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In all the hype and hyperbole about what to do with coal blocks, the plain fact is that the real danger lies in our coal reserves turning valueless for the country, of no benefit to the owner - the people of the land. They will be value less if we don't extract them before they turn un-burnable by climate action a few decades from now.
I have no problem with military officers running a nation as long as they are out of uniform and have won the mandate to do so. But when a military officer ousts a legitimate civilian government, refuses to shed his uniform and abuses the basic democratic right of franchise, there is a reason for the civilized world to be alarmed and ashamed. Such men are a blot on the democratic, civilized world.
After sending out confusing signal for months, France may have chosen the worst possible moment for intervention. Because its procrastinations allowed a whole range of potential opponents to mingle and be jointly prepared just in case the French did intervene.
France has continued to remain one of India’s trusted strategic partners, with cooperation extending across many issues.
In this digital age, how free speech is dealt with in a multipolar world, and the emergence of the new and complex forms of censorship were discussed in a talk on "Rethinking Media Freedom in the Digital Age" at the Observer Research Foundation.
The quotas in textiles, enforced under the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) which was signed in 1994, are going to be lifted on December 31, 2004 and the trade in textiles would come under the WTO directly. It means that all forms of protectionism applied to textile industries the world over, would have to go.
The COP21 was at the heart of the conversation on July 28 at the French Embassy in India, where the fifth in a monthly series of talks leading up to the Paris conference was held in partnership with Observer Research Foundation.
Should the story of the French in Syrian custody become public in France, the voters will ask: did the government sanction illegal entry of our soldiers into foreign countries? Is the Syrian rebellion an imported rebellion?
Although Modi could not make Japan his first foreign destination as PM, he has kept the essence of his promise that he would attach special significance to ties with Tokyo. His trip to Japan is his first bilateral diplomatic engagement outside the subcontinent.
The amazingly imbalanced judgement on Binayak Sen handed down by the Chattisgarh court has some lessons for all. Basically, intellectuals are being put on notice. Don't cross the Red Line otherwise this will be your fate.
If the ISIS is not brought under control, the chances are that it could spread to Pakistan, especially Waziristan, a tribal region which plays host to most terror outfits. This could in turn affect India by means of border infiltrations.
Better policing, if nothing else, could help eliminate the existing air of permissiveness and re-introduce a sense of security in women - and also in men - inside their homes and outside - than at present.
The 77-paragraph outcomes statement from the Ufa BRICS summit was inevitably going to be a list of ideas that would cater to different expectations and aspirations of each of its members.
The Vice-President of Maldives, in his address to the ORF faculty, recounts the long and bitter-sweet struggle against autocratic rule in his country. With an elected government now at the helm and democracy gradually taking roots in different spheres of society, he outlines the crucial challenges that lie ahead for the island nation.
If there is one thing on which all the ¿Dravidian parties¿ of Tamil Nadu stand united today, it is their criticism of the Union budget, presented by fellow Tamil leader Palaniappan Chidambaram. In doing so the DMK, the PMK and the MDMK, allies of the Congress at the Centre, have restricted their criticism to the proposed tax on the daily withdrawal of money from one¿s own bank account.
By delineating bilateral relations from the larger SAARC format, and at the same time taking them up after the Islamabad summit had addressed major agendas, India and Pakistan have done well for themselves and for the region ¿ without continuing to hold one the hostage of the other.
The BCIM Forum has come a long way, but there are still challenges. Clearing the geopolitical air may prove more beneficial on both domestic as well as international levels, than keeping them in the shadows.
Eighty-eight innocent civilians, about 60 of them Egyptians, and the remaining believed to be foreign tourists, were killed in three well-synchronised explosions by unidentified terrorist elements at the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt on July 23,2005.The city is a popular tourist resort on the Red Sea at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula.
Nomenclature notwithstanding, the evolution of an Indian National Security Industrial Complex (NSIC) must be watched with interest and caution.
Despite sharing a close historical relationship based on the Soviet Union’s support during the 1971 Liberation War, Bangladesh had for long been out of the scope of Russia’s foreign policy priorities. This is best exemplified by the fact that no Soviet/Russian foreign minister had visited the country until September 2023. However, amid Western sanctions due to its war in Ukraine and tensions with the US, Russia is seeking to reinvigorate ties
Tantalising tit-bits of information relating to the links between jihadi terrorists in Pakistan and Egypt and in Egypt and the UK have been given in an editorial on the Sharm el-Sheikh blasts carried by the "Daily Times", the prestigious daily of Lahore, on July 25,2005. The editorial titled "Terrorist Link Between Egypt and Pakistan " makes the following salient points:
Starting this week, ORF brings you the main events that have taken place in the week gone by in India's neighbourhood, from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka
In the 21st century, ideas and thoughts travel across the globe with considerable speed. And, areas inhabited by those whose ancestors belonged to ancient civilisations like our own are engaged in battles that are ideological and sectarian. Essentially, these are about dominance and reversion to a way of life pitted against those who want the systems changed.
It is important for India to analyse its ASEAN strategy more closely, as it has the potential to result in significant benefits.
Indian foreign policy will have to respond to the meta-trends by crafting an approach that is more than just the sum of its bilateral and multilateral
FTAs have helped consumer well-being by increasing consumer choices at affordable prices. However, the problem is that for any government to sign an agreement of this character would necessitate a better feasibility study report that is more holistic in nature.
To ensure that the role of "big money" in influencing elections and policies is banished from the Indian polity, state funding, small donations, public subsidies, membership fees along with strict disclosure and reporting requirements must be encouraged and assiduously pursued.
There is an increasing realisation amongst the media community in Pakistan that their State had been actively involved in training India-centric terrorist groups within Pakistani borders, said a delegation of Urdu journalists from Pakistan who visited ORF.
Amb. Hiroshi Hirabayashi, former Japan's Ambassador to India and currently President, The Japan-India Association, was in ORF for an interactive session
Mr L V Krishnan, a Nuclear Scientist who had worked with the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, gave a presentation on the 'Future of Nuclear Weapons', at an Interaction in the ORF Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation on 29 December 2007.
International jihadi terrorism of the Al Qaeda model will continue to pose the most serious challenge to the intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies and the police forces of the world in the short and medium terms, that is, for another five to 10 years. It shows no signs of any dilution of motivation and determination.
G-20 is an important forum to ensure world economic stability in a world of changing power dynamics and it is imperative that member states use it so, says First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea Ahn Ho-Young.
इंडोनेशिया और भारत के रूप में दो एशियाई देशों की अध्यक्ष�
For India, which is also experiencing declining growth rates in the last couple of years, the priority at the forthcoming G-20 summit at St Petersberg would be issues including the spillover of the global slowdown on emerging economies as well as quota reforms of the International Monetary Fund.
The G20 Summit at Antalya in Turkey is expected to focus extensively on infrastructure investment on one hand and climate and energy policy on the other. The latter seems quite natural, ahead of the Conference of Parties in Paris in December.
The G20, though formed in 1999, was chosen as a forum to discuss financial reforms after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.
Gaiko Forum, Japan's prominent think tank sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, has published a detailed report on the symposium on "Security and Strategic Challenges in Asia: Prospects of Japan-India Cooperation" organised by Observer Research Foundation in association with the Gaiko Forum and the Embassy of Japan in New Delhi, on March 18, 2008.
The Commonwealth Games was planned to showcase a modern India. But it has actually set back India's urban modernisation plans through disproportionate focus.
As China continues to expand its presence in international waters, it is developing capabilities to counter foreign submarines which, otherwise, may pose challenge to its ambitions. This is where the recently launched Gaoxin-6 becomes important for Beijing.
Gas in its varied avatars is going to become the most important bridge fuel for the next decades at least, with the world probably going to see very different gas markets dictating the geo-politics of the future.
Various issues and problems impacting the availability and accessibility of natural gas, the fuel of the future, came up for detailed discussions at the recent two-day 7th Petro India 2008, organised jointly by Observer Research Foundation and Indian Energy Forum in Delhi.
