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As digital twin technology continues to evolve, its impact is visible across industries, but without clear regulations, the path to encouraging this g

A pandemic of the viral disease COVID-19 has reached millions of people around the world with significant rates of mortality. With no specific treatments or vaccines in the immediate horizon, limiting contact with infected persons, the use of masks, and hand hygiene offer the only mitigation for now. This has led most countries to adopt severe isolation measures, which have in turn caused disruption of economic activity and increased unemployment

Dr. Sergey Kurginyan noted that the world at present faces the threat of descending into a vortex of chaos and whoever succeeds in managing this chaos effectively will be able to take control of the future of the international system as the new hegemon.

The recent agreement between Somaliland and Ethiopia has already set the framework for this year’s bumpy interstate relations in the Horn of Africa

To understand the different perspectives of the UK and India on the evolving situation in Afghanistan and the implications of the Arab Spring, Observer Research Foundation organised an interaction with experts from the Foreign Commonwealth Office on March 21, 2013.

The United States (US) has revoked India’s benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and imposed Section 232 tariffs on Indian steel and aluminium. In response, India announced retaliatory tariffs. This brief probes the ongoing trade tensions between India and the US, despite a reduction in the trade deficit. It discusses the heightened influence of the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) and outlines its apprehensions

The popular uprising against the Assad regime in 2011, which gradually evolved into a civil conflict, has been one of contemporary history’s greatest tragedies. The conflict has claimed more than 400,000 lives; over six million Syrians have been internally displaced. India has not joined the call for an end to the Assad-led Baath Party rule over Syria. While this position may not hold much weight on its own, it strengthens with the consolidated

This paper bridges the gap in Indian public discourse on the aims of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or Islamic State) and where it stands today as the most formidable terrorist organisation of the 21st century. It explores ISIS from the perspective of the Middle East, rather than coming from an Indian foreign policy and security point of view, of which there is no dearth in literature. Such an approach is crucial in understanding the terr

Pakistan is often accused of being a state sponsor of terrorism. This article bases itself in the belief that though the problem of ?Jihadism? may well have originated from some of Pakistan?s security paranoias, it is now assuming proportions far larger than Pakistan itself. At this stage, Jihadism will be a problem for Pakistan itself as much as for the rest of the world. At the same time, the ability of the Pakistani state to counter this pheno

The state of Pakistan, dominated by Punjabis, has responded to Baloch nationalism with brutal methods of suppression

Sri Lanka, which in the 1970s was being hailed as a development success story for a low-income nation, is now mired in a financial and economic disaster, its worst yet since independence in 1948. Despite notable investments in infrastructure projects, and a largely stable growth rate from 2013 to 2019, the Sri Lankan story was marred by a series of untimely and mismanaged economic measures that led to the current meltdown. External factors have c

Observer Research Foundation and the Experimental Creativity Centre (ECC), Moscow, completed the second leg of their collaborative research project on the theme "Understanding the Emerging Contours of Power and Hegemony - Contemporary Geo-political Narratives" in New Delhi on March 15-16, 2010.

Among the estimated 1.3 billion people across the world who have no access to electricity, 70 percent are women. This brief discusses the impact of energy poverty on India’s rural women. As women are primarily responsible for securing food and energy for their family, they are the ones who are worst affected by the lack of access to clean and modern energy. The brief calls for a more holistic approach in research and policymaking on energ

This paper analyses the contentious idea of a nexus between public opinion and foreign policy agendas, focusing on the Indian context. The paper examines the history of the discourse and outlines the key ideological divergences and events that have shaped the inquiry. It then traces the public opinion-foreign policy linkage in the Indian context, and frames the analysis against other representative democracies, specifically the United States. Usi

Radicalisation is a spectrum graph where the mass of non-violent extremists have accumulated at the bell curve on the horizontal axis. A smaller numbe

Various explanations have been proffered for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s renewed emphasis on ideology. The popular narratives attribute it to either Xi’s power ambitions, or a reaction rooted in his personal trauma during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Meanwhile, an alternative discourse projects the rise of ideology politics as a response to a possible legitimacy crisis facing the Communist Party of China (CPC). This paper weighs i

Four months since the outbreak of COVID-19, some vital unknowns about the pandemic remain, including IFR (Infection Fatality Rate) and immunity from reinfection. A clearer understanding of the risks posed by COVID-19, informed by science and data in the Indian context, will help the country in mustering an effective strategy to hurdle the crisis. The government must undertake mass antibody testing and scale up healthcare capacity across the count

Most experts who attended the focus group discussion on the situation in Pakistan at ORF felt that South Punjab is going to be next stronghold of terrorism in Pakistan

With its emphasis on decreasing India’s ICT import duties across the board, the US is in a way batting with China against India, not realising that

China has built up capacity to control unrest in the form of the ever increasing budget for maintaining domestic stability, but the state cannot forever use the tool of coercion to control unrest in the face of ever increasing unemployment.

Some observers believe after closely watching the activities of Anna Hazare and his civil society team that it is nothing short of the beginning of a political movement for changing the Government. Only time will tell whether such thinking is right or wrong.

Both India and Pakistan would have reasons to be satisfied with the joint statement issued at the end of President General Pervez Musharraf's visit to New Delhi from April 16 to 18, 2005, for talks with our Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh.

Historical issues straining Japan-Korea ties have severely limited the two countries to leverage their strategic and economic convergences to strengthen their partnership which could contribute a lot for regional peace and stability.

BSF's firing incident near Ramban has caused widespread protest in Kashmir and once again brought into focus the atrocious record of the BSF in Kashmir, for which the responsibility must rest with the Union Home Ministry. The BSF were never raised as a counterinsurgency force, yet, in 1990, they were pitched into Kashmir.

संयुक्‍त राष्‍ट्र महासभा में भारतीय विदेश मंत्री ने अपने भाषण में दुनिया के समक्ष भारत का समग्रता का दृष्टिकोण रखा. उन्‍होंने भारतीय विदेश नीति की बुनियादी सिंद्धांतों �

In Geneva UNHRC session, while West resolution against Sri Lanka, that satisfied none - possibly starting with the movers and shakers of the world that the US and Europe think they are - managed to muster 23 votes, those 'not in favour' added up to a higher 24, comprising 12 against and 12 'abstentions'

On 1 July 2020, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of India celebrated #5YearsOfDigitalIndia. Given the recent call by the prime minister for Atmanirbhar Bharat (‘self-reliant India’) the IT minister found the occasion apt for trumpeting a crowning jewel of Digital India—the Unified Payment Interface that was launched almost four years ago. This indigenous innovation has prepared India for both the restrictions o

If the government is serious about the empowering aspects of the Uniform Civil Code, it is imperative that the minority scepticism is assuaged. Clubbed together with contentious issues like Ram Mandir and abrogation of Article 370, and in the absence of a draft, the UCC becomes nightmare for the minorities.

एकतरफा आर्थिक प्रतिबंध लगाना चूंकि अंतर्राष्ट्रीय क़ान

Political parties appear to lack imagination. In this age of information technology, they need to apply their mind to devise innovative ways of arousing popular interest in public issues. There is a serious disconnect between the political representatives and the people.

The premise of this Budget seems to be a market oriented growth strategy - wholly fair given that the government will struggle to fund the growth needs of the country otherwise. One should hope this budget has set the controls for a larger shift in the government's approach towards administration and efficacy.

This essay examines the Union Budget 2022 from the perspective of the changing paradigm of development governance as acknowledged globally.

राष्ट्रीय बज़ट इस धारणा को बल देती है कि भारतीय अर्थव्यव�

This year’s budget has laid out the framework for a digitally-led India, with special emphasis placed upon digitalising finance

The highest allocations being given to the housing and transport sectors indicates that the government’s priority during 2023-24 is to provide shelt

What the people want of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and indeed expect, is an economic revolution that will change their lives and those of their children. To this end, Modi's actions, so far, add up to several IOUs, and a number of promises in the form of temporary measures pushed through in the form of ordinances.

If the dreams of this Union Budget have to become a reality, two important aspects need to be addressed -- transparency and efficiency, says former Revenue Secretary Sivaraman.

Drawing on his immense knowledge as a former UN career diplomat, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, suggested enforcement of various instruments of the United Nations to force Pakistan to comply with its counterterrorism commitments.

Continuity rather than change may well be the mark of the second Bush administration's foreign policy.It was billed as `the liberty speech.' George W. Bush, beginning his second term as President, said: ""It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.""

The Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, which had killed 1133 workers and injured more than 1800, was symbolic of a much deeper crisis, not limited to Bangladesh, according to Prof. Rehman Sobhan, chairman of the Centre of Policy Dialogue, Dhaka.

From 'being the Congress's most trusted alliance partner' during the UPA years, the CBI has now morphed into the BJP's instrumentality of 'fixing' political opponents. Prima facie it appears to be the case and analysts think one will see more empirical evidence of an aggressive CBI in the coming weeks as the BJP feels the pressure on rising intolerance in the country.

The policy decision to decarbonise capital flows are important in driving the necessary shift towards a more sustainable and resilient global order, b

Although India and the EU have not been able to tap into each other’s strengths, there is tremendous opportunity to overcome long-standing differenc

Peace and war are not the only options in any bilateral relationship. Numerous issues, more or less serious, emerge between two countries which demand

After the Ladakh intrusion, Delhi has sensibly stepped up the conversation on LAC management with Beijing. The recent violence on the LoC demands the same with Islamabad. When he meets Nawaz Sharif in New York next month, Manmohan Singh must seek Pakistan's renewed political support for the LoC ceasefire and an agreement to translate that commitment into a military reality.