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Get away from the barter system of vote bank politics. Politicians need to rise above petty politics and show they haven't got feet of Vernacular clay. This will be the first step to prove to the world that we are a mature democracy.

A road or a highway will no longer be a 'dumb pathway'. It will be an intelligent network with its own inherent logic and sense of meaning derived from algorithms and predictive software. From the point of view of institutional arrangements, several ministries and departments will have to work together.

The survival of the Communist Party and its legitimacy depends on how seriously they understand the ground voices and act accordingly. The urgency to bring comprehensive judicial reforms may be a survival strategy.

It is time that India seriously consider "outsourcing" some aspects of its foreign policy to its border provinces. Encouragement of deeper cooperation between border states in both India and Pakistan -especially the two Punjabs, the two Kashmirs, and Rajasthan (India) and Sind (Pakistan) -- could be a good beginning for bettering relations.

Nothing, with the exception of the Kashmir issue, has been more debated, researched and written about in the context of Indo Pak relations than the issue of the Iran-Pakistan-India Natural Gas pipeline in the last decade. From Onshore to Offshore options and international consortia and guarantees to people to contact, almost everything and anything has been tossed around and evaluated, yet to no avail. The pipeline still remains a pipe dream.

The peace process in Nepal has been pushed to a corner and it has reached a very critical stage, after the postponement of the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections.

The demand for India¿s active engagement with the Sri Lankan peace process has been building up for the past couple of years following the gradual erosion in the credibility of Norway as an impartial ¿facilitator¿. With the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is in New Delhi this week, this demand has gained momentum; more so because of the fast deterioration in Sri Lanka¿s internal peace.

Pakistan created the Taliban in the first place to capture Afghanistan politically. It is Pakistan's dangerous, anti-Indian ambitions in Afghanistan that are recoiling on it today, with the Pakistani Taliban as an off shoot of the country's chosen tryst with its anti-Indian destiny.

The contours of the fledgling peace process with the People's War Group (PWG) Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh are gradually emerging. It is the second attempt in as many years. The Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh, K Jana Reddy, announced on June 29, 2004 that the government has requested S R Sankaran, a retired Secretary to Government and Andhra Pradesh-cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS),

The governments of the South Asian countries can cooperate to solve many of their problems, especially poverty alleviation and fighting corruption. It will bring about stability and good governance. Otherwise, when are people dissatisfied with their lives, they will demand change.

Interest of the people should take precedence in foreign policy formulations which have a direct impact on their lives. This was the overwhelming sentiment expressed by the people living on either side of the India-Bangladesh border during a field visit early May this year.

By directing the Centre to take up stalled works on the ¿Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal Project¿ (SYL) involving Punjab and Haryana recently, the Supreme Court may have re-established the supremacy of the higher judiciary in matters pertaining to inter-State river water disputes, among others. In doing so, Justices Ruma Pal and P Venkatarama Reddi may have also reversed the belief in certain quarters that a political solution may be the best way out

After much bonhomie in Beijing, PM Modi has moved on to raise India's strategic profile in two key states on China's periphery - Mongolia and South Korea. Although geography limits New Delhi's role in East Asia, Modi is betting India can win friends and partners through active engagement.

The Peshawar attack offers the Pakistan leadership a corner to turn around - it only needs to first define who is a terrorist? But is the military and civilian leadership of Pakistan capable, and willing, to take on the terrorist groups, especially TTP? The rhetoric and actions on the part of the leadership raise serious doubts about the will.

The Centre for Resources Management, ORF organised a focus group meeting on the need for reforms in pricing petroleum products on February 9, 2009 at its New Delhi campus.

Mitt Romney has already won the nomination race. This is when he needed to move towards appealing to the undecided voters and may be a few disgruntled democrats and liberals. Picking Paul Ryan is unlikely to help convince them.

As the world today looks up to India as a net security provider, Delhi needs to recast its peacekeeping strategy by modernising its decision-making structures, expanding domestic defence capabilities, and strengthening its military diplomacy.

Why has the UPA been so ineffective in pushing GDP growth in its second term? Why has it not been able to tame inflation? Looking back, it was the three stimulus packages that the UPA government gave that was responsible for much of what is wrong today.

During a recent discussion on Indo-US relations, a former senior adviser to the Government of India, who retired some years ago, expressed his surprise that the community of non-governmental strategic analysts in New Delhi had failed to forewarn the policy-makers of the Government of India over the likelihood of opposition from the US to the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan till the Indian border to sell gas to Pakistan a

Piracy in the Arabian Sea has been coming dangerously close to the Indian shores. Piracy and sea terrorism also affect the security and commercial interests of major powers like China who seek to ensure continued supply of energy across the Arabian Sea. The pirates collect logistical data and raise funds for Al-Shahbab, in exchange for protection.

If President Obama stays the current realist course on foreign policy, resists the liberal temptation to intervene everywhere, sustains the focus on rejuvenating America, the world will be dealing with a very different America.

There are strong indicators of a regionally dominant People's Liberation Army of China attempting for an expeditionary status, says Mr. Abraham M. Denmark, Vice President of the National Bureau of Asian Research.

In contrast to India's hesitant response to the humanitarian emergency following the MH370 disappearance, China's military operations have demonstrated Beijing's impressive maritime capabilities and the strong political will to use them.

It is half a century that planned development began in Nepal. Although progress has been made in some important areas, the expected achievements could not be realised,

Thankfully, India is today self-sufficient in food-grain production though a wide gap still exists between availability on the one hand, and distribution and pricing on the other. Much as the farming community justifiably argues that agriculture has become less and less attractive as an investment proposal in terms of the risks and costs involved, an increasing section of the Indian population has been finding it even harder to get one square-mea

Former Union Revenue Secretary M.R. Sivaraman suggests that there should be a planning unit attached to the Prime Minister's Office or the Planning Ministry, to focus on indicative planning.

The National Assembly in Pakistan is the highest political institution, a representative body of the people of Pakistan, at least on paper. While the Indian political leadership and public were engaged in finding new ways to firm up the peace process, the National Assembly,

While bus and cricket diplomacy is being played out with unbridled passion across borders, a dispassionate and more realistic discourse on human rights violations in Kashmir should form part of the new-found bon homie between India and Pakistan. There is a reason why such an assessment is important.

Considering the importance of the Shangri-La Dialogue and India's declared "Look East" policy, the absence of its Defence Minister A.K. Antony was inexplicable. This was especially so because Mr. Antony was scheduled to be in Singapore a day after the meet, en route to Australia.

By referring to the ¿unprecedented¿ parliamentary ruckus that marked his first 100 days in office and to globalisation in the same vein at the J R D Tata centenary celebrations in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have identified areas of concern not only for his party and Government but also for the nation as a whole.

India today is much better placed to deal with the emerging rivalry between Beijing and Tokyo. On the economic front, Modi should eagerly seek cooperation from both sides. Commercial competition between Tokyo and Beijing, for example on high-speed railways, should work to India's advantage.

Despite the strategic significance of the corridor leading to Bomdila, Selapass, Tawang and Bumla Pass, the state of the road infrastructure is deplorable. Accessibility to food, proper sanitation, waste disposal and more importantly transport and logistics are some of the key concerns.

The future of Indian cities will be good if planning starts now in all earnest. Every big city in the world has gone through the phases that Indian cities are currently experiencing but each managed to come out of that stage and eschewed stark human deprivation, though many still have ghettos.

Bangladesh has to change its energy policy resulting from demand outstripping the current supply. The country believes in energy autarky with focus solely on use of indigenous resources. But frequent changes of regimes and policies by subsequent governments has only helped arrival of more international oil and gas companies in the Bangladesh market.

Modi and Obama need to focus less on India's near-term carbon emissions and find ways to boost its use of renewable energy like solar and wind. Such an approach will address Delhi's need to grow its economy and Washington's desire to lessen the weight of coal in India?s energy mix.

China, Japan and South Korea have a long way to go in their trilateral free trade agreement. The road to an agreement is going to be long and complex. However, how this trilateral venture is going to be viewed by the US is to be watched with care and interest.

PM Abe has activated Japan's Central Asian diplomacy like no other leader did before. However, he is realistic enough to understand the enormous Chinese influence in the region. Rather than seeking to supplant that influence, Abe only wants to project Japan as an important and useful partner in the Central Asian scene.

Dr. Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka early September would undoubtedly be a 'game changer' for the India-Bangladesh relations which has been swaying between optimism and scepticism for quite sometime.

Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal on Sunday stepped down from his post, a day after his self-imposed deadline to resign ended on Saturday, August 13. He admitted to have failed in bringing major political parties on-board to advance the peace process.

Why has Modi chosen to be India's first prime minister to visit Mongolia? Mongolia is indeed a very sensitive neighbour of China, and the investment of the PM's time in Mongolia seems worthwhile. To be sure, there has been a geopolitical dimension to India's engagement with Mongolia.

Given the ground realities - where China's power exceeds ours by orders of magnitude - we need allies. That is where relationships with the US, Japan, ASEAN and Australia come in.

Prime Minister Modi has come to symbolise an aspirational India who has been chosen as "an agent of change rather than continuity." Experts think it is unfair to judge him in such a short time. His success depends on whether the rhetoric of the elections would translate into governance.

The rise of Narendra Modi from the Gujarat chief ministerial chair to that of the prime minister of the world's largest democracy within a short period of 18 months as a phenomenon is being studied, analysed and written about across the world but there is more to come.

Modi's strategy to navigate the impossible trinity of US, China and Europe-Russia is clear. Engage with the US, Japan and Germany aggressively and integrate into their value chains. Keep expectations low but exchange lofty targets with the Chinese and the Russians.