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Although the Budget pushes for urban planning, will the architecture of Indian federalism continue to limit its execution?
It is abundantly plain that the salubrity of cities will increasingly determine ‘India’s global profile’
Under the Interim Budget, the Financial Minister has outlined a few schemes for urban development, but a more comprehensive budget would be required f
There are no free lunches in international politics. LEMOA is thus a 'fair' exchange for the US backing India on civil nuclear deal.
Many strategic analysts in India have suggested that the country evolve a national security doctrine to guide its armed forces and governmental system in dealing with matters relating to national security. The Observer Research Foundation took the initiative to examine the issue in its entirety. This report details the outcome of a discussion amongst the country's noted security experts.
Pakistan has for long been grappling with several fundamental problems without any visible signs of overcoming them. Its economic, social and political indicators are amongst the lowest in the world. In its conflicts with India, which it perceives as its sworn enemy, all its tactics have proven to be of insignificant success, as has its intrusive attempts to control Kabul so as to gain strategic depth in Afghanistan. The successive governments' m
The European Union’s proposal for a new green taxonomy holds valuable lessons for India.
If India intends to meet its climate pledges, well-planned nature-based interventions need to be employed by the ULBs for a sustainable future.
In the light of the economic climate and the government's spending capabilities, the Indian Navy needs to comprehensively review the performance of the systems it wants to acquire and its potential trade-offs, rather than accessing each technical requirement or performance need in isolation.
NavIC केवळ भारताची संरक्षण क्षमताच बळकट करत नाही तर उपग्रह न
नाविक 2.0 (NavIC) न केवल भारत की रक्षा क्षमताओं को मज़बूत करता ह�
Biological weapons can come from naturally occurring microbes and viruses; but innovations in genomic editing are opening up new, potentially more threatening avenues for their development. These innovations can cause or spread disease or resist known therapeutic approaches. Addressing such threats of biowarfare requires obtaining reliable and informative taxonomies for the pathogens and timely and effective responses. This, in turn, calls for co
The rising cases of malaria in SIDS need a renewed global response to mitigate climate-induced transmission and re-emergence
India needs to clearly highlight its boundaries to the US to avoid being a collateral damage.
As natural calamities in the Indian Ocean Region become more frequent, India’s regional security role is likely to grow.
Confusion and vacillation have been the marked features of the Andhra Pradesh government¿s policy towards the Naxalites of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), which it proscribed on August 17, along with seven of its front organisations in the wake of the killing of nine persons,
The opposition is right to demand information on the pricing. Providing information on the cost of an aircraft, its engine, missiles, radar warning receivers, radars, does not undermine the country’s security.
There is a need for a new regional security architecture that reflects the changed geopolitical realities of the region. This suggestion was made during an interaction between senior Japanese and South Korean journalists and Indian scholars at ORF.
India needs to restructure the administrative set-up at the Centre and in the States. There is a need for separate Fisheries ministry with an independent minister. In Tamil Nadu, fisheries is a separate ministry with an independent minister, but there is no separate secretary.
Environment is becoming good politics. The timing is apt for both an administrative and political vision to give a Green Roadmap for India.
All over Europe, the new mantra is austerity. Though India's exports have been doing well since last month, this may not be sustained in the future if our big trade partners are busy tightening their belts and trade credits dry up.
There is a lot of disturbing news regarding the Indian economy today which is likely to spoil the outlook for 2012. One of them is regarding the rise in inequality.
India is in need of both FIIs and FDIs, to grow at the targeted 7.5 to 8 per cent growth. They go to countries with high growth potential and laws that are flexible and allow greater investor freedom. India is constrained by certain important considerations related to the rights of the people and protection of the poor.
Considering the importance of Lines of Credits in India's development cooperation programme, ORF has undertaken a study of the system and process of LOCs. Early results point to need for improvements in the system.
The very day a trial court in India, New Delhi to be precise, denied bail to the accused in the 2-G scam case, another in distant London was awarding sentences to three Pakistani cricketers for match-fixing at the end of an equally much-publicised trial.
Once the general elections are over in India, it may be time to look inward at the existing processes and revise certain provisions to make them more meaningful and sustainable. If timely cure is not injected, it could damage the firmament of our democratic scheme.
Though GDP growth in India may be less than China's, there are not so many problems that the government is facing except perhaps the latest problem of accelerated insurgency by the Maoists. Like China, India should also be worried about reducing the glaring inequality of incomes and balanced development between the rural and urban areas.
An interaction at ORF Chennai felt that since the all-India services forms an integral part of the country's bureaucratic machinery, it cannot be eliminated. But what needs to be done is its re-invention and the task should be assigned to an independent body like the UPSC.
Even if GDP growth rises in India, there will be growing inequalities unless there are strong policies aimed at the uplift of the vulnerable sections and the rich are taxed in an efficient and judicious manner. There should be some insurance against unemployment and sickness which will enable low income families to live with dignity.
Given the emerging geo-political tensions in the region, the need of the hour for India, South Korea and other nations is to integrate and stay united, according to Mr. Anil Wadhwa, Secretary, Government of India.
With the Supreme Court directing the Centre and the State Governments to create a National Police Commission and State Security Commissions to improve and monitor the functioning of the police system, and seeking a time-bound compliance scheme, time is ticking away for the Executive branch. The Supreme Court 'directives' of September 22, 2006 were contained in the judgement in the case of 'Prakash Singh vs Union of India and Others'.
To make India an attractive destination for investment for both Indians and foreigners will require quick implementation of all the pending major infrastructure projects and to see that some important Bills are passed in Parliament.
To become a major industrial nation by 2030, as predicted by a Washington think-tank recently, India will require many changes in the economic structure of the country in which efficient and viable small and medium enterprises coexist with the big factory-based organised sector and with a middle class bigger than that in the US and Europe combined, to support it with their demand.
Big ticket reforms promised by Mr. Narendra Modi are likely to resume stalled projects and revive business climate. However, if India is to return to its erstwhile double digit growth, the importance of banking sector reforms cannot be overstated.
There is an urgent need to focus on key legislations in the real world; expanding internet access in India by ensuring social and technological growth go hand-in-hand; and the complexity of bridging divides between various factions on the issue.
It may be useful if the post-poll political dispensation in New Delhi reviews the relevance of the office of the National Security Advisor in contemporary Indian context, and recasts the role, if its continued need was found to be justified.
Suggesting that a trilateral grouping between Punjab, Kashmir and Rajasthan to improve ties with its neighbouring Pakistan provinces, the author says border provinces had shown time and again that they are the most solid bridge between India and Pakistan.
International politics rather than law or policy will also play a key role in a future Modi visit to the US. There is certainly an element of the hyperbole in Obama's declaration that the American relationship with India is "a defining partnership of the century ahead". But it contains more than a grain of truth.
As India's most influential voice on foreign affairs in the run-up to Independence and its chief diplomat for the first 17 years of the republic, Nehru said and did things that can't be stuffed into one box labelled "Nehruvian".
India¿s neighbourhood is on the boil. Pakistan is struggling to resolve its self-imposed dilemma of balancing politically aroused religious extremism and calls for domestic stability and international civility. Bangladesh seems all set to follow the Pakistani model if the series of bomb blasts all over the country last month were any indication.
In a free market economy like India, albeit with some socialist characteristics, education is largely seen as an investment for economic growth, espec
Nepal's political vacuum in these times is doubly dangerous as it leaves the field open to inroads by various interests. A weak administration gives a free run to the Maoist cadres to operate on both sides of the India Nepal border that also weakens the counter insurgency grid.
Several immediate challenges confront Nepal after the recent Constitutional Assembly elections and yet there are positive signs of Nepal emerging as a vibrant republic. This was the general consensus at a round-table discussion on "Emerging Political Situation in Nepal and Policy Options for India" organised by Observer Research Foundation on May 16, 2008.
New Delhi did well to respond decisively when tragedy struck Nepal. While the media and cameras, which have now flooded Kathmandu, will soon leave Nepal, the world's attention will turn to the next crisis. But India must stick around for the long haul.
