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Jawaharlal Nehru was clear with his idea of India: an Undivided India which included the Provinces under British Rule and the amorphous mass of small and big Princely States, which did not desire to be part of such an idea of ‘India’. In his battle to subjugate the Princes, Nehru found an ally in the last Viceroy Lord Louis Mountbatten sent by the new British Prime Minister Clement Attlee. The implementation was then run like a relay race whe

Democracies constantly evolve to meet the demands of changing times and the requirements of their citizens. This continuous unfolding includes reforms in the electoral system, such as in India. Debate and discussion over the issue of First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) versus Proportional Representation (PR) electoral systems have been ongoing for decades. The issue regained momentum after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance

Equipping women with employable skills is a far greater challenge than skilling men, as most women in India work low-skill and low-paying jobs in the informal economy. It is a gap that needs to be addressed urgently, as skilling can expand work opportunities for women and increase their participation in the workforce. This brief analyses the participation of women in skills training programmes, underlining the biases that lead to women being trai

Corruption is a subject of intense debate, discussion and guesswork in India. Even as estimates have been made about the extent of corruption in India, the real magnitude might be far bigger than all the reports have suggested so far. This brief discusses the current state of corruption in India and recommends measures and policy reforms. Data used in the brief are from both primary sources such as the income-tax department, as well as media repo

Pulses are the cheapest source of protein for Indians – and thus a favoured food item nationwide. The Indian pulses sector, however, faces numerous challenges. Scrutiny of the sector increased sharply after price fluctuations in 2015-16 and the increase in import of pulses. Government interventions, as part of the anticipated supply response to the shortfall in availability of pulses, did not entirely mitigate the problem. The sector stands at

India’s large defence industrial base has historically been dominated by public sector entities, although they have failed in meeting the growing requirements of the armed forces. The public sector suffers from inefficiency in productivity, innovation and international sales, rendering New Delhi highly dependent on arms imports. The government is taking steps to reform the public sector, even as it accords greater importance to the private sect

Women’s representation in local governance is a crucial indicator of gender inclusivity. Since 1993, the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act has reserved one-third of seats in Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to women. Multiple states have since granted 50 percent reservation of seats for women in urban and rural local self-government bodies. Today, women have become a crucial political constituency, both as voters and as electoral candidates. This pape

Ever since I returned from Kabul, I am frequently asked by friends: when are the Americans leaving? When I say, "I don't know", I am dismissed like someone who has wasted his time in Afghanistan and returned without finding an answer to a universal query.

This brief analyses the alignment between India’s development partnerships since Independence, and sustainability goals. It conducts the examination using three phases of India’s development partnerships—i.e., Phase 1, 1947-1990; Phase 2, 1991-2008; and Phase 3, post-2008—and finds that the country’s development cooperation agenda has historically incorporated objectives of sustainable growth. This pattern would continue throughout the

As Myanmar's general elections draws nearer and at a time when China's relations with Myanmar's military-backed government comes under increasing strains in recent months, Beijing seems to be stepping up its multiple-engagement strategy with key political actors to prepare itself for any eventuality post-elections.

The technology revolution of the 20th century minimised the importance of geographical, economic, social and political barriers and reduced transaction and information costs thus boosting productivity and growth, making governance more transparent and empowering the citizen. It propelled not only democracy, but also the market economy. Its impact on social relations, especially on gender relations, was significant, with the commodification of lab

In the short term, it appears Libya will be divided between East and West. The world, including the Arab public and 20 million Muslims in Europe, will see the partitioning of the country for what it is: not to stop the "slaughter" of the innocents but for Libya's light crude for which European refineries are specially geared.

The announcement by His Holiness the Dalai Lama of the continuation of the institution of the Dalai Lama, and the sharp reactions from China that followed, have reignited global attention on the Tibetan people’s decades-long struggle for independence. Owing to British self-interest during the Second World War and the US rapprochement with Communist China during the Cold War to counter the USSR—alongside China's economic rise—much of the wor

Global geopolitics is in a state of intense flux. China’s rise has led to greater competition in the international system, with the United States and the post-War global order coming under increasing challenge. China’s high economic growth rate in the past several decades has meant bigger military budgets. In turn, its military rise threatens security in the Indo-Pacific region where China seeks to dominate, from the Himalayas to South China

Realpolitik may have trumped the Biden administration’s rather vocal positions on principles in the region

Until the early 1990s, India’s urban local bodies (ULBs) were under the complete control of the states, having little functional, financial and administrative autonomy. The 74th Amendment Act of 1992 sought to make ULBs self-governing institutions. Many salutary provisions were made in the Act and there have been certain positive outcomes since it came into effect in April 1993. However, many key issues have remained unresolved and at present,

Urbanists are divided on whether high urban density is a boon or a curse. Its champions maintain that it promotes greater productivity, fosters innovation, and enables economical space utilisation. The other side argues that excessive compactness destroys a city’s permeability, heightens the ‘urban heat island’ effect, increases congestion, eliminates green spaces, reduces inclusivity, and increases vulnerability to climate change and disas

As global climate adaptation finance continues to fall short of the requirement, the current diversity of interpretations and fragmented markets are further disincentivising investors. A localised adaptation finance taxonomy would establish clear standards, enabling investors to compare opportunities and better assess environmental impacts. This brief argues for a sector-specific framework for adaptation finance. It examines key challenges in dev

If the stalemated war produced a truce, the stalemated peace ever since the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers Tamil Elam signed a ceasefire agreement (CFA) in February 2002 has contributed to the revival of violence in the island-nation. The deteriorating ground situation has been accompanied by repeated calls from the Sri Lankan parties for greater Indian involvement in the peace-making efforts. This report is a summary of an inter

Russia’s war on Ukraine, interrupted value chains, and increased regionalisation are putting pressures on the already-strained multilateral trading system. Though a strong World Trade Organization (WTO) is needed to navigate these challenges, the organisation risks becoming irrelevant if far-reaching reforms are not implemented as soon as possible. In the short- and medium-term, WTO members must agree on limiting export barriers, especi

Speaking at a meeting of the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Sri Lanka at Colombo on May 26,2005, Hagrup Haukland, the chief of the Norwegian-led military mission, which monitors the three-year-old ceasefire between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), confirmed the allegation of the Sri Lankan Government that the LTTE had constructed an airstrip near Iranamadu in the Wanni area under its control in

Established in 1995, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement System (DSS) is used to resolve trade-related disputes between WTO member states. It has received over 500 complaints since its inception, and utilises both political negotiation and adjudication for dispute resolution. Today the DSS faces an unprecedented crisis due to US obstruction, which may render the system effectively dysfunctional by late 2019. It is likely tha

The recent Wuhan summit between India and China has been called many things: from a “game changer” to a much needed “reset” in Indian-China relations. It has generated expectations in the two countries that they will avoid any clash due to miscalculation and error. This has strengthened the tradition that India and China have maintained since the Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement of 1993, of resolving problems bilaterally through dia

2014 by far has been the most chaotic year in international politics, since the end of the Cold War. The Islamic State terrorists in the Middle East threaten to upturn borders settled for close to a century. Europe is in the throes of an unexpected tussle with Moscow. In the South and East China seas, China's aggressiveness is too clear now to be ignored.

With increasing awareness of the role that a healthy and clean environment plays in the well-being of societies, governments are adopting environment-friendly approaches in the conduct of development activities. This brief examines the environment planning proposals contained in the draft Master Plan for Delhi (MPD) for the period 2021-41. Although the MPD proposes many new ideas to improve prevailing conditions as well as a framework to monitor

Despite advancements in legislation and representation over the last decades, women continue to face barriers in accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare, legal protection against violence, and leadership roles. In the economic sphere, gender disparities persist in labour force participation, job sectors, wages, and unpaid care work. Women are constrained in participating in the labour market as their social role remains attached to domestic

The demand for an Asian NATO remains negligible in Southeast Asia. This is because most countries are convinced that a multilateral security architecture will only elevate regional insecurities, and make them subservient to great power contestations

India need not bite the bait, it can use the space created for pushing its own agenda with China which includes resolving our border dispute, getting the Pakistani monkey off our backs and getting better terms of trade from the Chinese. China is unlikely to yield anything easily, but if the emerging Indo-Pacific geopolitics provides an opportunity, New Delhi would be foolish to look the other way.

Coinciding with the third anniversary of the start of the US military strikes in Afghanistan on October 7,2004,code-named Op. Enduring Freedom, terrorist elements, suspected to be from Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF), have carried out four co-ordinated terrorist strikes involving explosives on October 7 and 8,2004.

The Indo-Pacific region is confronting emerging challenges that go beyond the traditional definition of “security.” Among the most crucial are threats to the environment, including natural hazards such as cyclones and tsunamis; illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing and overfishing; and marine pollution. This report underlines the strategic implications of these environmental issues in the Indo-Pacific. It outlines the measures tha

Terrorism, water and Afghanistan form facets of the wide range of issues which allow possible collaboration between India and Pakistan. These include trade and commerce, energy sharing, increased transport, communication links and simplified visa procedures.

June 4th was the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident. In 1989, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was widely reviled for its violent handling of peaceful student protests. The crackdown prompted stringent political censure of the CCP by the international community and economic sanctions were imposed against China.

The conference come at a moment when Tokyo is seeking to deepen its global reach and demonstrate that it is prepared to match rhetoric with resources.

India and China must bilaterally develop a substantial conversation on the cutting edge of global governance issues, including issues of the global commons like climate change, water, health and medicine, and Asian security architecture, as well as issues of space and proliferation, of rules and mechanisms of economic governance, and on new arenas of maritime and ocean governance.

While the domestic economic situation needs various corrective steps to bring back an increase in private investment, the external situation needs to be addressed with right export-boosting policies. Raising export growth seems to be the only alternative.

The four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is yet choose between General Sarath Fonseka and incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa

The Tamil National Alliance, heading an elected Government in Sri Lanka's Northern Province, have shocked well-wishers in India, particularly in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, with its tough stand on the fishers' issue between Colombo and Chennai.

The Modi government appears to have abandoned the multi-pronged policy of its predecessor of simultaneously engaging Islamabad and dealing with cross-border terrorism. This government made a surprise beginning with the idea of promoting South Asian unity . But since then it has been fixated on countering terrorism at the cost of everything else, though Pakistani covert activity in India has seen a sharp decline since 2008.

The 2021 Conference of Parties 26 (COP26) propelled nations to ramp up their climate targets and the concomitant Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the updated NDCs and the announced pledges for 2030 remain insufficient and poorly aligned with the targets of the Paris Agreement. The reduction in projected 2030 emissions is estimated to be 7.5 percent—far lower than the 30 percent requi

In recent years, India has become a hot investment destination for Chinese companies. While Chinese investments in India have come under greater scrutiny following the 2020 Galwan incident, this has done little to reverse Chinese enterprises’ strong appetite for the Indian market. At the same time, Beijing is increasingly concerned that in their rush to capitalise on the Indian market, Chinese companies are embracing the ‘Make in India’ pol

A detailed report by the US Senate Intelligence Committee recently has told us once again that torture doesn?t work. India should aspire to become a civilised democracy by putting an immediate legislative ban on torture. It will give our security organisations incentive to develop the interrogation and forensic skills, which are far more efficacious in countering terrorism.

Amidst increasing global connectivity and accelerating global change, the global security framework has become insufficient, contributing to a crippling dysfunctionality in international cooperation. The current security framework, focused almost exclusively on a narrow notion of military security, is insufficient to address escalating ‘threats without enemy,’ such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, which increasingly endang

The Indian Ocean, a vast maritime expanse, features diverse social, spatial, and topographical characteristics. This diversity is evident in the various actors operating independently, with minimal synergy, political unity, and distinct challenges, across its sub-regions. In this context, what does the maritime security architecture in the region look like? This brief finds that it remains fragmented, and makes a case for nurturing its cohesivene

In an effort to facilitate the digitisation of the country’s healthcare systems, India released a National Digital Health Blueprint in January 2020, which provides a detailed framework for a “Federated National Health Information System.” This brief makes a case for expanding the scope of the blueprint to include digital therapeutics, digital diagnostics, and telemedicine. It proposes a “National Digital Health Blueprint 2.0,” with dive

There is widespread hope that the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow will deliver decisive action on the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. This report gathers different perspectives from analysts in South Asia, Africa, the Indo-Pacific, and the UK on regional priorities and positions on key issues related to the global fight against climate change. Certain threads bind these analyses regarding what the

India’s hill cities are unique poles of development. While they have managed to record some degree of economic growth, increasing urban population and unfavourable topography have also made such growth haphazard and unsustainable. In turn, this has threatened the quality of the built environment and of urban life in these cities. This report studies the case of the hill city of Aizawl, the administrative capital of Mizoram, which is part of the

The need for integrated water resource management (IWRM) has been explored and articulated by many water professionals over the recent years. Today, such a holistic approach to the management of water systems has become even more imperative in the context of the global crisis in water for which no easy solution is yet in sight. This brief calls for the development and institutionalisation of the interdisciplinary approach of integrated water syst

Grasslands that provide a variety of ecosystem services for humans—including carbon storage, which is important to mitigating climate change—are among the world’s most threatened habitats. In India, grassy ecosystems are not accorded any legal protection. Vast acres of these grasslands are converted for revenue-generating use, altering their ecological dynamics and threatening the livelihoods and cultures of pastoral and agrarian communitie