Search

The government has been successful in maintaining harmony with the military and preventing it from reacting violently in the aftermath of Bangladesh Rifle's mutiny.

This brief examines the transformative impact of India's ‘Startup India’ initiative, launched in 2016, on the country’s entrepreneurial landscape. Driven by the presence of digital infrastructure and government support, India's startup ecosystem has seen exponential growth in the recent years. Today, the country has some 159,000 startups and a notable number of unicorns, positioning India in third place in the global startup ecosystem. Star

India aspires to be a developed country by 2047 which may or may not be possible. For the present, vigorous reforms will be needed.

More than a year ago, the Vice President of India, Mr. M. Hamid Ansari, pointed out in a speech the lack of good governance that plagued intelligence agencies in India, and a subsequent need for a parliamentary oversight committee to provide democratic accountability to these agencies.

The responsibility for bringing in reforms and change cannot be outsourced to bureaucrats and technocrats as reforms, in essence, is a political enterprise, says former union minister and senior Congress leader Mr. Jairam Ramesh.

The report is based on the key recommendations that emerged out of the deliberations at National Conclave on India's Energy Security: Major Challenges held in New Delhi on 14-15 February 2006. The recommendations emerging out of the Conclave have been compiled in this Report for consideration by the Government

After the loss in Bihar, now it is incumbent on Modi and his team to start rolling out reform, iron out the wrinkles and implement his promises, otherwise, 2019 will be a distant dream. The days of waiting are over.

The Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India and the Stanley Foundation, USA co-hosted an international workshop on climate change on February 25-27, 2014 in New Delhi. The central objective of the workshop was to unbundle the different policy responses resulting from the multilateral negotiations thus far and their impact upon the evolution of existing and future multilateral frameworks. This Policy Brief aims to capture some of the salient per

As the conversations around internet governance become trapped in confrontational language, it is time to move the emphasis back to decision making that works for all

The threat to regional security is mainly from pan-Islamic jihadi terrorist organisations and not from ideological or ethnic terrorist groups.

The ever increasing importance of States in foreign policy - which is traditionally a preserve of the Centre - is not restricted to India, but in fact has become an important matter of debate in international relations.

Former Pakistan Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Hussain Haqqani, has urged regional powers to begin dialogue to prevent Afghanistan from slipping into a civil war situation after the US pullout later this year.

This brief examines the education crisis that has affected close to 250 million children in India due to school closures implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It underlines that the switch to remote learning has created a “regression in learning” that, while cutting across the entire socio-economic spectrum, has disproportionately affected the poor, and among them, the girls. This pandemic-induced education divide and learning l

In August 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its final guidelines for a regulatory sandbox for fintech firms.[1] Technology innovations are disrupting the traditional financial sector, and the RBI’s regulatory sandbox exercise is an attempt to be more agile and absorb some of this disruption. ‘Sandboxes’ give regulators a chance to work with fintech innovators, mitigate potential risks and develop evidence-based policy, while fi

Chinese President Xi Ginping, who came calling in India recently, has been considered to be the strongest leader of rising China since Deng Xiaoping. But a spate of events has raised questions as to how powerful is he and if he is really in control of the vast PLA.

With the inauguration of a railway track in the Northern Province, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his two-day visit to Sri Lanka from March 13 to 14, has managed to hit the right string amidst the people of Sri Lanka. The trip has marked the beginning of a renewed India-Sri Lanka ties.

With the BRICS summit, India has tried to re-imagine the multilateral forum to serve its larger strategic ends in the world order

The 21st-century governance challenge is to manage globalisation while preserving the sanctity of individual pathways that humans may choose to follow in pursuit of their dreams.

If India is the glue that binds the Sino-Pak alliance, as many argue, Delhi should have the capacity to weaken that bond through its own policies. Delhi has managed to alter the triangular dynamic with Pakistan and America by expanding its partnership with Washington. There might be similar possibilities awaiting Modi in Beijing.

India and Iran are, in their own way, natural allies, a fact underscored by the increasing anti-Shia nature of Pakistan. We need them more than they need us and so we must begin the process getting Teheran off its great sulk against us.

Whatever be the end-game in the ¿Karuna rebellion¿ within the monolithic LTTE, the development may have heralded a process of ¿social justice¿ or social re-engineering¿ as is understood in India ¿ and also come to stay, in a way. To the extent, the ¿Karuna factor¿ may have become unstoppable in the socio-political sense of the term, whatever be the immediate consequence of the rebellion, or its impact on the suspended peace process in Sri

In the aftermath of 9/11, fissures between the 'Islamic' and 'non-Islamic' world - a categorisation which is rather nebulous - have 'vindicated' the claims of many individuals on the Indian and Pakistani side that faith is a cause of conflict between both countries.

One of the issues is how the rest of the world reacts to terrorism that seeks to avenge perceived insults and wrongs. There have been various writings on this with respect to Islamist terror and this includes writings by Pakistanis and Muslims from other countries who urge a relook at the way Islam has been hijacked.

President Bill Clinton's five-day visit to India in 2000 followed by a five-hour stopover in Islamabad convinced New Delhi that the world order had changed. Relationships were to be shaped by the new post cold war realities, not old loyalties.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must take a leaf from the Atal Behari Vajpayee book. Remember how he was stung at Kargil by Pervez Musharraf after his bus journey to Lahore. But he persisted. He was willing to go some distance even at Agra, the hardliners in his own party pulled him back.

This Paper outlines the potential of renewable energy in addressing India's energy supply and access; it identifies challenges and provide a discursive overview of the various market and policy instruments developed to scale up renewable energy generation. India’s significant economic growth over the last decade has led to an inexorable rise in energy demand. Currently, India faces a Ichallenging energy shortage. To grow at 9 per cent over t

With the new government in New Delhi, there is a renewed interest in internet and internet governance in India, according Mr. Thomas Dukes, US Deputy Coordinator for Cyber Affairs. He said the Digital India initiative has been revived and the Government's interest and investment in furthering it is clearly visible.

The strategic compact between India and the European Union (EU) is coming up for renewal in 2025. While the Roadmap to 2025, launched in 2020, was an important step in the relationship, the strategic partnership remains largely underwhelming. The unfulfilled potential becomes a matter of even more urgent concern today, amidst the geopolitical turbulence and geoeconomic challenges confronting the world. As negotiators from both India and the EU co

The synchronised explosions in London on July 7, 2005, seem to be the handiwork of the Al Qaeda and the International Islamic Front (IIF) formed by it in February, 1998.

Maritime terrorism directed at international trade and energy supplies is not just within the realm of possibility but a distinct threat that confronts the international community. Acts of maritime terrorism of a noticeable scale began with the Palestinian Liberation Front hijacking an Italian cruise ship in 1985.

The new Indian approach to Nepal, and to the South Asian region, form a core of the Modi government's foreign and security policy. The goal is to bind them closer to India through a web of economic relationships. To implement this vision, Modi also needs to untangle political issues that have bedevilled relations between India and them.

In the Kashmir Valley, violence has receded. But the situation is not normal, as evidenced by recent incidents of attacks. Normality will not come till the Union government addresses the sentiment that is exploited routinely by the Hurriyat. Normality will also be judged by the return of the exiled Pandit community to the Valley.

Before the Government plunges into the physical modernisation of the armed forces, it needs to put in place the much needed modernisation of the way we think about, plan and manage our national security system. Buying or making shiny new hardware for the sake of looking modern neither enhances our security, nor helps our economy.

In a world increasingly being shaped by rapid technological advancements, environmental crises, and deepening inequalities, the dominant models of quality education offer a narrow and inadequate vision. This paper makes a case for a multi-dimensional and adaptable capability approach (CA) that offers a transformative lens for guiding future policy reforms. It offers policy directions for India and other Global South contexts, advocating for a red

Following the Nirbhaya case of 2012 and the public outrage that it provoked, public safety for women has been increasingly deemed a political issue worthy of attention and concern, particularly in India’s cities. The government’s response has been to promote precautionary policies for women that, while may be well-meaning, tend to reinforce the prevalent social inclination to put the onus of their safety on women themselves, rather than addre

India now has an easier relationship with Kabul and Washington. An India-Pakistan-Afghanistan trialogue this year to try and dispel some of the suspicions Pakistan has over India's ambitions in Afghanistan may be the way forward.

President Obama recently outlined a re-oriented counter terrorism strategy that aimed at trimming down the predominance that counter-terrorism had occupied in US policymaking. The speech also made public Obama's intention to scale down the drone campaign, subject it to tighter scrutiny and oversight.

Two broad principles outlined by Jawaharlal Nehru must guide Delhi's current approach to the Asian power rivalry. One is to seek good relations with both China and Japan; and other is Nehru's insistence that postwar Japan should not be isolated or punished because of its imperial past.

The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is one of the most vibrant, distinct, intricate mountain systems in the world. An estimated 210 million people live within these mountain systems, and some 1.3 billion people who live downstream of the HKH rely on the freshwater obtained directly or indirectly from the rivers and tributaries of the region. Recent data shows that significant areas of glaciers in the HKH region are retreating at an alarming rat

The June 5 hartal, or shut down, brought back fears of the return of hartal politics which had been a bane of Bangladesh politics in the recent. Such shut downs often followed or preceded bouts of violence across the country, bringing the economy, and every thing else, to a grinding halt.

The full-fledged effort to resettle began last September which got stuck mainly because of the suspicions raised by the security forces regarding the presence of the LTTE sympathisers among the IDPs

The Donors conference this week attended by 60 Foreign Ministers and other leaders, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was, among other things, a demonstration by NATO and US led forces that they have the military muscle to host such a meet in Kabul.