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In many parts of the world, including India, Public Credit Guarantee Programmes (PCGP) improve access to credit for small enterprises that are unable to obtain assistance from mainstream financers. This brief discusses the relevance of PCGPs in India, their mechanisms, features, and efficiency. Although these programmes have improved access to credit for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), there are concerns regarding their efficiency an

The problem of female foeticide and sex selection was highlighted as a big public health concern at a seminar on 'Public Health Concerns and Reforms' organised by ORF and RLS in Delhi. It was said that India could witness elimination of 9-10% girls in the times to come.

The Centre having addressed issues in terms of suppliers' liability through parliamentary legislation in the case of nuclear power projects, the nation will have to now decide if it wants growth with risks or would be happy with riskless regression.

Some of the country's most prominent scientists, academicians, policy makers and industry leaders have pledged to come together to explore ways to strengthen research-oriented higher studies in engineering education in India. At a panel discussion on 'India's Leadership in Manufacturing: Role of Engineering Education' organised by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India's leading

A study done in 2010 by Observer Research Foundation for the Integrated Defence Staff, Government of India, Navigating Near: Non Traditional Security Threats to In dia, 2022', highlighted the huge deficiency that India faces and also recommendations to address some of the gaps

The results of the Assembly elections in five States, including Punjab, will be out on 6 March. It remains to be seen whether Punjab will stick to history and vote out the incumbent Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government or whether history will be made and the latter will be re-elected.

New Delhi and Islamabad dominated dialogue have failed to come up with any solution to vexed issues like Kashmir. May be sub-regions like Punjab and other border provinces like Rajasthan-Sind.

Army and the intelligence agencies have always shaped the political process in Pakistan and things won't be any different after the 2007 general election ---- President Pervez Musharraf is all set for his re-election in 2007. He has already declared his intention to be re-elected by the present set of elected representatives.

As part of this effort, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) launched a report, Health Equity and Inclusion in Action, which seeks to examine the ways different health initiatives in six countries across Asia and Africa are exploring to address this complex problem. The report, created by the ORF in collaboration with Gilead Sciences who commissioned it, examines case studies from Bangladesh, India, Morocco, Rwanda, South Africa and Vietnam to

While Moscow's core demands remain unchanged, its secondary demands have evolved. Among other things, it no longer objects to Ukraine joining the EU.

India's small-scale industries contribute 15 percent to GDP yet they have been long ignored, receiving little policy support and inadequate infrastructure. As they have the potential to transform the socioeconomic architecture of the country, policy interventions are necessary to make small enterprises more efficient and achieve higher growth rates. This paper describes initiatives to propel India's small-scale industries.

The US would be foolish to deepen the new Cold War atmosphere by trying to isolate Russia over Ukraine developments. As for China, that option is simply not open to them any more. The reason is that the Americans need cooperation from Moscow to deal with Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.

Russian President Putin's Eurocentric approach and having a Europeanist as his primary foreign policy advisor seem to be impacting on his policy towards Asia. The clout that the Orientalists and Indologists once had in the Kremlin is well and truly gone, and the relationship is that much weaker for it.

When more than a third of the world's population does not live to see 40 on average, it is clear that securing the right to life for these people should be the only priority of global developmental processes. Can there ever be any shared values, if there is no agreement on the fundamental right to life?

India's new GDP data speaks of robust growth (6.9%) rather than of policy paralysis and industrial decline in 2013-14. But even Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian is not convinced by the new data. Because, other indicators do not seem to corroborate the high rate of growth, especially when imports actually declined last year.

Left-wing extremists, Naxalites of the People's War Group (PWG), have traveled a long away from fielding hand-held, traditional farm tools as weapons. Their sagacity is, indeed, amazing. Perhaps, to state in a lighter vein, they would give a complex to India's defence technologists, if not put them to shame.

ATTACKING the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, on October 1, 2003, is most spectacular act that Naxalites of the People's War (formerly People's War Group or PWG) have carried out till date. The rebels have not only proved that they have the ability to strike at locations far away from their traditionally known strongholds but also that they were poised to expand their influence beyond the state boundaries.

Reports from Nepal indicated that a detained Maoist insurgent had admitted on the state-run television on November 17, 2003-nighht that the Maoists insurgents have received training in handling weapons and explosives from the fraternal People¿s War Group Naxalites of India. This is for the first time that such admittance was made in public on the national media. However, such reports of the nexus between the Nepalese Maoists and the PWG have bee

The striking capability and influence of the People¿s War Group (PWG) Naxalites¿ has steadily been declining in their flagship North Telengana Special Zone (NTSZ) area since the past few years. The death of some experienced, capable and important leaders of the NTSZ, especially in the past couple of years, in security force operations has weakened the Naxalites there.

Karnataka has emerged as the latest Indian State to witness violence involving the Naxalites, known variously as Left-wing extremists or Maoists at home and abroad. In an encounter with the police on November 17, 2003 a woman Naxalite of the People¿s War Group (PWG) was killed in Bollattu village, near Karkala, Udupi district, on the State¿s western flank close to the coast.

Biotechnology is a critical and emerging technology with wide-ranging applications in human medicine, biodefence, nutrition, and the use of bio-based materials. This positions it as a key driver of geopolitical influence and a pillar of global health security, where innovations shape disease surveillance and enable the development of medical countermeasures. Recognising biotechnology as an upcoming frontier in technology competition, the Quad cou

The latest Quad meeting underscored continued growth, but when will the four countries seriously confront the matter of direct security cooperation?

No accurate estimate is as yet available on the human losses and material damage suffered by the Al Qaeda and other jihadi terrorist organisations belonging to Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) as a result of the earthquake, which struck Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan on October 8, 2005.

As the total number of fatalities in the earthquake, which struck the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the North-west Frontier Province (NWFP) on October 8, 2005, crosses the 50,000 mark and is inexorably moving higher and higher as more and more dead bodies are recovered under the debris and more and more injured survivors are succumbing to death due to lack of medical facilities and protection against the severe cold which has already set in

The Government and the people of Pakistan have been coping, as best as they can, with the help of a flood of international assistance, with the colossal tragedy which struck them on October 8, 2005, in the form of a massive earthquake which has devastated practically the whole of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and large parts of the district of Manshera and other areas in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

India’s competitiveness in manufacturing and the success of ‘Make in India’ depend on its ability to produce high-quality products and services. Product quality is important for human health and consumer safety, as well as for protecting the climate and the environment. One way of ensuring that products and services meet certain standards is through technical regulations with mandatory compliance. However, technical regulations also have th

Quantum communication will fundamentally alter the landscape of digital communication once it becomes a practical reality. While hardware development may take time to materialise, software implementation is already underway, and holds particular importance in light of the impending threat posed by quantum computers to classical encryption. The United States (US) and China are investing heavily in quantum communication and have made progress. Like

Quantum computing (QC) forms one of the cornerstones of emerging technologies as we know them today. The technology has seen rapid progress over the years, but practical hurdles remain. The recent boom in Artificial Intelligence and the corresponding boost it has provided to classical algorithms also presents an additional hurdle for quantum algorithms. Countries like the United States, China, and Canada have made significant strides in QC and ha

The speed with which the ISIS initially overran an Iraqi army trained and equipped by the Americans causes some concern about the fate of similar armies trained and equipped by the Americans in the region. For instance, the Afghanistan army and its implications for India.

The Aadhar project remains complex - a herculean task. The UK government shelved its identity card project because it was untested and the technology not secure, and because of the risks to the safety and security of citizens. With India in the midst of an election, it remains to be seen what will happen when a new government is formed,

The conclusion on August 21 of the fourth round of the India-Japan strategic dialogue at Foreign Minister level provides the peg to assess the current state of India-Japan relations. These relations are headed in the right direction, but it has taken time to change their compass and the pace has been tardy.

The Third R. K. Mishra Memorial Lecture was delivered by His Excellency Mr. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, on October 5, 2011 in New Delhi. Outlining his vision for a peaceful and stable South Asia, President Karzai stressed that all the regional players would have to work together towards achieving this goal. This is the text of the lecture and proceedings of the event.

The 1857 revolt was not a mutiny for self-rule, instead it was staged with the aim of restoring Mughal rule in Delhi. Once the revolt was suppressed, princes loyal to the Company were allotted lands that were taken from previously annexed kingdoms, according to Rear-Admiral Mohan Raman (Retd).

Pakistan has not given up the use of terrorist groups like Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) to achieve its foreign policy objectives in India and Afghanistan, a policy which threatens to make Asia, and the world, more unsafe in the years to come. JuD, parent body of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), is a highly organised, trans-national terrorist group based in Pakistan which has links not only with Pakistan Army and its intelligence agency,

Radiological sources are used extensively in civilian sectors including for medical, industrial, agricultural and research purposes.  While the positive benefits are well-recognised, concerns about terrorists using these materials to develop a “dirty bomb” are also well-known.  Because of the extensive use of radiological materials in the civilian sector, these are easily accessible. The absence of an overarching regime covering radioactive

The chance of an all-out two-front war with nuclear-armed Pakistan and China are near zero; local skirmishes are always possible. The difference between planning for all-out war and a limited one is hundreds of thousands of crores of the taxpayer's precious money .

Governments chose the G2G route to avoid the perceived malpractices of an open competition, this route raises issues around possibility of malpractice in the commercial advantages to single vendors and the elimination of competition. Several revelations have emerged from the controversy over the Rafale order.

Rahul Gandhi, during his recent 75-minute talk at the CII, may have left enough hints - and some more pronounced than the rest -on the need for the party to 're-invent' itself and re-visit some of the policies, including those of the 'economic reforms era'.

A report by a London consultancy firm on the way the cookie might crumble within the Congress Party has caused pundits to carry neatly folded clippings of the document and make appearances at parties with the sort of glint in their eyes which comes from knowledge.

The Railway Minister's maiden Budget was full of promises and beautiful dreams which if realised will surely make the Indian Railways one of the world?s best. If he can succeed in fulfilling his pledges, Indian railways will have a great turnaround and facelift.

As the Modi Govt presents the rail budget this week, it is worth reflecting on the growing gap between the Indian railway system and that of China. If the British Raj understood the strategic significance of the railways, the rulers of independent India squandered the advantage and have wrecked the system rather than build on it.