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The government's decision to insist that the Indian Air Force induct a large number of Light Combat Aircraft fighters is the kind of shock treatment that was needed to push the 'Make in India' project.

The Henderson-Brooks report has focused on the Army's faults in handling the border issue. But, if we are to truly learn from the sorry history of the times, the government needs to throw open the archives relating to the actions of Prime Minister, his associates and the Ministries of External Affairs and Defence.

Whatever little sympathy Pakistan wanted to milk for its position on Kashmir was lost because of the Uri terror attacks.

India’s plan for naval coalition building alone will not credibly deter China’s military power in the Indian Ocean

The Modi government is encouraging less dependence on agriculture and the creation of smart cities. To make agriculture more remunerative and attractive, especially for the youth, a lot has to be done - farm credit, access to farm machinery and use of IT. So many villages even today are without power and many more do not have internet connectivity.

The first week of November 2019 saw the worst smog and pollution levels in Delhi in three years; flights were turned away and schools were kept closed. These recorded levels of pollution, however, fit a pattern and are not totally unexpected. While the Delhi government showed some signs of being forewarned—announcing the rationing of vehicles on the road according to the odd and even scheme, and promising to distribute over five million masks�

The first universal, legally binding global climate accord signed at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris in 2015 committed to long-term goals for “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” However, as world leaders prepare for the Facilitative Dialogue (FD) ahead o

The twin messages on the Independence Day, respectively from President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have in them core ideas on core issues and core values that have got marginalized in the rough and tumble of every day living and every day politics since the nation c attained Freedom 57 years ago.

China’s growing interests, ambitions and military capabilities pose challenges for India. This paper examines China’s maritime interests and the dynamics of Indian responses at the maritime operational levels. The paper examines opportunities to counter China in the IOR, as well as options for the Indian Navy in the South China Sea. At operational levels, the Navy may need to think differently about ASW, carrier operations and power projectio

After having made a Lebanon out of Iraq, the US, duly assisted by France and other West European powers, has embarked on a policy, which is likely to make an Iraq out of the Lebanon.

There were four more explosions in London on July 21,2005, but of a much lower intensity as compared to those of July 7,2005. The target again was the public transportation system. As on July 7,2005, there were three explosions in the underground railway system and one in a bus. Apart from injuries to one person, no other human casualty has been reported. Material damage was also very little as compared to July 7.

The military must only follow orders and do what it is told. “Charge of the Light Brigade” as a concept has no validity in this day and age.

India today is a self-confident power, able to navigate global affairs with aplomb.

Analysts may be right to suggest that India cornered itself by not attending the OBOR meet. But, the national identity considerations are important — sometimes, one has to suffer to uphold prestige.

From offering to mediate on Jammu and Kashmir to expressing willingness to rename the CPEC, is China signalling a softening of its stance?

The recent US-Taliban moves offer a ray of hope for the Obama administration to achieve a much needed breakthrough before the President begins his re-election campaign.

At the top, communication between the senior leadership on both sides is very good. But, once you get past that, the real engine of any bilateral relationship -- the mid-levels of the bureaucracies -- do not communicate consistently well yet. A large part of this lack of communication is a paucity of 'strategic messaging' from the US in India.

Until the lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. The sentiment of this famous African proverb came out repeatedly during an interactive session with African journalists at Observer Research Foundation on January 24, 2011.

Exercise Malabar and the trilateral dialogue have assumed significance in the backdrop of the US' rebalance to Asia and India's Act East Policy. The growing convergence of interests among the US, Japan and India on issues such as the Indian Ocean, maritime security, respect for international law and a stable Asian security order has driven the trilateral dialogue.

Maritime power projection, and not sea denial, is the answer to China’s creeping assertiveness in South Asia.

If India is unable to call the shots in Maldives, who will even take it seriously as a player in the region?

Three weeks well into the constitutional deadlock that has stalled governmental functioning an parliamentary proceedings alike, there is no end in sight still to the political crisis overwhelming the Maldivian archipelago. The infant democracy, which otherwise used to be inward-looking until the politico-constitutional changes of 2008, cannot allow to fail itself - and its political leaders cannot try to have it both ways, either.

With the Election Commission formally notifying the presidential polls for September 7, Maldives is gearing up to prove to itself and the rest of the world that democracy is very much at work in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

In Maldives, a midnight police break-in and alleged yet uncontested seizure of 'dangerous weapons' from Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim's residence has led to his unceremonious replacement by Maj-Gen (Retd) Moosa Ali Jaleel, until then High Commissioner to Pakistan.

Now, Maldives seems to be slipping steadily into the 'pressure cooker' mode. No solutions are in sight. None one knows what is going to happen next. May be, the ruling Yameen leadership should look around to learn its lessons from neighbouring Sri Lanka.

If the legal proceedings mid-way through the Maldivian presidential polls, now before the High Court, run its course, with the possibilities of appeals before the Supreme Court at different stages, the constitutional scheme could end up threatening its own base and basis, one way or the other.

In Maldives, Government parties need to come clean on their strategy for the future in the Roadmap Talks. Only based on such a strategy could they work back, on accommodating the MDP's demand on advancing the presidential poll.

Two events in as many weeks, and Maldives has been making news, both on the home front and in the global arena, for reasons that had been better left untouched. Coming as they did after the successful SAARC Summit in the southern Addu City.

There seems to be a need for conferring permanency of sorts for the All-Party Roadmap Talks that is now headed by Ali Mujthaba Mujthaba, aimed not only at national reconciliation but even more at national consensus and consequent national reconstruction.

India has assured Maldives to extend all technical expertise to resolve the current water crisis. India pressed the button after Maldivian Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon called counterpart Sushma Swaraj soon after the seriousness of the crisis was known.

After privatisation, the 'managed float of rufiyaa against the dollar, and other aspects of governance under President Mohammed Nasheed, the Opposition has begun identifying the ills of 'western ways of governance' to individual sectors, and thus drive home their arguments against the Government, even more.

Maldives may have already opened up a national debate on the need for early electoral reforms, with a public assertion by President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik that the Bill that he had returned to Parliament on fixing a minimum membership of 10,000 for political parties to be registered for State funding,

A piquant situation seems to have arisen in Maldives, on the domestic front and also for its relations with India, after the trial court issued a second order to the police to produce former President Mohammed Nasheed, who has been in the Indian High Commission in Male.

That is the question large sections of the people of the Republic of Maldives have been raising as the small country in the Indian Ocean gets ready for the elections to its Parliament (Majlis), which are due to take place on December 31. While the Indian media and analysts have been devoting considerable attention to the coming re-poll (December 26) to elect the next President of Ukraine in order to see whether the elections there would be free a

In Maldives, all the four present and former presidents need to talk to each other, not talk at each other, as has been the case over the past five years if they are serious about constitutional and administrative reforms, in whatever way each one of them visualise.

The sudden and inexplicable way in which an 'investor-row' involving the Indian infrastructure group, GMR, is getting a new twist in recent days in Maldives, if unchecked, has the potential to rock the bilateral relations.

By applying for clemency to President Abdulla Yameen during the month of Ramadan, former President Mohammed 'Anni' Nasheed has put the ball in the court of the Maldives President. Yameen is now under twin-pressure on the Nasheed front.

Not all seems to have been lost to the infant Maldivian democracy. Arch-rivals in the still -unfolding national political drama have come together again, to re-vote two Bills to ensure mandatory assent after President Waheed Hassan Manik had returned them.

The People's Majlis, or Parliament's confirmation of the nomination of Vice-President Mohammed Waheed Deen have taken the punch out of the MDP's argument against the need for a constitutional amendment for facilitating early elections.

Through a deft post facto damage-control, the Government of President Abdulla Yameen seems to have diffused and warded off - at least for the time being - what threatened to be a major diplomatic incident for Maldives, and involving the US and Russia,

Maldive's new President Mohammed Waheed's hands are going to be full as the country is left with a bagful of unresolved crises, each piling upon the other, all of them needing urgent or not-so-urgent attention from the new leadership.