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Even if we go by the Financial Times' FDI figure, let's remember that having low FDI inflows for a year or half a year does not mean much. China has received, on average, $100 billion per year in the last decade compared to India's annual $20 billion figure. The best way to compare is looking at the per-capita FDI stock, which is $691 for China compared to $181 for India in 2013.

For India's current administration, beset with corruption scandals, letting technical merits alone determine the MMRCA decision was probably the politically easiest choice. But its strategic merits are somewhat less clear.

Both India and Russia need to start thinking strategically about the Central Asian region, not letting emotions guide their foreign policy decisions. This was the consensus reached at a conference organised recently in Delhi.

India has a stake in Bangladesh not only for the security of its eastern borders but also for other strategic advantages. Therefore, it cannot afford to let go of the recently achieved opportunity to break away from the past trajectory and establish new contours of engagement with Bangladesh. In many ways, this is a rare opportunity for both the countries to talk with each other and resolve differences.

India has completely stopped the import of oil from Iran to comply with a US order reimposing sanctions on the country.

After complete washouts of several sessions of Parliament, including the previous budget session, the ongoing Monsoon session has surprised many.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was sworn-in on May 26, has completed 100 days in power.

India’s rice export ban is unlikely to lead to a global food crisis, given the extent of the reduction in supply to global markets and the concomita

In 2015, the Indian government launched the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) as a response to the perennial challenge of shortage in urban housing. As of June 2021, 11.2 million houses have been sanctioned under PMAY-U, of which 4.8 million have been completed. However, various analyses indicate that PMAY-U dwellings may be insufficient in quantity, and that some of them may be either unaffordable or unviable for those who need them the

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 (caused by the novel coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2) has exposed glaring gaps in India’s domestic laws. Absent a rationally structured legislation to fall back on, the Union government in March advised states to invoke the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 to tackle the pandemic in their jurisdictions. The 123-year-old colonial law, however, does not even define what a disease is, let alone an epidemic or a pandemic. Ind

Over the past few years, there is noticeable amongst India watchers an inescapable feeling of disappointment at what has been seen as a perceptible rolling back of many of the much vaunted reforms that had been the face of the country's efforts to integrate with world energy markets through the turn of the century. With an import dependence of over 70%, and increasing with each passing year, the petroleum sector had been the obvious choice to mov

Lines of Credit (LOCs) are a widely used instrument in development cooperation, including for India. The projects funded by India’s LOCs attempt to achieve a trinity of objectives: economic benefits; effective project management and completion; and nurturing and enhancing diplomatic relationship and strategic interests with the partner countries. This brief explains how India’s LOCs function, and contextualises the performance of the

Let World Population Day be a conscious reminder that India must offer a better future for its citizens by investing in decentralised urbanisation

This paper projects the nationwide and state-wise size of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) market under various GDP growth scenarios. The market sizes under these scenarios are expressed in monetary values at the scale of both sub-national units and the Indian economy as a whole. With the help of transactions and market share data from Phonepe, a UPI company, the paper estimates the national and state-wise base case scenario market volu

The government has announced an ambitious target of providing piped clean drinking water to all rural households by 2024. Although a worthy goal, it i

Complete transition towards clean cooking fuels has a long journey to cover.

If — as the PMO press release says — that INS Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol, it is a welcome development.

Modalities of statecraft have abiding relevance. In a celebrated letter to Moghul Emperor Akbar, Shah Abbas the Great commented on a predecessor's misrule and said that "internal diversity of opinions made the foreigner covetous and caused anarchy in the country."

Now, a lot depends on how the fourth Vienna meeting between Iran and the P5+1 goes and whether or not Iran is able to complete the set of actions it has agreed to under the Framework for Cooperation with the IAEA by the May 15 deadline.

USA solar industry got a setback with almost three solar companies, including Solyandra Inc., declaring suspension of their operations and plans. Criticising China's role in the failure of the U.S solar companies may come as a natural defence mechanism, but then China can't be completely held responsible.

With the first-ever local council elections concluding without incidents, Maldives has completed the first phase of multi-party democracy introduced with the presidential polls of October-November 2011.

History is replete with examples of rich people with grand ideas.

One is still not sure whether Prime Minister Abe will be inclined to let the defence budget cross the self-imposed limit of 1 per cent of the GNP. Only once in the 1980s Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone crossed the Rubicon. But considering the 'extraordinarily grave' security situation in East Asia, Abe may feel impelled to do so.

The Jehanabad raid by Naxalites of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), or CPI-Maoist, in south Bihar, on November 13 which is also being termed as Operation Jailbreak, is important for many reasons. The attack loudly states the level of ¿militarisation¿ that the largest and most lethal Naxalite outfit in the country has reached.

While there is no information about the linkage between the ISIS and the established Jihadi terror groups of Pakistan like LeT and the JuD, it is bound to happen sooner or later. India should be prepared to face this new onslaught.

The Kargil military conflict of 1999 between India and Pakistan came in the wake of the "bhai-bhai" ("we are brothers") euphoria generated by the bus ride of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister, to Lahore and his high-profile meeting with Mr.Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's then Prime Minister. In the euphoria, we let ourselves be caught napping by the Pakistan Army in the heights of Kargil.

Before Sopor incidents and Amarnath Yatra amalgamate lethally, for heaven's sake, pick up those reports of the five Working Groups on Jammu and Kashmir formed by the Prime Minister in 2006-07. Many of the recommendations can be implemented unilaterally.

Militancy in Kashmir is facing shortage in weapons supply but still sees high recruitment, which is a cause for worry

On January 16, 2012, the Kenyan troops completed 90 days of their presence in Somalia where they had gone to fight the al-Shabaab militants. The initial aim of the invasion, which began as a reaction to a spate of kidnappings and raids on Kenyan border by the Islamic militants, was to secure the border between the two countries.

The geography of terror groups is fluid. Kokernag to Kandahar is in the throes of security being provided by actors who were part of the crisis to begin with

In the recent Kuwait elections, for the sixth time the National Assembly was re-elected in last seven years. Though the Assembly is supposed to be in term for four years, t it is usually dissolved by the Constitutional Court before the completion of its term.

Two years after the Mumbai attack, and despite the intense global crackdown, one of the world's most networked, resourceful and dangerous terrorist group, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), remains operational in Pakistan, and ready to hit again.

India handled Cyclone Phailin very well. Now, it is better for the system to learn a few lessons and not just prepare for the next big one, but also figure out ways of dealing with the smaller and completely needless tragedies that occur across the country because crowds have not been properly managed at a festival, or buses and ferries.

The global economic crisis of 2008, triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, gave Asia a chance to rise, and let nationalist leaders, including Donald Trump, emerge

India is the world’s largest rice exporter, making it a significant player in the global rice market. A global rice shortage is anticipated amid rising geopolitical tensions and commodity prices. To safeguard domestic consumers from exorbitant price shocks, India has banned the export of non-basmati white rice since July 2023. This paper examines the ban's implications, especially regarding welfare redistribution among basmati and non-basmati f

A year after India abstained in the Libya vote, it's clear that India's decision to step aside gained it little, and may have done significant damage to its international standing. If Delhi is to meet its aspirations of becoming a significant regional, let alone global, player, then it needs to think more carefully about the message its positions send.

A few weeks ago the media were running out of print space and airtime covering the Rahul Mahajan story. Rahul¿s sole claim to fame is that he is the son of a slain ex-minister; his own activities made no difference to most of us then or now. Yet in the midst of innumerable health and other bulletins about this ¿celebrity¿, one of the channels had a constitutional expert voicing his opinion on the episode.

According to the Delhi Police, Haroon Rashid, an Indian mechanical engineer, who is alleged to be a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), was arrested by them at the Delhi airport on May 16, 2005, on his arrival from Singapore where he had reportedly gone to do a training course.

China’s maritime economic initiative, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) that is part of the larger One Belt One Road (OBOR), has been under considerable international focus recently. India, for its part, has remained non-committal despite China’s charmed offensive. However, with the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, both of which exclude the growing economies of I

A solution to the Ukrainian imbroglio lies in shedding old Cold War stereotypes and treating the crisis as an opportunity to complete the unfinished business of establishing geopolitical equilibrium in the former Soviet Space.

In the absence of clear norms on human accountability and attribution for autonomous weapons, we could see states like Pakistan deploy LAWS for operations outside their borders.

The absence of a clear centre of power in Pakistan raises a serious question mark on the ability of the government in Islamabad to execute any agreement with India in letter and spirit.

India must offer lucrative alternatives that focus on development and ensure early completion of its current projects to maintain its footprint in Mal

The key challenge PM Modi would face in China is to completely debunk the hypothesis, which some people suspect, that a key objective of Modi's 'Act East' policy is to contain China, in covert or overt support with the U.S., Japan and other affected nations. This task is not surely going to be easy.

The India-Bhutan relations will complete 50 years in 2018. Now, it should continue to build on the vision expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi �

Despite apprehensions in some quarters, the Hulhumale' Magistrate Court in Maldives let former President Mohammed Nasheed to go home after the day's hearing on Wednesday evening, a day after he was picked up by the police a day earlier and detained overnight.

The Maldivian authorities can now breathe easy. Now that the Cricket World Cup, played in venues across Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, is completed without any security problems, the reported Interpol alert against Maldives-based religious terrorists targeting the match venues have receded for good.

The recent three-presidential-candidate-meeting and their meaningful proposal to complete the poll process in time has brought back political pragmatism back to the nation's centre-table, where electoral expediency and excesses alone seemed to rule for an interim.