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This paper follows the proceedings of a workshop organised by ORF in August 2014 to re-examine India's nuclear doctrine. The workshop explored the challenges posed to India by Pakistan's introduction of battlefield nuclear weapons or Tactical Nuclear Weapons (TNWs), New Delhi's interest in acquiring a Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system, and the growing threat perception from China.

The current conventional wisdom now being voiced among American analysts is that the 2004 election is evidence of a conservative revolution in American politics. According to this view, the U.S. is now in the midst of a long-term shift to the right and the creation of an enduring Republican majority, akin to the Democratic majority coalition forged during the 1930s and the New Deal by Franklin Roosevelt.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to America indicates that the India-US strategic relationship has the potential to become the defining partnership of this century

This brief examines the reciprocal relationship between science fiction and real-world technological, geopolitical, and policy developments throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. Beginning in the 1940s, the analysis explores how the genre has evolved amid historical events such as the World Wars and the Cold War, and the rise of digital technology. The brief gives particular attention to the role of science fiction during periods of criti

The democratic transition in Pakistan has coincided with the last year of the UPA government's second term in India. As the government battles one controversy after another, the looming elections in 2014 may act as a distraction wherein improving relations with Pakistan may not be a priority for the government at present.

The ASEAN’s intent to be in the driving seat is clear as it seeks to manage the emerging regional order with policy moves

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

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

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

India will have to carefully navigate the emerging regional geopolitics in BIMSTEC

This report tracks the changes to India’s business regulatory framework in the first 40 days of the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus. The Union and state governments have been highly proactive in creating spaces for doing business while managing the ongoing health crisis. The governments have attempted to modify the business-related legal infrastructure within the confines imposed through the lockdown. While under normal circumstan

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

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.

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

The DMK's current resurgence had its beginning in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls that the ruling AIDMK-BJP combine lost completely after the negative fallout of the economic and fiscal reforms hit the common man

Instead of drafting a policy that first reduces, and then ends all reservations, we are moving towards strengthening them.

India must remain invested in strengthening democratic institutions in the Maldives

Often the success of a summit is weighed from the number of deals signed during it, and in the present summit, only a Memorandum of Understanding on BIMSTEC Grid Interconnection was signed, giving reason to doubt the jubilation about the summit. A closer view of the summit suggests more than one reason to be optimistic.

Enron Corp's Dabhol Power Station project, worth over-$3 billion, has, arguably, been India's most talked about project since the beginning of the "economic reforms" in the early 1990s. The 2,184 MW power project was acclaimed as the flagship project of the LPG regime that was ushered-in in 1991,

The Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI-Maoist, is the most lethal Naxalite group in the country. On September 21, 2004, the People's War (PW), popularly known as the PWG, and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI) merged to form the CPI-Maoist.

The Observer Research Foundation and the ROSA Luxemburg Foundation, Germany organized a two day International Conference in Delhi on Nov 23-24, 2006. The Conference was on Rise of China: Asian and European Perspective.

It is now clear that Aam Aadmi Party will be the major contender in the Lok Sabha elections in the first quarter of 2014 and would give all other veteran parties like the Congress and the BJP a real challenge. The AAP could even halt the march of Narendra Modi towards Delhi.

President Sarkozy's impending visit to India (December 4-6) should be seen in the larger perspective of India's rise and the external environment that has facilitated this.

To supplement the still lagging Afghan and ISAF security capabilities, alternative structures have been used or created, especially in rural or hard-to-reach areas. Two important groups among these are private security contractors (PSCs) and 'community defence' organisations or local militias. This paper assesses the impact of these entities on Afghan stability. Beginning March 19, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, drawing both material an

A roundtable at the ORF Campus at New Delhi held on 14 January made an attempt to look at the future of India and China in 2025. The session was chaired by Ambassador MK Rasgotra, President, ORF and moderated by Jim Yardley, New Delhi Bureau Chief of the New York Times.

Russia's troubles are unlikely to vanish soon. With the Central Bank forecasting a 4.5 per cent drop in GDP in 2015, a downgrade is a certainty. The budget deficit, forecast to be larger than 0.6 per cent of GDP in 2015, will prove to be another cause of misery.

The development is the latest indicator that the bilateral relationship is getting stronger.

The end of the Cold War in 1991 presented Russia and the European Union (EU) with an opportunity to reorganise their bilateral relationship. For more than a decade, they did manage to nurture close ties. Beginning in the mid-2000s, however, the relationship steadily declined, reaching its lowest in 2014 in the aftermath of the Ukrainian crisis. As mutual grievances have accumulated since then, there has been an absence of a forward-looking agenda

To understand the different aspects of the Iranian nuclear programme and its impact on the region, especially India, Observer Research Foundation, in collaboration with the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), organised a workshop on March 4, 2013.

Green jobs in the U.S. are nice, but won’t get India and other big emitters off a carbon-intensive development path.

We are far from junking top down, paternalistic, big man rule. Regional political leaders are no different in their preferred style of governance.

Good performance invites the curse of heightened expectations unless tempered by realism. The BJP manifesto fails to walk this tightrope.

The NDA government has not devoted sufficient attention to the Middle East in 2014. As New Delhi turns to the Gulf in 2015 and tends to its high stakes in the region, an intensive engagement with Saudi Arabia must be at the top of PM Narendra Modi's diplomatic priorities.

India is facing a fiscal crunch, and Indians were not told. For this kind of mismanagement, more than a Finance Secretary ought to go.

The Supreme Court did award NCR's elected government due authority. But, by leaving reserve subjects with the LG, it contradicted a global governance trend.

This issue brief examines the complex interplay between science fiction and technology development in the age of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and brain-computer interfaces. As the line between science and fiction continues to blur, this brief argues for strategically using science fiction narratives to inform and guide technology development and policymaking. Drawing upon historical precedents of scien

A recent report of the 2017-2018 Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (PSCOD) has revealed that India’s defence services are facing a severe resource crunch. Given the enormous amount of money that the country is already spending on defence, the chances are slim that the government will come up with the significantly higher amounts of funds needed for modernisation. Meanwhile, the armed forces are facing obsolescence in equipment. The wa

यह संक्षिप्त विवरण विकास के लिए प्रभावी और ज़रूरी ग्लोबल गवर्नेंस के समक्ष आने वाली सबसे बड़ी चुनौतियों में से एक पर चर्चा करता है, यानी संयुक्त राष्ट्र सतत विकास लक्ष्यो�

Goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals aims to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” Its targets include the promotion of resilience to disasters such as earthquakes. Many of India’s cities that lie in high-intensity zones—determined by ‘seismic microzonation’—are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. Such cities, therefore, must move towards developing and adopting policies that pro

India must remain engaged with the multiple processes underway on Afghan reconciliation

Shoba Suri and Subhasree Ray, Seas of Sustenance: Navigating ‘Blue Food’ for Indo-Pacific Food Security, June 2024, Observer Research Foundation.