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India's urgent requirements for hydrocarbons seem to be prompting it to look for proverbial strange bedfellows. Shrugging off the ideological baggage of the Cold War era and the Nehruvian idealism, India is all set to pursue a realistic foreign policy.

The reality of India-Myanmar land connectivity is increasingly becoming a possibility as militancy and insurgency are on the decline in the region, says Mr. Rajeev Bhattacharyya, a journalist who has lived with several insurgent groups in Myanmar and India?s North East.

In an important advance in the bilateral security cooperation between Delhi and Yangon, two naval vessels from Myanmar have arrived in Vishakhapatnam for joint exercises. While India's naval diplomacy with Myanmar is headed in the right direction, Delhi needs to step up the pace of cooperation.

The 41 km India-Nepal pipeline, designed to supply cost-effective and environment-friendly petroleum products to the landlocked the nation, is the first trans-national pipeline in the SAARC region. This initiative represents a win-win outcome for both the countries which will also enhance regional connectivity and economic development across the region.

The just-concluded round of India-Pakistan dialogue (July 27) was an opportunity for both the countries to articulate their positions on two critical challenges facing the region, terrorism and Afghanistan.

At the Manmohan Singh-Nawaz Sharif meeting, it was agreed that the incidents across the LoC would be taken up by the DGMOs of both the countries. This seems to be the only worthwhile outcome of the meeting, though it remains to be seen how effective this arrangement would be. Sharif also assured the Indian Prime Minister that the most favoured nation protocol would be extended to India in order to facilitate trade between the two countries.

Ceasefire along LoC has not really solved any of India's problems.There exists a dire need to look beyond the existing CBMs of providing advance warnings for military exercises and ballistic missile tests which are relatively "high level" issues.

As in the Shimla Summit between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, nothing came out of the Delhi meeting between Dr. Manmohan singh and Zardari on April 8. However, it is now clear that focus has shifted to official discussions in the coming months and the eventual visit of Dr Manmohan Singh to Pakistan.

The insistent demands today that India adopt an inflexible and hard policy will only undermine the larger strategy. Were an alternative strategy and tactical mix on offer, it would be something worth considering, but the only items on the menu offered by the chicken hawks are jingoistic slogans and war cries.

While 1947 may have liberated India and Pakistan from the colonial yolk, the two countries have become slaves to the historical baggage they carry. It's therefore important for both sides to unburden themselves in whatever ways possible.

It is important for both countries to think outside the box and create constituencies of peace outside New Delhi and Islamabad, especially in the two Punjabs. While Punjabi tarka can not be the core of India-Pakistan relations, it must not be overlooked either.

During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh¿s early-December 2005 visit to Moscow, India and Russia signed landmark agreements to further cement their defence cooperation that dates back to almost half a century. These include an agreement on the defence of intellectual property rights that prevents either side from using technologies received from the other without special permission, joint construction of a multi-purpose transport plane

India-Russia defence relations have already become mature which normally comes in alliance politics like anglo-saxon model or very special relationship like US-Israel. Very few parallel example can be found in case of other countries like the ones that Russia has developed with India.

The Fourth India-Saudi Arabia Workshop held recently in Delhi felt that India must play an active role in ensuring peace and stability in the region, which should not be limited to maritime security. It also stressed the need to move forward the relationship to a genuine strategic partnership.

India's Look East policy, launched in 1991, has made steady progress in widening its economic and strategic reach to Japan and South Korea. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit to South Korea should be seen in the expanding context of India's Look East Policy.

Do the Modi government think that the worse was over for its bilateral ties with Sri Lanka, first with the exit of the LTTE, and later the electoral defeat of President Rajapaksa? If so, PM Wickremesinghe's interview should be seen as a lesson in the 'right direction' - though not necessarily on the 'right lines' as India would have wished.

India is all set to further its energy cooperation with Sudan. Reports suggest that ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) has decided to invest $1 billion in Sudan to acquire 25% stakes of the 5A/5B oil projects in Sudan. The project is currently owned by Austrians.

Although India's entry into the field of cyber security has been relatively late and much of the internal institutional streamlining is yet to take effect, the level of cooperation between India and the US in the field of cyber security has been substantial.

The Indo-US strategic partnership is still evolving. At present, it seems that political sensitivity, deep-seated distrust, bureaucratic and procedural hurdles and some short-sighted domestic policies in both countries are stalling this process.

There is huge potential for development of the relationship between the US and India. Yet achieving this promise will require careful strategic planning from the governments of both nations, according to panellists at a discussion on the "India-US Partnership".

As political India wakes up to a more complex security environment enveloping it, Delhi needs to demonstrate greater pragmatism in enhancing cooperation with Washington.

On December 10-11, 2003, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and the RAND Corporation held a ¿strategic dialogue¿ in New Delhi. The meeting brought together scholars, diplomats, and functionaries from the governments of India and the United States to discuss policy issues important to both countries. This report , which summarizes the discussions, should be of interest to high-level policy makers in the Indian and US governments, as well as

During the India-US Strategic Dialogue 2013, it was felt that it is essential for both the countries' interest, and that of the world at large, that there is stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And this stability can be ensured only through dismantling of terrorist outfits and strengthening of democratic institutions.

The dilemma facing ASEAN countries - economic benefits vs strategic balancing as they engage China - is nothing unique. This provides the context for India and the US to channel their efforts in establishing a firm partnership for enabling a stable Asian order.

Indians in large numbers are already working in the US in various spheres of technology. If the emerging Indian talent pool can be transferred to critical innovation projects under a specially created Indo-US Special Purpose Vehicle, it could go a long way in maximizing welfare in both societies.

The next Indian government will have to reorder policies and priorities, without bureaucratic hindrance and with procedures that are streamlined and not subject to whimsical changes. The next decade is crucial for our young population; rights oriented populism will have to cede to growth and production oriented policies to attract investment.

In spite of some benefits, the TFA is embroiled in controversy. Trade facilitation, according to some scholars, will enhance the developed countries' access to Indian markets and may impact manufacturing growth. Studies have shown India is losing out in competitiveness in all product lines and there has been a 'hollowing out' of industries.

A roundtable on India-US-Australia cooperation at ORF revolved around issues that are of common interests to all three countries, such as maritime security and cooperation, piracy and disaster management among other issues.

People voted for change in three of the four Indian States that went to polls recently. While the voters in Tamil Nadu severely punished the ruling DMK combine, which included the Congress Party, for their reported large-scale corruption and inefficiency,

The provisional figures of the decennial Census-2011 has just been released in India, with the final head-count to be commuted and made public in about a year's time.

The principal Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to be all ready for the big electoral battle of 2014 in India. It is sniffing power. It feels that its time of reckoning with the people of India has arrived and it only needs to put its act together to realise the dream.

The three-month-long budget session of the Indian Parliament, which began with the constitutionally mandatory address of President Pranab Mukherjee to a joint sitting of the two Houses on February 21, is both crucial and critical.

Allegations of financial scams have continued to trouble the UPA-2 Government as the Opposition has scented its path to power by keeping them in public domain. The proceedings of Parliament during the winter session were stalled as the Government declined

A victory by almost retaining its 2007 tally of 117 seats in Gujarat and a defeat in Himachal Pradesh for the BJP has not only set the tone for the next Lok Sabha elections but has also created a new set of problems and challenges for the two national parties in particular and for the entire political class otherwise.

Crime and politics have had a very close nexus the world over. But in India, this trend became dominant and struck deep roots in mid-Sixties when the Indian National Congress, the country's oldest party, started losing its sway over the electorate.

The race for the 'Rashtrapati Bhavan' (President's House) has begun in right earnest though no political party has yet played its cards formally. A new President is going to be elected in two months as the term of the present President Smt. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil ends on July 25.

Technology is important, but who you get it from is even more important. U.S. drones in the Indian inventory would have a huge value in terms of messaging, to friends and foes alike. Strategic partnerships are among the best force multiplier options in an uncertain Asia, and India should leave no stone unturned.

The Indian polity appears to be in a state of drift as the established political parties, oblivious to the problems of the country and its people, are currently engaged in game of power.The political class, as a whole losing credibility, is being widely perceived as "loud mouths",

Left-wing extremists in India are gaining in strength and spreading their reach to newer and hitherto unheard of regions. The guerrillas have been carefully and consistently planning strategies to survive in their bastions, consolidate themselves in regions of moderate presence and expand their activities to new areas.

After complete washouts of several sessions of Parliament, including the previous budget session, the ongoing Monsoon session has surprised many.

India may exceed the growth forecasts of the IMF and the World Bank but the task ahead is not easy, especially with 10 million jobs to be created, so much cleaning up to be done and so many disasters to be tackled.

Social activist Arvind Kejriwal announced on October 2 in New Delhi with lots of fanfare that a new political party has come into existence whose name would be decided later, but it has started functioning.

On June 14, the British newspaper, Times London, broke the story about issuing of British travel documents, on the recommendation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in 2014,