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Sustained India-Gulf engagement builds habits of cooperation and sheds light on each other’s strategic concerns and capabilities.

The current trade scenario suggests that the nationalistic notions of bringing China to its knees — by boycotting Chinese goods — has been a flop.

From the SCO and BRICS to the United Nations, the ongoing rivalry between India and China has expanded beyond their borders, posing new challenges

Wang Yi during his visit to India, paid a call on PM Modi and held discussions with Sushma Swaraj and familiarised himself with the Goa BRICS Summit.

As the Indo-Pacific region takes centrestage in international affairs, various stakeholder countries are engaging in different forms of economic and strategic cooperation. While such cooperation is implemented largely through bilateral or multilateral forums, certain countries are partnering to promote infrastructure connectivity in third countries across the region. This brief explores one such partnership that holds promise—that of Indi

Since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the Indian prime minister and his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, have been instrumental in what has been the most dramatic leap forward in India-Japan bilateral relations. While the two countries have made strides in strengthening cooperation in recent years, there are limitations that need to be overcome. This brief examines the challenges that remain in the relationship, including their sub-par bila

Although Muizzu is signalling a return to normalcy in the Maldives-India equation, his larger goal of reducing his country’s reliance on India still

The Kartarpur corridor, inaugurated in November 2019, is regarded as an important peacemaking measure between India and Pakistan. Various international organisations have welcomed the corridor, including the United Nations. Drawing from history, this brief argues that opening a pilgrimage corridor or renovating a place of worship, and other such attempts to bridge India and Pakistan using religious sentiment inevitably fail to address the deep-ro

Despite the kind words, emergency cooperation, and the defence relationship, there are longer term difficulties in the India-Russia relationship that are unlikely to be easy to resolve.

The India-Russia military technical relationship has withstood the test of time. Despite strains since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the relationship has remained highly critical both in terms of the level of trust between the two states and the imperatives of sustaining a military-technical relationship to counter the growth of Chinese power. A more synergistic military-technical is possible, and Moscow and New Delhi must explore ways to con

The new arrangement, if adopted, could potentially shield bilateral trade from the restrictions imposed against Russian companies.

This brief explores the factors informing the Donald Trump administration’s continuity on the US’s defence trade with India. The administration’s impetus to maintain US-India defence trade stems from factors like the ‘reverse revolving door’ policy that has increased the influence of US defence contractors, its ‘Buy American’ policy to boost US arms exports, and defence trade being construed as an incremental means to correct the bi

Bilateral ties between India and the United States have strengthened remarkably in recent years and nowhere has cooperation been greater than in the area of security. Despite certain divergences, both countries realise that there is a need for cooperation in combating terrorism to keep their homelands safe from extremist threats. Ever since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2014, India has invested political capital in improving

The Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal, its imposition of Iran oil sanctions, its withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord

Is India ready to enter the league of superpower nations?

The Centre must leave no stone unturned for finding a broad consensus around the issue by bringing on board all the stakeholders.

On June 14, the British newspaper, Times London, broke the story about issuing of British travel documents, on the recommendation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in 2014,

When the Budget session of Parliament began on February 21, people in general and industry in particular were hoping that the political class would ensure that the two Houses conducted the necessary parliamentary business to bring back the national economy and governance on to the rails.

While the Indian Army’s emphasis on integrating advanced tools reflects a proactive response to evolving challenges, a broader transformation warran

This brief examines India’s defence procurement record for fundamental platforms, weapons, and systems, as well as planned acquisitions and projects under development. The new Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2020) assumes greater salience not only against India’s chequered acquisition history, but also the increasingly constrained resource environment and deteriorating regional security scenario. The brief offers a set of broad recommendat

How does it play out in the larger technology war involving the US and China?

The Gorkhas, a Nepali military community, have long been recruited by the Indian Army into its Gorkha regiments. Gorkha youth are keen to join the Indian Army since its perks and payments are superior to those of the Nepali Army. However, India's new short-term military enlistment scheme, Agnipath, could alter this association. This brief discusses the impacts of the Agnipath scheme on military labour migration from Nepal to India, and on

An interview of ORF President to the Institut Montaigne on India’s foreign policy choices, in particular relations with China, Russia and the Europe

Afghanistan’s situation has thrown up challenges for New Delhi

With the advent of globalisation and increased interconnectivity, it has become less difficult for offenders in India to escape to foreign jurisdictions and avoid prosecution in the country. The importance of extraditing fugitives and bringing them before Indian courts cannot be stressed enough. Apart from providing timely justice and grievance redressal, it also serves as a deterrent against potential fugitives. However, India’s success rate i

There are calls for India to declare a net-zero year and offset its carbon emissions by various processes of absorption and removal of greenhouse gases. For India, such calls are irrational; despite international pressure, it has avoided making pledges or setting hard targets beyond its commitments at the Paris climate conference in 2015. This brief argues that “net zero” is not possible with India’s current levels of reliance on coal. Its

As the bridge between the Global North and South, India has demonstrated that building cyber resilience will yield great dividends and contribute to c

The world is witnessing a paradigm shift: India is becoming a more active player not only in contributing goods, services and training, but also in shaping the global development agenda itself. This Brief is a map of India's growing economic footprint in the developing world.

India’s attempts at strengthening its intelligence infrastructure and capabilities have historically been reactive and incremental, rather than holistic and sustainable. This was seen, for instance, in the aftermath of the Kargil War, and following the terror attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. India has rarely undertaken proactive reforms and done little to implement corrective measures subsequent to these crises. This brief offers recommendat

This brief examines the silent “water war” being waged in India in the form of conflicts over two opposing paradigms in water governance: the reductionist, colonial engineering paradigm, and the emerging, holistic paradigm of integrated water governance. The brief highlights the paradigm debate at the global scale, and outlines the canons of the integrated approach, contrasting it with the reductionist approach using examples in India. It mak

While corruption that happens at the top level often attracts media attention and the occasional national outrage, a great deal of corruption, which a

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 (caused by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2) has exposed glaring gaps in India’s domestic laws. Absent a rationally structured legislation to fall back on, the Union government in March advised states to invoke the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 to tackle the pandemic in their jurisdictions. The 123-year-old colonial law, however, does not even define what a disease is, let alone an epidemic or a pandemic. Ind

As India’s international stature grows, its intelligence agencies will come under greater scrutiny. The R&AW should institute a PR mechanism to

India’s G20 presidency is an opportunity that allows the developing world to play a leading role in bringing back the world economy to pre-pandemic

With $100 trillion in international long-term capital available for investment, there is no dearth of funding that can be tapped into, to bring India�

The integration of Science, Technology and Innovation goals into national policies helps achieve sustained economic and social development. This brief examines the key parameters that govern the global and Indian innovation ecosystems: research investment, education policy, researcher density, publication output, number of patents registered, and the startup environment. It finds that certain elements are crucial in developing a robust strategic

India has raised objections to the possibility of China and Pakistan involving third countries in the CPEC.

Lines of Credit (LOCs) are a widely used instrument in development cooperation, including for India. The projects funded by India’s LOCs attempt to achieve a trinity of objectives: economic benefits; effective project management and completion; and nurturing and enhancing diplomatic relationship and strategic interests with the partner countries. This brief explains how India’s LOCs function, and contextualises the performance of the

India’s interest could be more than economic, spilling over into the domain of strategy.

Speculations are rife about India possibly inviting Australia for the next Malabar naval exercise—which COVID-19 has caused to be moved to 2021.[1] If true, this would represent a break from the past and signal a change in the Asian strategic environment. Over the past few years, India has consistently resisted including Australia in the exercise, despite the latter’s willingness. The only other time that Australia was included in the Malabar

The Western Indian Ocean Region (WIOR) is linked to India in several ways, yet it remains conspicuous in its absence from India’s foreign policy discourse. This lack of attention is now beginning to reverse as external players stake their geopolitical claims in the region. India has responded by reorienting its own nautical outlook towards WIOR and building friendly relationships with African countries that straddle the region. This bri

Global partnerships across domains hold promise for bridging developmental disparities and bolstering the Northeast's economic outlook

The tax rate may end up being closer to eight which isn't exactly the simplicity that GST promised to bring to paying taxes in India.

New Delhi is increasingly positioning itself as a significant player in African peace, security and development. Examining the question of how India responds to state fragility in Africa, this brief finds that India’s engagement is mostly transactional: working around, rather than on, sources of political fragility. Development and security interventions tend to operate in silos, but might change if Indian commercial investments are threatened

New Delhi now ought to prove its logistical capabilities in accomplishing the full potential of the port to maintain its credibility in the global con