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Over the last 30 years, digital innovation has been met with vacillating opinions on whether technology is emancipatory or tends to benefit those with political and/or economic power. In the context of innovations in AI in the early 2020s, this brief tackles the question: In a digital age, what is new in who exercises power over whom? It focuses on the power of States in relation to both citizens and territory, and outlines four areas where funda

The contours of the fledgling peace process with the People's War Group (PWG) Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh are gradually emerging. It is the second attempt in as many years. The Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh, K Jana Reddy, announced on June 29, 2004 that the government has requested S R Sankaran, a retired Secretary to Government and Andhra Pradesh-cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS),

Since 2015, China has been undertaking a thorough restructuring of its military, under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. This has involved significant changes in the operational structure of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), with the modernisation and optimisation of the military to bring about better jointness and overall efficiency. This paper examines the PLA reforms as they pertain to training and jointness in the Tibet Autonomous R

Given India’s vast coastline and a not-so-benign neighborhood, India has to remain vigilant to external threats via sea routes.

China’s growing economic might and its aggressive military posturing have provided India, Singapore and Thailand strategic rationale to combine their efforts.

Australia is back for the second year in a row, underscoring the Quad’s deepening commitment to cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

The China factor has steadied the two nations’ strategic partnership, despite their differences of opinion on other matters.

Indian Navy's reported lack of enthusiasm in increasing the number of participating ships and aircraft reflects the susceptibility of the Indian establishment to cave in to Chinese sensitivities. From a peak contribution of eight warships in 2007, the number has dropped to four this year.

India ended 2010 with a flurry of diplomatic activities highlighted by the visits of leaders from all the P-5 countries in the last two months. But, unlike the other four, the visit by the Chinese Premier came in the background of strained relations over a year created by

Despite earlier reports that India would actually participate in the Australia-U.S. led military exercise, New Delhi remained an observer of the latest iteration.

The ‘Cope India’ military exercise holds broader significance for the bilateral relationship.

The question of inviting Australia to the exercise, which currently includes India, Japan and the United States, has been controversial.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent decision to reinterpret the Japanese constitution to exercise the right of collective self-defence is truly significant and could mark a turning point in Japan's security policy in the coming years.

Exercise Sanghe Shakti, held over one week in Punjab in May 2006, was designed to test the Indian Army¿s new concept for offensive operations in the plains. This was the most recent in a series of annual exercises that have included Poorna Vijay (2001), Vijay Chakra, Divya Astra, Vajra Shakti (May 2005) and Desert Strike (November 2005), all of which were all aimed at concentrating and coordinating firepower and fine-tuning

Legend has it that the nursery rhyme, 'Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush...on a cold and frosty morning', was first, sung by women incarcerated at the Wakefield Prison in England while they were doing their daily exercise around the mulberry tree in the prison compound.

New Delhi and Canberra have had to bear the brunt of increasingly belligerent Chinese behavior in the Indo-Pacific, pushing their bilateral relationship to new heights.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has served as a laboratory test to assess the effectiveness of Cyber Warfare (CW) capabilities. It would be misleading, however, to extrapolate sweeping conclusions from this conflict about the relative ineffectiveness of CW. Rather, diligence should be exercised by Indian strategic and military planners in assessing the CW capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force (PLASSF) and enhancing

New defense and security cooperation efforts are springing up across the Indo-Pacific, between some Quad members and those outside the grouping.

Perhaps, the most critical issue for the five BRICS leaders, who will meet at the sunny shores of Fortaleza, will be practical goal-setting. This will be an exercise in planning and coordination to maintain continuity as well as honing in on objectives for the long term. If there is an opportunity to be seized in cross-leveraging political and economic ties, it will be in the coming years.

This was a budget without many surprises. Maybe we have evolved to being an economy, in which the budget is a mundane, technical exercise, of interest to economists and accountants, but of little immediate consequence for those who live in the real world.

Most participants at an ORF conference on urban development and creation of 100 smart cities in India felt that creation of smart cities is an extremely challenging exercise and for this, careful planning and effective project implementation are required.

Engaging the Myanmar Army in exercises such as those with India provides an opportunity for Myanmar Army officers to learn from the experiences of other armed forces in international military operations.

Last fortnight's India-China joint naval exercise, however limited, may be a new opening in bilateral relations. Coupled with the politico-economic CBMs of the past years, the Shanghai naval exercise is an indication that both nations are learning to overcome the bitter past.

Taiwan’s civil society has hit the streets to register their displeasure against what they perceive as Beijing’s moves to get a backdoor entry into Taiwan’s democratic process.

Beyond symbolism, the substance behind the latest iteration of exercises between the two countries also deserves emphasis.

China is extending its hand to Nepal, India’s Himalayan neighbour, which for its part is understandably attracted to the prospects that are emerging on its Northern front. How does China’s expanding footprint in Nepal affect India? This brief examines the possibilities for India’s success in competing with China in Nepal, and posits two overarching factors: New Delhi’s overall capacity to challenge China, and India’s political will to a

An Indian maritime expert feels China, which had increased its defence budget several-fold in order to retain or recover its territories in the disputed area, is also cleverly diffusing the situation by having joint military exercises with countries around the area to prevent them from banding together against its claims.

Climate is a global common, and the task of reversing the worsening climate change is a global responsibility. There are two aspects to climate action: adaptation and mitigation. This paper focuses on mitigation, the global efforts for which are uneven as some countries are performing better than others. The paper evaluates the mitigation efforts of the G20 countries, which are collectively responsible for some 80 percent of global greenhouse gas

The Indian Ocean is important to China because Chinese trade and energy resources transit this route.

In Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd v. Antrix Corporation Ltd, the Supreme Court of India has upheld the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order winding up Devas Multimedia Ltd on the grounds of fraud. Antrix is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and Devas is a multimedia services company. The decision comes at a crucial time, as foreign investors of Devas are endeavouring to attach Indian assets

The relatively small tactical operation did not meet its military objective but generated spectacular political theatre. The release of the videos in the run up to the elections is further evidence of the true nature of the exercise.

There are unlimited possibilities for strengthening maritime cooperation with Bangladesh and Myanmar - ranging from joint scientific research to environmental monitoring and from major trans-border projects to trilateral naval exercises. If Delhi decides to play for small stakes in the Bay of Bengal, it will deal itself out of the emerging great game in the east.

Given the enormity of challenges, there is a need for all the space-faring powers to unite in this exercise. It is important for India and others to debate and decide on what it thinks the norms should be and what sort of future it wants to achieve in space.

In the Indian context, the term, ‘Special Operations Forces’ (SOF) refers to all those forces that are especially selected, organised, trained and equipped for tasks that have an impact at the strategic level and are beyond the remit of conventional forces. India’s uncoordinated response to the January 2016 terrorist attacks on the 1 Pathankot Air Force base has again trained the spotlight on the issues of tasking, synergy and ‘jointnes

The Indo-Pacific region is becoming the world's new strategic and economic ‘centre of gravity’. Indeed, the accelerated trajectory of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) in recent years highlights the region’s growing importance. The Quad countries have committed to a rules-based order and a free and open Indo-Pacific, and are aiming to develop resilience across domains, such as in the maritime space, to counter and deter aggressive

The Sundarban ecoregion, straddling India and Bangladesh, is home to the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world. Parts of the forest are designated as World Heritage Sites in both countries due to their rich biodiversity. The natural areas of the Sundarban are influenced by human use and, in recent years, increasingly by climate change. This paper explores an institutional arrangement that could help identify and implement the options th

In recent years, different research institutions, government bodies, and private entities across countries have issued principles and guidelines for the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). There is little consensus, however, over universal ethical principles and how to implement them. What are the similarities and differences in AI ethics discussions across geographies, and what are the existing gaps? Crucially, if the larger goa

As China pursues its expansionist ambitions in the greater South China Sea, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is working to enhance his country’s ability to exercise its sovereignty and sovereign rights. Towards this end, Manila is expanding its strategic options through robust external partnerships and national policy recalibrations to secure its lawful waters in what it calls the West Philippine Sea. There are concerns, however, abou

This paper attempts to make a contribution in the context of the recent push in making India an e-empowered economy for promoting exports. The study stems from the premise that exports respond significantly to the costs associated with breaking into foreign markets and sustaining in those markets, whereas e-commerce offers a ready platform to minimise such costs. The empirical exercise focuses on export decision and export intensity, after adjust

The IMF estimates that State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) assets totalled US$45 trillion in 2018, close to 50% of the global GDP, and calculated the debt of the largest SOEs to be US$7.4 trillion. Clearly, SOEs have a direct bearing on the global economy. The most systemically important SOEs are the State-Owned Multinational Enterprises (SOMNEs) since they are focused on cross-border financing and business. A global framework for regula

आम्ही इंडो-पॅसिफिकमध्ये तंत्रज्ञानाची घोडदौड पाहत असताना, iCET चे उद्दिष्ट दोन्ही देशांना गंभीर आणि उदयोन्मुख तंत्रज्ञानामध्ये भागीदारी वाढविण्यात मदत करणे आहे.

The financial health of the Indian Railways, the single largest employer in the Government of India, has been in a dismal state for some time now. With the recent merging of the railways budget with the general budget, it has become a daunting exercise to conduct an analysis of railway finances. Yet, it is no doubt in the national interest to not only locate the shortcomings in the system but also explore solutions to improve performance. This pa

Proactively taking advantage of China’s involvement in the Taiwan Strait to fight China in multiple theatres is something Indian military planners should think about.

Sri Lanka¿s new Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, has indicated the importance, and relevance of India to the Sri Lankan context, by visiting New Delhi within days of his being sworn in. His visit to India even before the conclusion of the Indian electoral exercise was testimony to the mood in Colombo for increasing New Delhi¿s role and involvement in the Sri Lanka peace process.

In an important advance in the bilateral security cooperation between Delhi and Yangon, two naval vessels from Myanmar have arrived in Vishakhapatnam for joint exercises. While India's naval diplomacy with Myanmar is headed in the right direction, Delhi needs to step up the pace of cooperation.

Ceasefire along LoC has not really solved any of India's problems.There exists a dire need to look beyond the existing CBMs of providing advance warnings for military exercises and ballistic missile tests which are relatively "high level" issues.

There is a lot riding on the relationship for both New Delhi and Canberra given that both have a inherent interest in balancing China and ensuring a stable Indo-Pacific strategic order.