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If India wants strategic dividends from arms acquisitions, it must craft its acquisition policy in a prudent manner with the aim of bringing in knowledge that necessitates a higher degree of trust with the US. It should go beyond economics to factor in larger strategic considerations.

The former Governor of Chhattisgarh, Lt Gen (Retd) K M Seth, called for a national strategy and national level coordinated action plan to successfully deal with Naxalites of the CPI (Maoist). He was making a presentation on Naxalism in India, at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, on April 13, 2007.

If one looks at China's actions in the South China Sea over the past five years, the picture that emerges is of a rising China attempting to change the ground realities and destabilise the status quo. If the international community wait to see the end game of the Chinese strategy, it may be too late to de-escalate a military confrontation.

The Special Envoy for the Fourth Cyberspace Conference in Netherlands, Dr. Uri Rosenthal, says global efforts are required to help create "an open and secure internet that is an engine for growth and innovation and for the benefit of the people."

Like Chinese do now, India needs to create 'constituencies' in the neighbourhood that are not only sound but are also continuing. This is not to influence their decisions but to create institutional mechanisms that will be able to constantly update its knowledge and understanding of the existing and emerging situations.

As South Asia faces an increasingly complex and expanding disaster risk landscape, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the systemic gaps in risk management. There is a need for a paradigm shift in disaster risk reduction—from a single-hazard, single-sector perspective to a multi-hazard, multi-sectoral, and systemic risk perspective supported by parallel risk financing measures. This brief examines the current gaps in the efficient operatio

The transition towards circular urban economies in India needs policy frameworks that allow the development of skills and the inclusion of informal wo

Looking beyond the ‘tech’ aspects of digital public infrastructure to how it interacts with users as individuals, as collectives, and in societies

Considering that films and books, creator's freedom and that of the Press are not existential questions for which ready answers could still be found, whether enforceable or not, the answers too have to be in the realm of pragmatism.

Emerging economies are fighting COVID-19 and the economic sudden stop imposed by the containment and lockdown policies, in the same way as advanced ec

The fault lies not with the game or its practitioners. It is a delightful sport, capable of arousing emotions even in the most die-hard cynic of the game. It has spawned legends, created folk tales out of ordinary mortals. And unlike football, it has never been a cause of war between two nations. This time it could.

Dr. Manmohan Singh's invitation to Pakistani President and the Prime Minister has a special relevance for a number of reasons. And Dr. Singh definitely deserves kudos for pushing the envelope for Indo-Pak peace, in spite of not being on the strongest political wicket himself.

There was space in Pakistan for open discourse upto the Zia period. It is from Zia's Pakistan that poets like Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ahmad Faraz began to leave for other countries. From London, Farigh Bukhari wailed: "God, forgive me: these days it seems that Islam was only for tyrants and murderers like Yazid"

Immersive technology is a key part of the emerging Web 3.0. A prominent aspect of this evolution of the World Wide Web is the Metaverse, which aims to build a fully immersive and self-sustaining virtual shared space for humans to use as they would the physical world in all aspects of life. Existing concerns and debates on privacy, user protection, and the ethics of monetising platforms also extend to the Metaverse. This brief discusses the three

While the NCRB data on crimes in India is the most comprehensive set of data, it suffers from some data deficits that need to be addressed

The recent incidents in Crimea have escalated tensions between Russia and Ukraine and pose a threat to the peace and stability in the region.

The Observer Research Foundation, in partnership with the Center for Contemporary Conflict (CCC), Naval Post-graduate School, California, USA, and the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), Pakistan undertook a project, Crisis and Escalation in South Asia: The 2002 India-Pakistan Military Standoff....

All players involved in the current dialogue over the Ukraine crisis cannot afford for it to escalate but use the opportunity to reconstruct existing

With Maldives again in the midst of political chaos, its former Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem says India can play a crucial role in taking the country out of the crisis by keeping a close watch on it and helping reform the judiciary to ensure that the Yameen administration does not kill off democracy.

The Mali crisis has attained added significance in view of the fact that many other African countries like Nigeria and Somalia are also facing the problem of terrorism. The weakness of the armed forces in most African nations encourages such rebel forces. This re-emphasises the urgent need for an efficient African Rapid Deployment Force.

In Nepal, the President is now in a better position to call for a national consensus government. He could give the parties one last chance but if the situation continues, he will be compelled to take drastic measures.

India's desire to obtain self-sufficiency in solar energy needs to be backed with the necessary technology required to achieve it

Speaking at an interaction with visiting former diplomats from Pakistan, at Observer Research Foundation (ORF), New Delhi, on April 7, 2005, Vice Admiral (Retired) K.K. Nayyar called for a complete "U-turn" in the policies of both India and Pakistan for normalising relations between the two neighbours.

This paper offers a comparative study of India and China in higher-education reforms for the development of talent in artificial intelligence (AI), and in AI research. It analyses the AI development plans and strategies of the two countries, their automation readiness index, talent retention, and research output. The analysis is based on both primary and secondary sources including interviews, government and industry reports, and recognised ranki

जब ख़तरनाक रफ़्तार से डिजिटल वित्त सेक्टर आगे बढ़ रहा है,

The rise of China across a broad spectrum of power parameters is indisputable but the international community is concerned as to what kind of Beijing they will see in future. For one, given China's political culture and economic model, it is hard to see it emerging as the next US.

ICCR Director General Dr Suresh Goel says cultural diplomacy creates an additional space which softens the sharp edges of foreign policy, which is interest driven, thus fostering a favourable public opinion impacting foreign policy.

It has become fashionable to categorise Pakistan as a 'failed' state and paint a grim picture. The picture is far more complicated than this and there is more to the story than what we often hear.

Call it a discussion or debate or whatever, but the current European thinking on lending a religious identity to the emerging and expanded European Union may have a bearing on the evolving situation in India and the rest of the world. By referring to the ¿cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe¿ in the Preamble to the draft, Europeans may have begun defining and

Much of the internal conflict in Pakistan has centered on the question of national identity - what does it mean to be a Pakistani? This was the underlying theme of the round-table discussion on Current Events in Pakistan: Impact on Sindh and Balochistan organised by Observer Research Foundation on January 29 in New Delhi.

There is a consensus among intelligence officials, current and erstwhile, that the future challenges cannot be foreseen as they will emanate from the cyber world, space, the ocean, failed states and fundamentalism. The current intelligence system is woefully inadequate to meet these threats.

Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa¿s resignation on 7th May 2004 amidst mounting pressure from the agitating five political parties Nepali Congress (NC), Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), Jan Morcha (JM), Nepal Mazdoor Kishan Party (NMKP) and Nepali Sadhavana Party (Ananadi Devi) supported by the members of civil society has left a political vaccum in the country.

The nation-state will remain the fundamental unit of reckoning in the international system, but it will have to reckon, almost Brownian-motion-like, with other units and stakeholders in a fluid medium where disorder may have both permanence and legitimacy.

One of the questions that neither the Bush administration nor the Musharraf government has so far investigated is the involvement of Pakistan's military in the proliferation activities of nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Experts warn that while governments are getting better at managing cyber and internet threats, adversaries may go after private sector systems, in the absence of active public-private cooperation.

Indias reliance on outer space has become critical in its social and economic growthstories in addition to its transformative impact in the national security context. With growingreliance comes vulnerability to adversarial attempts to harm Indias capabilities, particularlyfrom the new threat of cyber warfare. Even as countries including India have debated the need todevelop certain counter-space capabilities, such as demonstration of an ASAT capa

Cyber attacks are not a security challenge that can easily be eliminated. No kind of infrastructure is absolutely impregnable and the adverse impacts can at best be minimised by emphasising on risk containments, according to experts.

The ASEAN Agreement aims to promote security and stability in cyberspace consistent with norms of responsible state behaviour

The India Conference on Cyber Governance and Cyber Security, organised recently by ORF and FICCI, is the beginning of a strong forum that can debate India's policies, help mould its strategy and simultaneously address global challenges.

The Ministry of External Affairs, backed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, will have to further streamline the efforts to address India's cyber concerns and also factor in India's impending interests in the global ICT trade.

This paper investigates, in the context of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Quad, the burgeoning threats posed by cyber mercenaries acting as proxies for revisionist states bent on destabilising the institutions and societies of adversary nations. The paper offers essential definitions of what comprises cybersecurity threats, including cyber mercenaries, and delineates current trends. Drawing on open-source intelligence and insights from cy

With both the goods FTA and services FTA in place, India is well set on the path of a comprehensive economic partnership with ASEAN. India, whose services sector contributes about 55% to the country's GDP, has been keen to sign the services FTA with ASEAN as it will help the Indian companies tap the ASEAN markets easily.

The increasing dependence on the internet across the spectrum is pushing some states to adopt measures to exert their sovereignty over cyberspace. Certain global events have also acted as a catalyst for states to pursue cyber sovereignty. The involvement of multiple stakeholders and the borderless character of the virtual world have made sovereignty a complex affair in this domain. This brief seeks to illuminate the concept of ‘cyber so

While the initiatives taken at the UN, including the draft code, could be viewed as a step forward, the clear differences in what the American and Russian sides seek to address through such a mechanism will remain a stumbling block.