Search

Uncertainty in financial arrangements is crippling and its trauma lingers. The good news is that this sell off is temporary. Stock markets are now back to where they were just two weeks ago.

As the world recuperates from the pandemic, India has a huge opportunity to enhance its exports in the lowest possible time beating its contemporaries

Nearly 100 million people are said to have been lifted out of poverty in China since 2012, coinciding with President Xi Jinping's reign as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Indeed, closing the income gap is a stated goal of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and part of the CCP's objectives till 2035. As resentment of the rich has grown, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi has encouraged the wealthy to embrace austeri

This brief explores the work of the Bengali diplomat and academic Jayantanuja Bandyopadhyaya, whose book, The Making of Indian Foreign Policy (1970) is considered a classic in Indian scholarship in International Relations. It analyses Bandyopadhyaya’s distinctive contribution to IR theory, especially his attempt to craft a “hybrid” approach derived from Gandhi and Mao, on the one hand, and behavouralist systems theories, on the other. It

Through digital osmosis, India attempts to balance profits from international engagements with national security considerations

China's assessment of its threat environment has evolved under President Xi Jinping, who underscores the imperative of bolstering traditional and non-traditional security. The Chinese Communist Party believes that inimical forces will attempt to overthrow it by penetrating the ideological sphere. Additionally, following the tumultuous presidential succession in the US in 2021, China has sought to cast doubts on the virtues of democracy, and is le

Politics is no more news in Maldives. Even media commentaries these days focus on culture and other aspects even as the news columns take time off to report more on crimes like abuse of foreigners by resort employees and the like.

This paper evaluates the impact of various policy reforms, including the economic reforms of the 1990s, on India’s manufacturing sector. Covering the priority sectors relevant to the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, the paper analyses the productivity of registered manufacturing units from 1974-75 to 2012-13. It offers empirical evidence on the growth of productivity in the organised manufacturing sector through an inter-tem

This paper argues in favour of integrating valuation of ecosystem services in development policy planning in India. The paper presents three cases where monetary values of ecosystem services have been estimated to illustrate the significance of the exercise: the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) in Uttarakhand, the Kunigal Wetlands in Karnataka, and the Indian Sundarbans Delta (ISD) in West Bengal. The first two cases highlight the ecosystem-livelihoods

The workforce participation rate of India’s women is significantly lower than that of the men; and amongst the women, the employment levels of urban women are lower than those of their rural counterparts. Using the findings of the 2018 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), released in 2019, this brief provides an overview of the current state of female labour force participation in urban India. It analyses data on vocational training and employm

In the recently inked sustainable development goals (SDG's) which identify international cooperation priorities and set the paradigm for global cooperation, India would be a key contributor laying emphasis on south-south development cooperation as an important pillar of the SDG's post 2015.

Australia’s world-leading legislation provides a template for creating cable protection zones that India could emulate to protect its underwater ass

Employing Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the health sector has the potential to deliver quality healthcare services that are both affordable an

Till today, women across the world remain underrepresented in politics. This needs to change.

As China surges ahead economically, there have been a ten-fold increase in the civil unrests (from 1993 to 2005) which in China is described as "mass incidents". Such incidents hinge on the issues of unemployment, pensions, wages, corruption, tax collection problems, misuse of funds, etc.

In the light of the fact that India is not a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it is important for the country to forge a deal in RCEP. In the current scenario, there have been increasing attempts by Indo-Pacific region members to voice growing concerns regarding Non Tariff barriers hindering trade prospects in the regional bloc.

Attempts to arrive at a non-Western understanding of International Relations have often been made to counter the “hegemonising” influence of realism in the Indian milieu. This brief examines realist scholarship in India in recent years to understand what variants of realism have been given prominence. It also notes the absence of scholarship of the neoclassical realist variant and how this gap leads critics to arrive at an incomplete understa

Participants at a conference on "Reassessing India's Juvenile Justice System" emphasised on the need to fully implement the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000 and the need for the State to provide enough manpower and infrastructure to take care of the aftercare programmes.

Recent amendments to the Forest Conservation Act seem to be contentious, casting a shadow over India’s just transition journey

The US pivot or rebalancing is an attempt of reassurance to its friends and allies in the context of the emerging dynamics in the Asia Pacific region. While China is a major factor in the US pivot strategy, it is only a part of the story.

PM Modi and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed are putting in place the building blocks for a prosperous Arabian Sea community

As the conversations around internet governance become trapped in confrontational language, it is time to move the emphasis back to decision making that works for all

This paper analyses the initiatives for regional integration in East Africa and the challenges that are being faced in this regard. The paper also examines the development initiatives taken by India in the region. Following the European withdrawal, statesmen ushering in independent Africa were faced with the dire prospect of addressing the many problems their colonial overlords had left upon them. Independent Africa was left in abject poverty

Geopolitical divisions among the countries of the multilateral consultations are making it harder to arrive at solutions suitable for Afghanistan

This brief examines the education crisis that has affected close to 250 million children in India due to school closures implemented as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It underlines that the switch to remote learning has created a “regression in learning” that, while cutting across the entire socio-economic spectrum, has disproportionately affected the poor, and among them, the girls. This pandemic-induced education divide and learning l

This report tracks the changes to India’s business regulatory framework in the first 40 days of the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus. The Union and state governments have been highly proactive in creating spaces for doing business while managing the ongoing health crisis. The governments have attempted to modify the business-related legal infrastructure within the confines imposed through the lockdown. While under normal circumstan

Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, India–UK ties remain unfettered to harness new strategic convergences in sync with contemporary realities

Attempts are being made by Nepal and India to revive the relationship through new avenues of cooperation with a focus on digital connectivity

With growing digitalisation and amid the ongoing pandemic, India needs to reorient its trade policy with emphasis on developing its own GVCs and upgra

The co-existence of China's geopolitical approach to energy security and its attempt to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy m

Following the Nirbhaya case of 2012 and the public outrage that it provoked, public safety for women has been increasingly deemed a political issue worthy of attention and concern, particularly in India’s cities. The government’s response has been to promote precautionary policies for women that, while may be well-meaning, tend to reinforce the prevalent social inclination to put the onus of their safety on women themselves, rather than addre

Myanmar government is proceeding with the BRI projects in an attempt to resuscitate the economy but this could come at a huge cost

Despite the call for a global paradigm shift in water governance—from the traditional reductionist engineering approach to the more holistic integrated river basin governance framework—a change is not yet perceptible in India’s water governance architecture. The hesitation to change has led to ecological problems and conflicts at various levels. This paper identifies the knowledge gaps that inhibit the paradigm shift and explores the lacuna

To give gainful employment to those migrants who do not want to go back to the cities as it happened during demonetisation is a big challenge for the

To give gainful employment to those migrants who do not want to go back to the cities as it happened during demonetisation is a big challenge for the

Western media coverage of India’s handling of Covid-19 is yet another example of the West attempting to diminish the East.

Budget 2022’s attempt to deal with critical challenges that the Indian economy will face is welcome, but a more holistic approach is still the need

In an age of extremism, terror, global information flows and communication manipulation, subversive international forces seek subtle ways to undermine

Since August 2021 when the US withdrew from Afghanistan, ceasefire violations at the India-Pakistan Line of Control (LoC) and killings of minorities in J&K have been reported. Indeed, the fall of Kabul to the Taliban has bolstered the anti-India establishment and the terrorist groups in Pakistan—putting the February 2021 ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan under stress. India's conventional military response of the type of the 'S

A roundtable at the ORF Campus at New Delhi held on 14 January made an attempt to look at the future of India and China in 2025. The session was chaired by Ambassador MK Rasgotra, President, ORF and moderated by Jim Yardley, New Delhi Bureau Chief of the New York Times.

New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's emphasis on political moderation and ending Iran's isolation is drawing attention to the potential reconciliation between Tehran and some of its Arab Gulf neighbours. He has also raised hopes for a productive engagement between Tehran and the West.

Much depends on the corporate sector and how it uses the money saved from tax to increase investment, which will help create jobs that will in turn in

Unlike the crowded and competitive Republican presidential nomination field, the Democratic field, for a long time, looked empty with only Hillary Clinton. The strong entry of Sanders in the Democratic nomination has given the American voters a fair choice between Clinton and Sanders' respective brands of politics.

Good performance invites the curse of heightened expectations unless tempered by realism. The BJP manifesto fails to walk this tightrope.

Considering that there are occasions when our laws are being none-too-frequently challenged in courts halfway through implementation, or court verdict

Comprehensive education reforms are necessary to empower youth to overcome challenges and seize opportunities to advance the SDG 4 targets

SDG 4 के लक्ष्यों पर आगे बढ़ने के लिए शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में व�

This paper studies the case of the countries of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) to investigate if progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) plays an instrumental role in addressing structural vulnerabilities. It finds that it does. Despite improvements in certain SDGs such as increasing per-capita income levels, improving healthcare, and providing universal