2080 results found
Democracy costs a lot of money. To fight elections and run their routine activities, political parties in India seek donations from all possible sources including ‘illegal’ and ‘interested’ money. This has serious ramifications in preserving the integrity of Indian democracy. An increasing number of countries, meanwhile, have taken the path of public subsidies and direct funding of parties and political activities — aiming to reduce dep
This paper creates an index to track the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation) across India’s states. The SDG 6 index incorporates both supply-side indicators and demand management variables, as well as institutional interventions. In this paper, state-wise indices are constructed to identify their respective performances in the domains of access to clean water and provision of sanitation facilitie
The 2014 general elections are all about the economy, jobs, good governance and rising aspirations. Survey after survey conclusively agree that for most voters what matters is stable employment, steady income, corruption free governance and a decisive leadership.
Even a relatively insulated US economy cannot entirely escape the ripple effects of sustained disruptions in one of the world's most critical energy corridors.
Not only is Indian economy sliding, but liberal democratic foundations of the Indian Republic are withering away.
Sri Lanka, which in the 1970s was being hailed as a development success story for a low-income nation, is now mired in a financial and economic disaster, its worst yet since independence in 1948. Despite notable investments in infrastructure projects, and a largely stable growth rate from 2013 to 2019, the Sri Lankan story was marred by a series of untimely and mismanaged economic measures that led to the current meltdown. External factors have c
This essay examines the Union Budget 2022 from the perspective of the changing paradigm of development governance as acknowledged globally.
Sustainable finance emerged as a key issue to tackle climate change at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference and is spurring a global transition to net zero. A peculiar feature of the race to net zero is that it cannot be achieved unless all countries can meet their targets, and any positive step towards it will benefit all countries. The drive to achieve carbon neutrality and net-zero emissions needs to be targeted through a range of
Urbanisation in China is taking place at an unprecedented level and is set to continue over the next decade. This is likely to present many challenges not just for policy makers but for the economy and society as well. This Paper tries and understands the ongoing process of urbanization, the impacts produced and the way that lies ahead.
The limited development of India's maritime capacities is a cause for strategic concern, especially considering the impact on the nation's economy, which is currently dependent on sea-borne trade for its well being.
There is little doubt that fragile states often need external assistance to survive. In the past decade Pakistan has become one such case. A struggling economy, chronic poverty, poor provisions of public services, internal violence
Questions about the utility of globalisation are not new. Could the COVID-19 outbreak be the final nail on the coffin for an idea that drove the world economy in the past three decades? In theory, countries would produce what they specialised in, leaving it to the market to ensure everyone got a better price for it. As 2020 began, the pandemic spread from one province of China and soon disrupted production across the world. Countries banned the
While in India, China and many other countries, the main worry is the inflation, the US, the biggest economy in the world, is not facing inflation but a colossal public debt which crossed the government's stipulated limit recently. Currently the US debt stands at $14.6 trillion.
US consumer spending and consumer confidence have to pick up, but this can happen only if people have jobs and regular incomes, and the private sector which runs 80 per cent of the US economy starts hiring more people. Also the manufacturing growth will have to pick up and the dependence on Chinese goods needs to be reduced.
There seems to be a revival of American interest in Africa. What are the reasons for this? What are the past and current US policies towards the region? Are these interests and policies different from those it had during the Cold War? How do Africans perceive the US? What are the implications of a renewed US interest in Africa for India? These are some of the questions that this Issue Brief attempts to answer.
As the election reaches its final stages, both candidates have experienced key moments of heightened voter engagement.
Cross-border payment is one part of the banking sector that has yet to benefit from recent progress in digitalisation. Most international transactions are still processed using a 600-year-old correspondent banking system devised by the Medici.[1] However, this system of manual entry of transactions is not a scalable solution for the burgeoning digital payments space. While this may seem like an issue for institutions, a huge segment of the popul
The issue of valuing water is contentious because of its physical, political and economic dimensions. Yet, it is an important debate, as valuation is key in estimating the benefits and costs of different management options. An effective valuation supports better informed decision-making in the allocation and use of the resource, as well as in the implementation of SDG6, i.e. to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanita
Some two years into the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi paid a short visit to India last week.
Most analysts agree that a dangerous mix of demand, supply and currency is responsible for Punjab’s drug menace. Punjab is both a transit point and a market for the drugs smuggled from the so-called Golden Crescent that is Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. While the heroin produced in Afghanistan is smuggled through the 553-km-long, porous India-Pakistan border, the opium, poppy husk, charas and hashish, among other drugs, come from the neighbour
The demand for basic infrastructure and services in Indian cities has increased phenomenally due to rapidly growing populations. Such unmet demands often adversely affect the quality of urban life, the economic productivity, as well as the process of sustainable development. The main purpose of this brief is to highlight the problems involved in improving access to water supply in Indian cities faced with a severe water shortage crisis. A case st
As UPA 2 enters the last lap of its tenure, it is not just the Indian economy that is unravelling. New Delhi's loss of purpose and direction in the last few years has had an equally damaging impact on the diplomatic front.
The Observer Research Foundation, CRM held a focus group meeting on the topic 'What do falling Crude Prices mean for India's Fiscal Deficit?' on February 9, 2007. Shri S C Tripathi, former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, chaired the discussions.
The agenda for change is a large one. This list or any other can be multiplied several times and still come up short. But the compulsions of reform are urgent. With a bulging profile of young people, India is said to be on the cusp of a demographic dividend. But that dividend could well become a nightmare unless we are able to fix our politics, our governance system, economy, national security machinery.
With tectonic and technological challenges causing disruptions, the neat correlation of a big economy with big power that bears big responsibilities is under scrutiny.
Against the contemporary background of strong systemic shocks to the global economy, the Group of Twenty (G20) must address the stagnation in developmental priorities and spur economic growth. As the current steward of the rotating presidency within the G20, India has acquired a unique podium to spearhead discussions on pivotal global challenges.
The world’s fourth-largest economy, with a hugely successful Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), can surely find the resources and technical solutions to care for the bezubaan (voiceless) denizens of Delhi and beyond
The challenge of a “net zero” for India is not an easy one. Being one of the fastest growing economies with the second largest population that aspires to be $5 trillion economy soon, will India be able to circumvent the trade-off between the environment and economic growth?
For Narendra Modi, going into elections next year, the focus has been to put across India as a major global economy.
The G20 — with its mix of developing and developed countries — offers the perfect platform for India to infuse partner nations with foundational ideas
The most urgent need is to upgrade India's physical infrastructure to encourage domestic and foreign direct investment in the manufacturing sector. This will absorb the rural labor surplus that is migrating to the cities by providing employment in labor-intensive, less technology-intensive manufacturing, regulated by humane labor laws catering to the contemporary needs of the economy.
The Russian attack on Ukraine’s agricultural industry has largely destroyed the agricultural supply chain. The impact has been felt on the Indian economy as well.
Though many perceived India’s withdrawal from RCEP as “protectionist” and “conservative”, it seems that India’s withdrawal from the negotiations was a wise move given the imperceptible and unestimated costs that arise on the domestic economic, geoeconomic and geopolitical fronts.
The challenge for Iran's President-elect Dr. Hassan Rouhani lies in not only appeasing the highest echelons of country's clergy, but also securing results for an economy that is on the brink of collapse.
While there has been no perceptible effect of tariffs on the economy of either the US or China so far, additional tariffs which could eventually cover the entire $500 billion of US imports from China will most certainly have a negative effect on both countries and the world.
An increasing number of startups and new businesses have been founded in India over the last decade, the majority of them by men. While many Indian women have entrepreneurial ambitions, it is often more difficult for them to succeed. This brief examines the impediments to greater participation of female founders in India’s economy by first gathering available data to describe the situation of women entrepreneurs in the country. It then explores
Current policies in India have increased the number of women in employment and improved their economic visibility. However, these policies and schemes have yet to impact women’s economic stakeholdership and, thereby, the broader goals of social justice. Most of them facilitate credit access, skilling, and entry, but fail to support women’s integration into supply chains, market associations, or procurement systems. Consequently, although nati
