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The Indian Air Force (IAF) plays a critical role in securing India amidst a world in flux. For this massive task, India must possess indigenously produced fighter aircraft engines to power its fighter aircraft variants over the next 50 years without falling into undue dependency on foreign suppliers. As the timely delivery of fighter aircraft to the IAF is linked to the security of supply chains, this brief underlines the need for both the develo

Delhi must not forget that the tyranny of geography limits India's role in Afghanistan. Delhi is in no position to compete with Rawalpindi in Afghanistan. Nor can it dream of replacing US military power across the Durand Line. For now, Delhi must welcome the current dialogue between Kabul and Rawalpindi.

The United States has, in its history, vacillated between global dominance and isolation. A phase of inwardness may be in the cards.

India will have to learn the fine art of staring down the dragon to preserve its political space, while embracing China for some important economic opportunities. At Doklam, it did the former; will a different India turn up at BRICS?

ndia was facing a massive balance of payment crisis when the Observer Research Foundation released a document, ‘Agenda for Economic Reform’, on 1 July 1991. The Agenda outlined the reasons for the crisis and recommended a broad strategy to enable the country to overcome it. As India marks 30 years since the start of widespread reforms that opened up the economy, ORF revisits the recommendations outlined in the document.

The visit demonstrated the diversified and comprehensive nature of the India-Australia partnership.

The great power contestation of the past one year has been characterised by the economic woes of many countries of the Global South, a global leadership vacuum and the resurrection of hard power aided by technological shifts in warfare

Trump has flattered Asim Munir into tactical utility as the US joins Israel’s war on Iran but that doesn’t alter India’s calculus

As the Biden administration grapples with the intricate interplay of domestic pressures and international obligations, particularly in the midst of an election year, there is a palpable sense of urgency to confront a myriad of challenges.

We will see the rise of a New World Order driven by national interest, reliability of partners, and of course, economic factors. India has to use a “Gated Globalisation” framework to negotiate this change.

India’s endeavour to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a well-defined and time-bound manner is critical for national and global development. This paper examines India’s data availability to assess the SDGs related to health and nutrition. While India is still facing severe challenges of generating disaggregated information on mortality and cause-specific deaths, the desired data on nutrition and healthcare utilisation are la

The Modi government should recognise the advantages of a defence diplomacy that mobilises external partnerships to accelerate India's defence modernisation, shapes its regional strategic environment and helps Delhi emerge as an indispensable element of a new balance of power system in the Indo-Pacific.

For New Delhi, a nautical pact with France sends a strong message to India’s geopolitical antagonists in maritime Asia

This shift in Germany’s strategic posture aligns well with India’s willingness to play a larger global role.

With the Sino-American divide deepening, India is in a prime position to climb up the global hierarchy

India should work more closely with the members of the US Congress in order to strengthen the strategic relationship between the two largest democracies in the world.

India’s aspirations to become the third largest economy in the world by 2027, and a developed country by 2047, need to be backed by a liquid, deep, and well-functioning debt market—something that the country does not have. Banks in India typically lack the ability to sponsor long-term projects because their liabilities are of a relatively shorter tenure. An efficient Indian corporate bond market with lower costs and faster issuances could pro

This brief assesses the growth of Armenia’s defence deep-tech landscape, and the geopolitical ramifications of its development for India, in particular. Tracing its historical development and current status in light of the current strategic volatility in the South Caucasus, the brief highlights the scope for closer cooperation between Yerevan and New Delhi in the deep-tech domain, shaped by such factors as issue-based convergences, Armenia’s

China is showing Nepal that the Himalayas may not be a trade barrier for rail-based trade with Asia or Europe or even maritime trade through the South China Sea. The landlocked country is now actively considering the use of alternative routes from India’s sea ports to China’s, once its roads and rails log into the BRI. This brief examines three learnings from Nepal’s growing engagement with China through the Belt and Road International Trad

As China’s two-ocean push looms large, India and the Philippines are closing ranks

This report explores strategies to strengthen the relationships among Global South countries, with a focus on enhancing regional synergy between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation BIMSTEC. The report provides an overview of BIMSTEC’s rising significance as a link between South Asia and Southeast Asia, provides insights into the growing need fo

The emerging faultlines in the Indo-Pacific are clear: An illiberal China intent on shaping a unipolar Asia, pitted against a ‘concert of democracies’ who seek a multipolar and rules-based alternative.

With no guarantee that the security environment in the Indo-Pacific will settle down any time soon, the expectation is that military spending will continue to increase.

The European Union’s (EU) and India’s paths towards becoming “cyber powers” could hardly be more different. The EU has a long tradition of protecting personal privacy rights and patents, while urging to enhance multilateral norms on cyberspace. India’s thinking on cybersecurity has continuously been boosted by the cyber threats emerging from China and Pakistan. It has further been shaped by India’s domestic Information Technology indu

A series of high-level calls, including between Biden and Modi, suggest a possible trajectory for relations between India and the new U.S. administration.

The transition from “looking” east to “acting” east signalled India’s intent to play a more active and strategic role in the region emphasising the four Cs: Culture, Connectivity, Commerce, and Capacity Building.

For Tokyo, the G-7 Summit was driven by the need to define and devise the means of navigating the complex geopolitical landscape of the Indo-Pacific

Will the government’s ambitious mission, ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)’ eventually prove to be a missed opportunity? Earmarking funds worth 10 percent of India’s GDP, the mission not only aims to respond to the devastating blow caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to serve as a long-term roadmap to growth. It is largely hinged on business-as-usual practices, including providing a push to the coal sector, which may be under

An announcement meant to create ripples in the Indo-Pacific has created waves across the Atlantic. But this gives France and India an opportunity

तीनही सदस्य देशांसाठी, नुकत्याच झालेल्या सॅन दिएगो बैठकीत सामूहिक आणि वैयक्तिक दोन्ही संधी सादर केल्या.

Rediscovers relations after falling out with China

After the first trilateral dialogue between Australia, India and Japan in June 2015, another trilateral process immediately got underway. is paper makes an assessment of the prospects of this new formation in the light of history, contemporary coalescing interests, and the inadequacies of the existing trilaterals. While the conventional view is that this trilateral is merely an offshoot of US foreign policy and ranged against China, this paper ar

New Delhi and Canberra have had to bear the brunt of increasingly belligerent Chinese behavior in the Indo-Pacific, pushing their bilateral relationship to new heights.

Relations between Australia and India are poised at an historic moment. These two Indian Ocean democracies have struggled for decades to find political traction, but in recent years the ground has shifted in positive ways.

Canberra and New Delhi need to streamline their defense and security agenda on an accelerated pace in the face of pressure on both from Beijing.

Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies globally. Over 90 percent of the country’s international trade is through the ports of Chattogram and Mongla, which also provide the neighbouring countries an access to the sea for trade and connectivity. This paper seeks to assess the significance of the two seaports in advancing Bangladesh’s domestic trade development, and their role in facilitating maritime commerce in the Bay of Bengal re

With six months left for parliamentary election in Bangladesh, politics is likely to warm up, charting a new course in the process. Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP) landslide victory in five city corporation elections suggest that the party has gained strength after facing a humiliating defeat in the 2008 parliamentary election.

Delhi's economic decision-makers, with their inward orientation, appear to have no capacity to think of a strategy for regional integration in partnership with China, or any other great power. The best it can come up with is to establish an official study group that can spin out the Chinese proposals for a few more years.

As the Quad gains momentum, states in the Indo-Pacific and South Asia are more likely to resist Chinese largesse

West Bengal is conducting a massive, potentially historic eight-phase state legislative assembly election between March and April 2021. This paper gives a historical account of the different factors that are influencing the conduct of the elections, including the economic challenges facing the state, unabated political violence, and the plight of religious minorities. It also examines so-called ‘Hindu nationalist’ and ‘Bengali sub-n

As Germany makes an important outreach to India, New Delhi will carefully watch how Berlin deals with its economic entanglement with China.

Japan’s foreign aid policy towards Myanmar has been an important component of both, its broader approach to Southeast Asia and its Indo-Pacific vision. As one of Myanmar's largest development partners, Japan has consistently supported the country’s infrastructure development and democratic transition efforts, while also providing humanitarian aid. However, Myanmar's protracted political instability, particularly following the 2021 military co

There are two streams of debate on India’s current nuclear doctrine: one on its current interpretation and deducing its form and what such form means for India’s overall nuclear strategy; and another, more internal to India, on what should be the Indian nuclear doctrine with respect to the evolving nature of threats. The two debates are not mutually exclusive. However, neither of them have contended with all conventional contingencies, in par

While the trip offered a chance to build on cooperation, it also reinforced existing differences between the two countries.

It seized the moment to create a front against China. But long-term sustenance will depend on timeliness of delivery

The legacy cross-border payment infrastructure is replete with issues of high costs, limited access, low speed, and opaque structures, which have limited the potential of cross-border payments to enhance international trade and foster economic growth in emerging economies. The increased demand for transparent, accessible, faster and cheaper solutions in the financial sector has pushed the private and public sectors to accelerate investments in in

The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan has completed 25 years of energy cooperation with India. The idea was/is for Bhutan to facilitate Indian funding for setting up hydro-power projects in the country,