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Stringent new capital requirements will choke off financing that’s urgently required to build infrastructure in the developing world.

Whether France can be a trusted partner in managing China is a question that many have asked after the fiasco of Macron’s visit.

Even if Donald Trump does not win the presidency, it is unlikely that enthusiasm for supporting Ukraine would be high in the US’s political ranks

China has often showed a lack of willingness to abide by not only established international law but also certain norms that the global community has fostered over the years. It has flouted the decision issued by an arbitration court at The Hague regarding its claims in the South China Sea; it has also appropriated intellectual property.  In the 1970s when the Western economies were taking the lead in setting global norms while balancing the thre

Presenting the Interim Budget 2024-’25 on 1 February, the finance minister announced an allocation of INR 6,21,541 crore (approx. US$75 billion) for the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Representing 1.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 13 percent of Central Government Expenditure (CGE), MoD’s new budget is an increase of 4.7 percent over the previous outlays. This brief examines the MoD’s latest budget and contextualises it in the curr

As China pursues its expansionist ambitions in the greater South China Sea, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is working to enhance his country’s ability to exercise its sovereignty and sovereign rights. Towards this end, Manila is expanding its strategic options through robust external partnerships and national policy recalibrations to secure its lawful waters in what it calls the West Philippine Sea. There are concerns, however, abou

In November 2014, India introduced a visa facility allowing foreign travellers wanting to come to India for recreational purposes, casual visits with friends or relatives, short-duration medical treatment or business visits, to apply for their visa online. Since then, the government has taken specific initiatives to improve the process, with the more recent ones including the introduction of three e-visa categories (e-medical, e-business, and e-t

For Japan, which deployed missile destroyer J S Fuyuzuki and SH 60K helicopters on India's invitation, the Malabar Exercise signals the growing importance of ties between the two nations as well as the personal importance that PM Modi has attached to India's strategic ties with Japan.

In the next Budget Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will have to strive hard to reduce fiscal deficit because a big fiscal deficit gives wrong signals to investors. The current year's Central and state combined fiscal deficit stands at 8.5 per cent.

This report makes an appraisal of the geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic dimensions of the linkages between India’s east coast and the ‘extended Bay’—Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia—with respect to port logistics, trade interactions, disaster management and strategic convergences. The aim of this study is three-fold: a) to examine the existing nature of port and commercial linkages between India and the aforesaid lit

With India seeking to connect the next billion, and becoming a key player in the global Internet debate, it is important to have clearly formed domestic policies. The combination of regulatory interest, corporate opposition and constitutional rights suggest that the time is right for a nuanced debate on net neutrality in India.

Azerbaijan has become an attractive investment destination, connecting Europe, Central Asia, Russia, and the Indian subcontinent via the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). Indeed, over the years, India has explored various options to enhance connectivity with Russia and Europe via Azerbaijan. This brief assesses how the Western Route of the INSTC and the TITR can improv

The metaverse is a real-time, three-dimensional world that is accessible through Virtual Reality (VR) head-mounted display. Called ‘the next Internet’, the metaverse is multi-technology and incorporates hardware infrastructure with immersive technology, blockchain technology, computer vision, and ubiquitous interfaces. Globally, metaverse is still in the nascent stage as stakeholders work to figure out its innovative and practical app

Social media is becoming an increasingly useful tool for radicalisation and the recruitment and mobilisation of individuals for extremist activities. India, with its unique socio-political landscape, is particularly susceptible to the misuse of social media. This brief explores the challenges posed by social media extremism in India and globally. It examines the psychological and societal impacts of platforms like X, the interplay between local a

Sittwe Port in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is part of India’s Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport project. It connects India’s northeastern states to the Bay of Bengal, advancing the country’s Act East policy and strengthening regional connectivity. Operational since May 2023, the port has handled over 109,000 tonnes of cargo so far, showcasing its potential to bolster trade. However, challenges to the port’s commercial viability persist,

The Iran nuclear issue is touching yet another point of criticality. The build-up was evident to the naked eye, the crescendo almost predictable. It was six weeks ago that Secretary of Iran¿s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, expressed Teheran's frustration that EU-3 (Britain, France and Germany) was stonewalling in the negotiations, meandering into blind alleys, lost in thoughts.

If the George Bush Administration in the US were wise, it would have waited for the current holy fasting period of the over one billion Muslims of the world and their Eid festivities to be over before launching its much-publicised and much-hyped offensive to pacify Falluja, the Sunni stronghold in Iraq, which is apparently perceived by the Pentagon as the nerve-centre of the anti-US resistance and jihadi terrorism in Iraq.

The stalemate in the negotiations questions the legitimacy of the WTO to promote fair and balanced multilateral trade rules that will address the past and current inequities, which developing countries are faced with. In the current situation, it would be useful to frame negotiating proposals which the WTO can take forward to conclude Doha Round.

In a diverse polity like India, discriminatory policies based on identity and citizenship are evoking diverse forms of resistance.

Economic experts firmly believe that FDI is the need of the hour and with political will and good governance measures, it could prove to be crucial in enhancing development in the region.

As Delhi focuses on managing Washington's pressure to reduce oil imports from Iran and avoid the imposition of unilateral U.S. economic sanctions on India, it could easily miss the unfolding power play in the Gulf between Tehran and Riyadh.

The First Energy Ministry of India was constituted under interesting circumstances. The former Energy Minister of India, Shri K. C. Pant delivered a talk at ORF on July 14, 2006 presenting his views on the fifty years of India's energy policy

A nation-state—with its numerous institutions, actors, and daily interactions—is a complex system and it is a tall task to predict the future trajectory of any of its sub-systems such as the armed forces. What is certain, though, is that every sovereign state aims to have a military that is of the highest possible calibre. One of two paths may be chosen to achieve this goal: tying-in the military’s capability development with the ec

Financing of infrastructure in India will remain a big problem despite the fact that the government has issued infrastructure bonds with tax incentives. Finding external finance is thus very important because the amounts required would be in billions of dollars.

Over three years since the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has made little progress in helping resolve the crisis despite releasing a ‘Five-Point Consensus’ (5PC) in April 2021. The political crisis that followed the coup poses a challenge for the ASEAN, which must now deliberate on ensuring not only the early implementation of the 5PC but also whether, and how, it should continue to abide by

Accumulated non-performing assets (NPAs) in the Indian banking system, specifically in the public sector banks (PSBs), have adverse effects on credit disbursement. An increasing amount of bad loans have prompted the banks to be extra cautious, which has dried the credit channel. Two components are key in resolving the NPA problem: the immediate task of resolving the current accumulation in the PSBs, and the more important long-term task of ensuri

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked rapid digitalisation worldwide, with work-from-home interactions, online payments, and online consultations for various services becoming acceptable practices. While this shift in the manner and nature of work brought enormous benefits, crucially in terms of access, it has also increased the kind of cyber security threats that countries face, with vulnerabilities felt particularly in the health and financial sectors.

The Union Finance Minister surprised many with his social sector-centric budget. No one expected the Modi government to go for enhancing the MNREGA by Rs 5000 crore or to have a huge kitty of subsidies ($37 billion) aimed at the poor. There seems to be a vision towards giving India a universal social security system for all and especially the poor.

ore reassurance comes from the fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 set at 3.3 per cent of GDP.

In the Union Budget this year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seems to have tried his best to address the numerous issues being faced by the micro, small and medium enterprises and to invigorate them. For this industry, the way forward is through a reformist social programme which will aid the weak and inefficient enterprises.

The traditional urban narrative does not conceive of the relationship between food and city in direct terms. In this narrative, urbanity can be industrial, technological, cultural and innovative—and by extension, its spaces can host factories, institutions of all kinds, governments and corporations, and entrepreneurs. But urbanity cannot be agricultural—and by extension, its spaces cannot host fields, seed banks, poultries, dairies and anythi

If Kashmiris derive purpose from the process of defiance, with only secondary concern for the outcome of this approach, then the ‘gods’ in Delhi may be condemned to watch in eternity the purposeful repetition of their struggle.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to a full-fledged international armed conflict, and the Ukrainian president has issued a call to people across the world to join the country’s battle through the International Legion of Territorial Defence (ILTD). At the time of writing, 500 Indians have submitted applications to join the ILTD, and one is already in the force. This brief contextualises the rise of Indians fighting ‘foreign’ war

It is absolutely necessary that the central government must consult the state concerned, take care of its grievances, and take it on board while making a decision. At the same time an effective foreign policy requires that the Centre will be in a position to draw the line and assert that the national interest must trump any other interest.

As a rising India engages the world with confidence in an increasingly challenging environment, informed contestations on foreign policy should be the norm.

Delhi appears set for a regime change, probably by the BJP-led coalition. However, there is unlikely to be any major change in Indian Foreign Policy. There might be more rhetoric, but not much in substance and action. In all probability, it will be a foreign policy which is realist and pragmatic.

Over the past decade, Mumbai’s civil society has raised concerns over the way in which the municipal corporation appears to be prioritising rapid development at the cost of the city’s public space. Indeed, the city has lost significant areas of its open spaces owing to various reasons, among them archaic policies, unrealistic goals, and the labyrinthine division of power and jurisdiction between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and othe

I have no problem with military officers running a nation as long as they are out of uniform and have won the mandate to do so. But when a military officer ousts a legitimate civilian government, refuses to shed his uniform and abuses the basic democratic right of franchise, there is a reason for the civilized world to be alarmed and ashamed. Such men are a blot on the democratic, civilized world.

On August 12, 2016 the Observer Research Foundation convened the first in a series of multistakeholder roundtables on encryption. This report is the outcome of the discussion of issues and proposal of solutions conducted at the roundtable. Being a complex, technical-legal question around access to data for law enforcement, encryption has long been a contested issue. Creating best-in-class regulation on encryption will require targeted interventio

India pulled out of the planned Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2018 after entering negotiations in 2013. India has a trade deficit with 11 out of the 15 RCEP countries and some analysts have theorised that India decided to opt out of the agreement because of such adverse trade balance.  Indeed, India has a trade deficit with most of its trade partners in past free trade agreements (FTAs). It is in this context that this br

Should the story of the French in Syrian custody become public in France, the voters will ask: did the government sanction illegal entry of our soldiers into foreign countries? Is the Syrian rebellion an imported rebellion?

Although Modi could not make Japan his first foreign destination as PM, he has kept the essence of his promise that he would attach special significance to ties with Tokyo. His trip to Japan is his first bilateral diplomatic engagement outside the subcontinent.

The amazingly imbalanced judgement on Binayak Sen handed down by the Chattisgarh court has some lessons for all. Basically, intellectuals are being put on notice. Don't cross the Red Line otherwise this will be your fate.

If the ISIS is not brought under control, the chances are that it could spread to Pakistan, especially Waziristan, a tribal region which plays host to most terror outfits. This could in turn affect India by means of border infiltrations.