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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun yet another important foreign visit, this time to all the five Central Asian republics. It is a well-timed visit. India cannot possibly replace or compete with China and Russia, but it can definitely improve its visibility in the region and provide much needed room for strategic manoeuvrability.

For any nation, development of infrastructure is essential to ensure growth. India has lagged on this front for some time now and the Modi government plans to give a major push to infrastructure. The government is in the process of preparing an ambitious infrastructure programme for the next 10 years.

Posturing for domestic audiences on Pakistan in election year is easy. But dealing with the challenges emanating from an increasingly unstable Pakistan will not be. And if we don't draw the right lessons from Manmohan Singh's failures, there will be no end to the tragedy of India's Pakistan policy.

Dr. Manmohan Singh's recent successful visit to Japan and his sixth annual summit meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister formed one more significant milestone on the road to strengthening and consolidating India's partnership with Japan.

As Manmohan Singh meets Myanmar's President in the sidelines of the Bimstec summit, this will give an opportunity for the two leaders to further deepen bilateral ties. As part of the two neighbours growing relations, a border security pact is expected to be signed during Dr Singh's visit.

India has to be realistic enough to understand that heightened engagement between India and China in BRICS or any other multilateral fora has serious limitations - limitations imposed by the underlying Chinese objective of keeping India bogged down in South Asia as a regional power.

Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, has made an impressive case for "economic statesmanship" which he said would ensure inclusive growth and stability in India as well as globally.

Though India and China failed to resolve the issue of the stapled visa for those hailing from Arunachal Pradesh, there was substantial progress in other areas. The memorandum of understanding speaks about nine deals signed during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit, his sixth bilateral summit with the U.S. leader in nine years in office, will not be of great significance because the circumstances of what go into a successful summit do not exist. That has to do with the paralysis of governance in New Delhi, but equally the distemper that afflicts Washington.

Russia is considering supplying Hydrocarbons to India through pipelines and both countries have commissioned joint study groups to analyse the feasibility of the project.

To convert Modi's vision of more governance and less government into a quantifiable experience requires a change in the prevailing mindset of electronic governance as an exclusive issue of hardware and connectivity. The approach has to be reoriented towards intelligence, analytics, real-time data points, interlinked cross-tabulation and smart solutions.

The composite dialogue between India and Pakistan has reached a critical juncture. In the past 20 months, there have been countless discussions on a variety of issues that have been plaguing the relationship between the two neighbours.

While technocentric threats pose evolved security problems that need to be addressed, overhauling the police force is essential to move forward.

Starting with the challenges faced by Indian petroleum sector in its hydrocarbon discoveries, the scenario remains to be unimpressive even after nine rounds of NELP bidding. Out of sedimentary basin area of 3.14 million km2 only 22 per cent has been well explored, while similar percentage is poorly explored.

On March 13, 2006, the Union Home Minister announced a 14-point policy on Naxalism in the Lok Sabha as outlined in a booklet, 'Status Paper on the Naxal Problem'. In an effort to counter political criticism and allay the oft- repeated concerns of knowledgeable and informed circles,

It is easy to be cynical about the elections in Iran to choose a new president. After all, the elected president does not dominate Iran's complex political system. That privilege belongs to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This does necessarily mean the current elections are inconsequential.

Brigadier V R P Sarathy (retd) initiated a discussion on Political Developments in Pakistan and Impact on India on Saturday 22, 2007 in ORF Chennai. He started his discussion on Pakistan's political development with Stephen P. Cohen's words: 'Pakistan is cursed by history but blessed by geography - always at the right place at the wrong time'.

The BJP, which benefited the most from the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi temple dispute catapulting it to power in 1998, would be faced with a serious dilemma in either case of the two possible judgments of the Allahabad High Court on September 24.

There has been a large degree of unpredictability with which political movements have gained weight in the region, making providing humanitarian aid to affected areas very difficult, according to the chief of the International Committee of Red Cross.

Although mired in a state of conflict for the past two decades, the year 2011 has turned out to be particularly bad for Somalia. The United Nations declared famine in regions of Bakool and Lower Shabelle on July 20.

As the election season heats up in the US, the language of fear and name calling is rampant within parties and between parties. Instilling fears of the other candidate into the minds of voters, through campaign rhetoric and negative ads and distributed many times over by the power of new media technologies, has emerged an important feature of the campaigns.

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, announced on November 14, 2003 that the forthcoming mid-term elections to the State Legislature would be fought on the issue of ¿crushing¿ the Naxalites. He declared in Hyderabad, in the presence of the national media, that Naxalite violence was hampering development and progress in the State.

For a person who knows his business economics well, the Railway Minister obviously realises that he will need money to make that happen. That is why his speech contained so many references to the need for budgetary support from the government.

With the decisive verdicts in these Assembly elections, and more Assembly elections slated in Uttar Pradesh and a host of others States before 2014 general elections, the voter has put Governments and leaders on notice, when it comes to performance and accountability.

Prof. Feng Zhongping, Vice President of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, feels that US's rebalancing strategy in Asia is not entirely designed to contain China but also based on economic considerations.

At an Interaction of the ORF Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation on 5 January 2008, Mr K J M Varma, until recently the Special Correspondent of the Press Trust of India (PTI) at Islamabad, spoke on 'Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto'

Attention has to be focussed on Saudi Arabia as it enters a period of transition and uncertainty in the wake of reports about a deterioration in the health of King Fahd, who has been admitted in hospital. In the absence of authentic reports on his health, rumours are rife that his end may be near.

As Rwanda commemorates 1994 genocide, now it has become a global example of successful post-conflict reconstruction. A talk at ORF by Rwandan High Commissioner Ernest Rwamucyo focussed on post-genocide Rwanda's unique story where ownership and innovative "home-grown solutions" helped re-construct the nation.

What are India's options to make Space Based Solar Power a real viable option given the cost factor and technology? Can the governments and the private sectors of both India and the US make serious commitments to take the first step towards R&D investment on SBSP?

It is high time that enlightened Pakistanis realize that the real threat to the existence of the Pakistani state comes from their own army which has usurped authority due to debilitated political institutions and geo-political concerns of western powers.

Given its unique position, the politics and governance of J&K have always depended on the good relations between the governments in New Delhi and Srinagar. When they have been disrupted, as happened in the 1983-87 period, it was disastrous for the state and the country.

The historic election verdict offers Narendra Modi an unprecedented opportunity. A truly transformative election that was fought on the issues of leadership, economy and governance has raised unprecedented hope and expectations among ordinary Indians. This is a verdict for change and Modi represents the face of that change.

Two years after the conclusion of the ethnic war in Sri Lanka, the nation is still confused over reactions from across the Palk Strait to the current developments - or, lack of them - on the prospects of power devolution and a political solution, also encompassing rehabilitation and reconstruction issues.

South Asia comprises of eight countries-Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Except for India and to an extent, Pakistan given our obsession with it, we know very little about other countries of South Asia.

Military strikes on Syria are no longer about Syria alone but, more importantly, about the US and its declared objectives on issues of conflict globally. The possibility of the situation flaring up into a wider regional conflict also looks very plausible with serious implications for India.

As ASEAN, China and India already share a high volume of trade and have common borders, an integrated ACI (Asean, China, India) region might be able to contribute to a more balanced and resolute Asia, argues an expert.

The next round of bilateral summit entails a US presidential visit to India. Should Modi become Prime Minister, then he and his Govt would expect the visiting President to lend greater clarity than Ambassador Powell's meeting now would entail.

An unrelenting power crisis is adding to Pakistan's woes. Power shortage has hit Punjab the hardest, shutting down industrial units and market places for days together and bringing people out on to the streets.

The Congress-led United Progessive Alliance government in its just released CMP has done the unexpected vis a vis power sector reforms. The Manmohan-Chidambram combine which was expected to resolve the nitty-gritty¿s of the Electricity Act 2003 has instead decided to review the entire Act itself.

The process of reforms in the power sector has undergone a full circle with the outcome of this general election and the people's verdict in at least two key reform oriented states, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, necessitating a rethink of the issue.

Many people think Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity with his famous kite flying experiments in 1752, but electricity was not discovered all at once. After various developments world over, Italian scientist Alesandro Volta made a great discovery in 1800.

The significance of the agreement brought out between rival Afghan presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, should not be overlooked. It has ensured that Afghanistan's democratic transition does not come to a premature halt. A timely resolution of the immediate predicaments could guarantee that it remains a durable one.