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A VERY recent multiauthored paper titled ‘Mapping the world’s free-flowing rivers’ has been published in the journal Nature.

Despite India’s recent seeking of friendlier ties with Beijing, the future prospects for relations remain uncertain.

Dealing with Dragon: Four wavering democracies are trying to take on a determined power

2004 is a significant year for Europe. In May of this year, the European Union (EU) will induct ten new members, eight of which were part of the former Communist regime of the Soviet Union. While four of these East European states (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) are struggling with mounting budget deficits and contemplating awkward spending cuts, France and Germany (the dominant European powers) are immersed in a deep economic

More than the Pakistani elections of 2018, it is the Indian General Elections 2019 that could see some movement on the Indo-Pak track, if at all.

The Nepalese government¿s offer of surrender and rehabilitation to Maoist insurgents¿announced by Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa on December 18, 2003¿¿whose deadline concluded on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the Maoist ¿People¿s War¿, on February 12, 2004, has met with partial success.

Trump Tantrum: US sanctions on Iran threaten to hit India’s strategic interests in West Asia

Accountability is needed for both past and present regimes

The media in India enjoys a great deal of freedom and when it is threatened, the response is vociferous. Nevertheless, there is the need to maintain a balance between free expression and other community and individual rights; this responsibility should not be borne by the judiciary alone, but by all those who enjoy these rights.  

The BRICS is growing more relevant and increasingly institutionalised. Economic growth rates continue to outpace the rest of the developing world. According to the UNDP, Brazil, China and India's combined GDP will be greater than the combined GDP of the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany and Italy by 2020.

In two sets of visits to the Central Asian region in 2013 and 2014, Xi Jinping set a scorching pace for Modi to follow. Unfortunately for India, even a super-star Prime Minister cannot do the impossible. He lacks the vast investible resources that China has already deployed and is deploying in the region.

When Dr. Hassan Rouhani takes charge as the new President of the Iranian republic on 4th August 2013, there are two most important challenges before him -- the mismanaged economy and the intractable nuclear negotiations that seem to have hit a road block.

While the issues are tricky for the UK, the EU is also in a difficult position with the wider EU under stress.

The electoral system of India has flaws and there is an 'anti-democratic conspiracy of silence' to hide it, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Mr. Salman Khurshid said during a talk on 'Has the Indian Electoral System Failed?' organized by the ORF Mumbai chapter of Observer Research Foundation on January 24,

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

In the absence of a legal framework, Beijing is in overdrive to build its cyberspace capabilities—with military ramifications—as the world looks askance.  

Beijing's expanding footprint in this oil-rich region has set the stage for a competition with Washington

While Nepal has signed up for a rail link with Tibet, it stands to gain more from projects with the Indian Railways.

The challenge will be how India and other countries use this opportunity to restore strategic balance in the region.

Taiwan’s civil society has hit the streets to register their displeasure against what they perceive as Beijing’s moves to get a backdoor entry into Taiwan’s democratic process.

India and Japan unite over Beijing's moon landings and antisatellite weapons

There is public anger against China and a dominant feeling that China has to be stopped before it succeeds in changing the status-quo on the India-China boundary

The last India-Africa Forum Summit took place in New Delhi way back in 2015, and significant shifts in global geopolitics and geoeconomics have occurred since then.

India has seen a huge jump in screen time by 25 per cent (4.9 hours pre-COVID to 6.9 hours) during the pandemic.

The response to the country’s new defense budget suggests that Beijing continues to be tone deaf to regional anxieties.

China will continue to shield Pakistan. The Wuhan spirit, if it ever existed, is gasping for breath — and New Delhi will have to firm up its response to China.

Beijing’s move, though unsurprising, is not without significance.

For the biggest maritime parade held in China since 1949, the People's Liberation Army Navy deployed 48 warships, 76 aircraft and 10,000 sailors and marines.

A new Pew Research Survey indicates that the US still continues to be perceived in positive light and that a conflict between China and its neighbours over territorial disputes is likely. A new Pew Research Survey indicates that the US still continues to be perceived in positive light and that a conflict between China and its neighbours over territorial disputes is likely.

With China aiming to develop a "world-class" military by 2050 that can fight and win wars across all theatres, Indian conventional and nuclear thinking will also have to evolve

The Shanghai spirit moved into the next phase of its development as the fourth summit of the six-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) began at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on May 17, 2004. From a security-centred organisation that came into being in June 2001,

Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan's tri-nation goodwill tour started with Pakistan on March 22, 2004 and ended with Thailand, with an in-between five-day visit to India from March 26 to 30.

Tibet is where India and China meet. It is through Tibet that China manages its relations with India, using the boundary dispute to keep New Delhi off-balance. India is also where the most revered Tibetan, the 14th Dalai Lama lives in exile. Having failed to negotiate his return, there is now a two-pronged effort by China to deal with the consequences of the Dalai Lama’s passing and his possible reincarnation outside Tibet: to m

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is central to the country’s ambitious policy reorientation. The energy sector accounts for nearly 40 percent of all investments under the BRI, with significant geostrategic and geoeconomic implications. In recent years, China has adopted a “greening the BRI” strategy, emphasising green energy projects. This brief analyses China’s BRI investments in the energy sector to establish the potential trend

At a time when the world is distracted by the Wuhan virus pandemic, China has stepped up its plan to annex Hong Kong fully

China’s space policy planners are convinced that the country should aim for manned lunar landings by 2040. It has already established a sophisticated robotic lunar exploration programme and human landings are perceived as the logical next step. New navigation and communication architectures are being developed for this purpose, in addition to building life support systems and a suitable launch vehicle. However, China’s political leadership wo

Military modernisation was the fourth and last of Deng Xiaoping’s ‘Four Modernisations’. Even before the third modernisation got underway—that of science and technology—China began using commercial technologies to advance its military capabilities. This strategy has gained salience since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 and made it the state’s key goal to transform the PLA into a “world-class military”. Military-Civil Fusi

China’s nuclear weapons arsenal has grown and modernised over the recent years, and current estimates say the country has 350 operational warheads ready for delivery, over 248 land-based ballistic missiles, and 72 sea-based ballistic missiles. China also has 20 nuclear gravity bombs and additional warheads intended to be armed on land- and sea-based missiles. This brief outlines a history of China’s nuclear weapons programme, scrutini

China’s nuclear expansion could lead to a spiraling arms race.