they took to the streets in 2011.

Recognising the critical nature of the situation in Egypt, and the role that a successful free and fair elections will have as a stabilizing factor in the establishment of a 'new' Egypt, Observer Research Foundation invited Justice Hatem Bagato,

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been engaged in significant diplomatic activism since he took office. He has met with regional leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE and has emerged as a key pillar in Riyadh's attempts to consolidate a Sunni bloc in the region.

A day after the Myanmar elections, conflict started between the army and a faction of the Karen ethnic armed group, pushing thousands of Karen villagers into Thailand. This incident does not suggest smooth beginning for the country's political transition and the possibility of more such conflicts cannot be ruled out

The strategy of the 16-party United Iraqi Alliance is to institutionalise Shia majority and defer confrontation with the U.S. to a later stage.

While Elections-2007, which returned the ruling BJP and Chief Minister Narendra Modi to power against the expectations of the English language media in the country, it only helped focus on what has now come to be termed as the 'Gujarat model of development'.

At the heart of the debate on electoral reforms lies the vexed issue of campaign finance reform. There are four fundamental questions that need to be answered to understand this conundrum. A related but standalone issue is that of state funding of elections.

Dr. Anupam Chander, Professor of Law at UC Davis, says a specific rule which necessitates the consent of data subject in order to process the data coming from foreign countries in India is effectively discouraging foreign investments in India.

With electronic snooping here to stay, the larger question is not of ethics or privacy, but of regulation, protection and the provision of strong legal remedies

Election Commission's reported decision to implant a 'verification mechanism' in the electronic-voting machines to be deployed in the four-State Assembly polls could have anything but the intended consequences.

Why do Indian and Pakistani leaders succumb to the predictable? There's so much déjà vu about their peace process being derailed by border firings and terrorist strikes that the wider world has begun to yawn

Nepalese Prime Ministers generally prefer to call on New Delhi for their first foreign visit after assuming office. The urgency for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's visit was, however, accentuated by nearly a week-long effective blockade of Kathmandu imposed by the Maoist insurgents.

The presence and influence of the Naxalites are increasing dramatically and rapidly in various parts of the country while we remain engaged in endless debates on how to address the problem.

As part of a three-year research project undertaken by ORF and PRIO to study and analyse urban governance, urban security and environment related trends and concerns in selected regions of India, an international conference was organised on "Emerging Challenges in an Urbanising India: Governance, Security and Climate Change".

With Al Qaeda far from being vanquished, and Pakistan and Bangladesh inevitably turning into jihadi outposts in the emerging pan-Islamist network in Asia, India is more than likely to be caught in the vicious tail-wind of the next wave of terrorism, gathering momentum since 9/11.

A single deft move in the 18th century secured the British empire in India many advantages over the advancing Russians. By sending five English dray horses along with a blue velvet upholstered coach to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore, upstream from Kutch, the British discovered that the Indus was navigable all the way up.

It were thousands of village pradhans who had to be "empowered" as the nodal points most in contact with the people. Legislators and policy makers have to develop institutional mechanisms to liaise with the Pradhans who implement policy at the village level.

Control of China through cooperation could be a more effective policy given the size and closed nature of China's society

With the Opposition-dominated Parliament passing the Judges Bill and the Government coming up with a consensus list of seven Supreme Court Judges that too was passed, there is now hope about an early end to the constitutional deadlock that had engulfed Maldives over the past weeks.

India is the third largest coal producer and the coal industry one of the oldest sectors of commercial involvement

With the death of brigand Veerappan in a police encounter in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district, a long and arodous era in criminality has come to an end in this part of India - nay, even the world. Not many criminals in the world in these modern times would have scalped 130 human victims, apart from the hundreds of elephants and thousands of sandalwood trees to his credit as Veerappan did.

Pakistan is living through turbulent times and, General Musharraf, its self-styled President, is under tremendous pressure. The United States-led anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan has shaken Pakistan's polity like no other event in its troubled history.

A talk by Prof Dilip Ahuja and Prof D P Sen Gupta

To meet its poverty eradication, human and economic development targets, India will require much greater availability of energy. Poverty eradication is critical for building resilience to potential climate impacts.

Energy: Power Ministry plans to shut coal-fired power plants with capacity of about 8000 MW.

How can Japan bring in energy reforms with its weak political structures, a very strong nuclear lobby that can influence policymaking, and rising public discontent? Japan has seen five Prime Ministers in the last five years.

The Modi government's biggest challenge is battling a legacy of distrust. The dominant political discourse in India remains deeply suspicious of market liberalization.

Fourteen years ago, in 1996, Dr Vijay Kelkar, one of my distinguished predecessors in the long list of luminaries who have delivered this Lecture, said, "What petroleum was to the 20th century, natural gas will be to the 21st."

Formulating a policy towards China that finds the right balance between engagement and resistance is not easy. We are obliged to engage with China as it is fast on the road to becoming the world's number two power.

The importance of today's Africa for India is self-evident. India's ambitions of being a global power cannot be achieved without the support of the African continent consisting of 55 countries. Nowhere is the importance of African countries felt more than on the issue of the expansion of the UN Security Council.

SAARC remains the only viable vehicle for South Asian integration, a project vital for India because a viable South Asian economy is a necessary pre-condition for our ability to engage effectively with ASEAN and China. And when we look at SAARC, the key hurdle it must overcome is the India-Pakistan problem.

An international conference on "Engaging with a resurgent Africa" was organised in New Delhi on 20th and 21st of November. It was organised jointly by Observer Research Foundation and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung of Germany.

London is the most unequal city in the developed world, with its richest 10 percent more than 100 times better off than the poorest ten. London's wealth inequalities are said to be approaching those that "have not been seen since the days of the slave-owning elite."

India and Pakistan can reap multiple benefits from an enhanced cooperation on the economic and energy fronts, according to experts at a recent conference at Observer Research Foundation.

There she was, a wisp of a girl in her teens, out in Mahim at 11.30 in the night, feeding strangers stranded after the bomb blast. This was her answer, and those of countless citizens of Mumbai, to the terrorists who thought they could break the city¿s indomitable spirit. Salaam, Mumbai.

HOW to ensure food security and control inflation has emerged as a major challenge for the government in the New Year. The hangover of food inflation from 2010 cannot be ignored as it is still in double digits.