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The flop black money amnesty scheme is a huge setback for a government which was committed to bringing back black money. What is worrisome is that other nations have succeeded while India has failed abysmally in this exercise.
The Modi government's real challenge in Nepal is not China. It is the tragic failure of Delhi's own engagement with Kathmandu. Despite geographic proximity, cultural intimacy, economic interdependence and shared political values, India has stumbled in Nepal.
Silencing both critics and skeptics, Modi had categorically stated that “relations between the two countries cannot be determined or be even remotely influenced by incidents related to individuals.”
PM Modi's push to industries - trucking, agricultural purchases, construction - where wages are still distributed in cash towards digital payments
Trump has his obsessions, but so has Modi.
One hopes that by the time Modi gets to places like Janakpur, Lumbini and Muktinath, India would have taken concrete steps towards the promotion of trans-border connectivity and tourism between the two countries.
A key element of the 44-page document entitled ‘India’s National Security Strategy’ (INSS) is the view that India must be prepared for unilateral, limited military actions against terror groups in Pakistan.
Six months in office, Narendra Modi has set a scorching pace, but mainly in the area of foreign policy. He has undertaken eight foreign trips, of which six were to the Asia-Pacific region. And, there can be little doubt that the subtext of his visits to nine countries has been China.
When Modi meets Xi, he will be talking to a leader positioning himself and his country as a global power. It is important for India to be in some of the calculations, just as much it is necessary for India not to overstretch by wanting to be seen everywhere.
There are many metrics to measure the Modi foreign policy of the past year.
Narendra Modi came to power with an unexceptional agenda: push economic growth; transform the infrastructure; bring about a social transformation. But this agenda appears to be in danger of being drowned out by a cacophony of voices from Hindutva organisations.
The new Prime Minister will also have to wrestle policy decisions out of the hands of the media panels at primetime. Less than 10% per cent of homes with TV sets watch news and less than ten per cent of those homes watch English news.Yet, anchors and media personalities claim to speak for the nation.
PM Modi becoming a proactive participant in the great game
If all goes well, India and the US could partner at the ICANN high table, in the sort of Security Council of Internet governance. In engaging with the tech community in California, Modi was bolstering India's credentials for such a role.
No longer just a balancer, the prime minister wants to make India a major power in its own right. And his cabinet pick shows he’s serious about doing so.
The Government's honeymoon is perhaps already over and realistically it has another 6 to 12 months to start putting flesh on the bare-bone schemes and ideas announced this past year. If these do not eventuate, one may well witness emptier stadiums abroad and hear shriller voices at home.
PM Modi must shed the self-acquired role of the sole, vote gatherer. He needed this image to overcome inner-party contestation and become the Prime Minister. Today, this image is a handicap. On this score, ironically, Modi could usefully emulate the laidback, apolitical Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Until the country can address its own economic problems, agreements like the RCEP may do more harm than good.
India must improve relations with both Washington and Beijing and not limit ties with one because of the other. India, as Modi says, has the bandwidth to engage both China and the US. The objective must be to build India's comprehensive national power through whatever cooperation is possible with both America and China.
Experience has shown us that governmental systems run by bureaucrats cannot be reformed by them. Reform and restructuring is something only the political class can bring. But the Modi government has sought to rely on the bureaucracy. The result is a seriously underperforming government.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi winds down an intensive phase of foreign policy activism, one surprising feature of his diplomacy has been the frequent evocation of Buddhism. The PM has put Buddhism at the heart of India's vigorous new diplomacy.
As one of the world's largest economies and as a rising power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is suggesting that India needs "multi-alignment", or more intensive partnerships with all great powers, including America and China.
India has signalled that it will embed its regional policy within the framework of SAARC. This should reduce the disquiet among our neighbours arising from the sheer size of India and its economy. This has a history since India's Pakistan policy of today is rooted in Vajpayee's visit to Islamabad to attend the 12th SAARC summit.
The IOR tour was not just about declarations and MOUs, proof of this is that New Delhi has put down money through Lines of Credit for infrastructure development in various island states. The challenge now is to ensure that it is effectively utilised.
India is on the path to becoming a cashless society. The Prime Minister's Jan-Dhan Yojana is one more step towards a more developed India. And possibly a big step, if successful.
For the next government, tough rhetoric on the boundary question is no substitute for coping with the multiple challenges arising from China's new status as a first-rate power. With China emerging as the second-largest economy in the world, comprehensive commercial cooperation with Beijing is an imperative that no Indian government can ignore.
The decision to invite US President Barack Obama to be the chief guest at the 66th Republic Day is the clearest indicator of the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's strategic outlook.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fluent Hindi, through which he engages foreign interlocutors and the rhetorical instinct for catchy phrases, is helping expand India's diplomatic lexicon.
Modi's forays into the global investment hot spots will pay dividend only if we reform ourselves, if we decide once and for all that this is the economic agenda which we need to chart out for future proofing India, one that improves our structural inadequacies bogged down by an iron willed bureaucracy.
The Chinese and Russians have replaced the US and the West as the lead singers in the international orchestra for Indo-Pak amity. Instead of telling them to mind their own business, Modi appears to have recognised that he can use the weight of Beijing and Moscow to facilitate India's engagement with Pakistan.
No matter how you nuance the outcome of the recent Sharif-Modi meeting, the fact is that continuity, rather than change, marks the Indian PM's new Pakistan initiative. And, Time has shown the success of this strategy because India has, if anything, become more resilient, while Pakistan has come to the brink of collapse.
Modi needs a credible domestic strategy to ramp up India's maritime infrastructure. A strategy of seeking multiple partners for India's maritime development would help Modi end New Delhi's current defensiveness on China's Maritime Silk Road initiative.
A decade of far-reaching defence reforms under Modi has transformed the Indian military’s reputation and capabilities
Other than neighbouring countries, any future Indian government's principal focus will be on the vast swathe that begins in Sri Lanka and ends in Sydney, and can be described under a variety of rubrics: Look East, Indian Ocean Region, the Indo-Pacific. Countries such as Japan, Indonesia and Singapore present India big windows as it strives to become an economic and maritime power.
To improve South Asian regional cooperation, Modi has three options. The first is to focus on a two-speed Saarc. The second is to build on transregional institutions like the BIMSTEC. However, it is the third way -- unilateral action -- that offers Modi the greatest opportunity. For example, Modi has already proposed to build a Saarc satellite for use by its neighbours.
As he swings across the Indian Ocean this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biggest challenge is not about countering China. His real problem is in Delhi, afflicted by a condition called continentalism, which has proved rather difficult to overcome.
If elected to power, Narendra Modi's success on the diplomatic front will depend on an emulation of the last BJP prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who successfully carved out foreign policy autonomy from his party's antediluvian world view.
Britain's strong endorsement of India's regional interests marks an important shift in the way two countries relate to each other in the Subcontinent and the Indian Ocean.
