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Russia will wait and watch to see the impact of winter on Western public opinion, and Ukraine is counting on its battlefield gains to secure a lasting momentum. That the West is getting restless about Ukraine's position is evident from the backchannel negotiations between the US and Russian officials.

It has had to navigate the debate on civil liberties, overcome history, and deal with China’s posture

In aftemath of Uri the Kashmir flare up has increased the domestic pressure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act decisively

If the Modi government can restore the ceasefire as part of the resumption of talks with Pakistan, strengthen the existing CBMs across the LoC and unveil new ones, the external dimension to J&K could change for the better and create a conducive environment for the ambitious internal agenda for development articulated by the BJP and PDP.

That China is now preparing to extend its railway into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir should stir PM Modi to recognise the significance of the railways for India's national security and factor it into the rail budget to be presented to Parliament next week.

Building faith in the democratic intentions of the Union Government will be a long haul

India and Japan’s shared concerns about China are a key driver of their growing relationship.

COVID-19, which is a highly infectious disease of zoonotic origin, serves as a serious reminder that human-nature interactions need to be based on sustainable development pathways. The recent surge in zoonotic infections in different parts of the world—among them, H1N1, Nipah virus, Zika virus, and Lyme disease—can be attributed to the intensification of human-animal contact through wildlife trade and livestock production. Reducing the rates

India has moved away from the idealism of the past in its engagement with the global multilateral order

The visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to India this week, so early in the Modi innings, is a good sign as both leaderships seem anxious to be able to better deal with the many challenges ahead. Clearly, China is challenging other major powers for a role in India at a time when its economy needs to grow at 10 per cent to recover from three years of economic slowdown.

The Modi government has been diplomatically polite and is in no haste to reach out to Pakistan for bilateral talks yet.

There is a modicum of double standards being displayed by China — it has had little compunction in assisting Pakistan with the CPEC.

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

This special report analyses insights gathered by the author from different sections of the Kashmir public regarding the impact of the abrogation of Article 370 on their lives. The interviews were supplemented by secondary sources, primarily news reports in the national and international media after 5 August 2019, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of India abrogated the enforcement of Article 370 of the Constitution, which sinc

Rahul, Sonia and Priyanka need to introspect hard and selflessly about why their combined efforts were not enough to check the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Narendra Modi is in a good position to take a strategic approach to the Middle East. While Delhi must be sensitive to the multiple faultlines, old and new, Modi must signal that India is open to business with all countries in the region.

Modi's visit to Dhaka has been a forward-looking step, in the effort to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries. However, there has been little focus on the common challenges that the neighbours face. Unless these are addressed, future cooperation between the two will not be effective enough.

Beyond resolving outstanding problems, Modi's visit to Bangladesh has led to the setting up of agreements, MoUs and protocols which will transform our relations in the future. The key issues here are connectivity and economic partnership.

France has voted, Europe is relieved, and the French President needs to move fast to douse the flames of polarisation

MIRV is a complex technology, and India’s test this week puts it among a small group of countries that have managed to develop it.

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.

Narendra Modi’s trip to Sweden highlights the importance of an often-neglected region for India.

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit Maldives in mid-March as part of the first-ever four-nation southern Indian Ocean trip by any Indian leader. The greater success and long-term achievement of the visit, will depend also on how it all goes and goes down well just now.

Why will Moscow be an immense diplomatic challenge for India?

With Maldives veering towards China, Mauritius is emerging as a decisive factor in ensuring India’s dominance in the Indian Ocean Region

India and Bangladesh’s relationship has been growing steadily over the past few years, especially since Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power in January 2009. In 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the relationship as being in its “golden era (Sonali Adhyay).” Indeed, Bangladesh is at the centre of India’s flagship ‘Neighbourhood First’ and ‘Act East’ policies, and has been crucial in ensuring peace

PM Modi and Manohar Parrikar have lately been attempting to set the record straight about the issue of disability pension of the military.

Politicians are trying hard to keep behind curtains the true state of affairs along the Line of Actual Control but it’s only adding to credibility deficit

Theodore Roosevelt in his famous dictum “speak softly, and carry a big stick,” spoke on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Balochistan.

The visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in New Delhi this week offers an opportunity to PM Modi to recalibrate India's Afghan policy towards greater realism and more modest goals. Modi must reassure Ghani that Delhi is in a "standby" mode, ready to extend, whatever support Kabul wants and feels comfortable with.

PM Modi's 'Make in India' is a grand idea to reboot the ailing manufacturing sector. But the success of this programme will largely depend on creating an enabling ecosystem for manufacturing. This would require serious reforms in taxation.

Top 10 commentaries by ORF analysts this year.

Our 20 most–read commentaries this year.

You would say that Trudeau was ‘playing politics’ and that his remarks are really addressed to the Sikh community of Canada. So what’s the problem? After all, did not our Prime Minister undertake major political rallies in the US? In the Houston ‘Howdy Modi’ rally last year, US President Donald Trump himself participated, uncharacteristically playing second fiddle, all because he, like all democratic politicians, likes votes.

This Special Report is based on some of the most important ideas shared amongst participants in ORF's roundtable on Changing Geoeconomic Landscapes, held on 21 December 2015 in New Delhi. The discussion examined current patterns in world economy, initiatives being taken by the Indian leadership to steer domestic economy, and the need for the country to carefully integrate its domestic economic priorities, including those of reforms, with its fore

The happy news must have reached — like Maneka (of Vishwamitra fame) — to interrupt a meditating Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Kedarnath cave.

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.

The threat to India and Indian interests will still come from Pakistan-based terrorist forces. The name of the terrorist regiment or the colour of its uniform is not important. Conceivably, the first test for the Modi government will be in Afghanistan.

India and Saudi Arabia are re-defining their foreign policy priorities: For New Delhi, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states are becoming key interlocutors in the Middle East. For Riyadh, India is one of the eight major powers with which it wants to forge strategic partnerships as part of its Vision 2030.

While the Modi government is settling down with a positive and constructive agenda, certain negative forces are raising their heads which tend to take away the shine from the Modi government. In Maharashtra, the Hindu Rashtra Sena has been active in promoting communal propaganda.

The Modi government has declared that virtually everyone who opposes its policies in Jammu and Kashmir is a terrorist. This makes it difficult to find a way out of the Kashmir miasma.

For now, it’s more important for the government to keep things stable until it’s clear how best to intervene.