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These are not cheerful times for South Block in its dealings with neighbours or nations as distant as Italy. But there is a whole range of countries, in the Arab world which have traditionally been warm to New Delhi and who have been sending senior envoys to plead their respective cases and seek Indian support bilaterally and in multilateral forums.
On New Year's Day, 2015, just before Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad and a week before the killings at the Paris-based Charlie Hebdo magazine office,
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been engaged in significant diplomatic activism since he took office. He has met with regional leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE and has emerged as a key pillar in Riyadh's attempts to consolidate a Sunni bloc in the region.
India’s 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, which empowered local self-governments (Panchayati Raj Institutions) and reserved one-third of electoral seats in these bodies for women, has elevated women’s participation in rural governance. India is among the foremost countries for women’s participation in local governments, with over 1.45 million women shaping local decision-making. Women leaders are a critical link between local governance, s
Why do Indian and Pakistani leaders succumb to the predictable? There's so much déjà vu about their peace process being derailed by border firings and terrorist strikes that the wider world has begun to yawn
Nepalese Prime Ministers generally prefer to call on New Delhi for their first foreign visit after assuming office. The urgency for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's visit was, however, accentuated by nearly a week-long effective blockade of Kathmandu imposed by the Maoist insurgents.
A political neophyte who has never held any elected office before, Emmanuel Macron at 39 years is the youngest President in French history.
Control of China through cooperation could be a more effective policy given the size and closed nature of China's society
Formulating a policy towards China that finds the right balance between engagement and resistance is not easy. We are obliged to engage with China as it is fast on the road to becoming the world's number two power.
An international conference on "Engaging with a resurgent Africa" was organised in New Delhi on 20th and 21st of November. It was organised jointly by Observer Research Foundation and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung of Germany.
The trade deal provides the building blocks for future advances on investment, technologies and policies
As anticipated, the much-touted and ill-prepared protest by the Bhiku movement and Sarath Fonseka's Democratic National Alliance (DNA), seeking to replace the Executive Presidency, has Sri Lanka ended in a whimper.
India has moderated its position on the Israel-Palestine conflict over time, exchanging statements of condemnation for those "expressing concern". But behind India's strategic balancing act there also lies a precise domestic calculus.
Social media is becoming an increasingly useful tool for radicalisation and the recruitment and mobilisation of individuals for extremist activities. India, with its unique socio-political landscape, is particularly susceptible to the misuse of social media. This brief explores the challenges posed by social media extremism in India and globally. It examines the psychological and societal impacts of platforms like X, the interplay between local a
The United States, Japan, India, Australia – may emerge as guarantors of free trade and defense cooperation to check China
President Barack Obama has to understand the Indian psyche before advising rapid economic reforms and realise that without adequate safety nets, open unemployment will be a scourge for India.
Aiming to secure their marine resources in the Bay of Bengal, India and Bangladesh settled their maritime boundary in 2014. Despite the delimitation, however, fishers from both countries continue to commit unlawful forays into each other's sovereign waters, leading to the enforcement of punitive measures against those accused or convicted. Such incidents not only jeopardise the fishers’ livelihoods, but repeated occurrences also nettle relation
In 2015, the United Nations agreed to end hunger in all forms by 2030. While India has committed itself as a stakeholder in the 2030 agenda for development, its own record in reducing hunger has been less than satisfactory. Latest data from the National Family Health Survey-4 show an improvement in nutritional indicators of children under-five. However, there are huge differences across states and social groups. Nutrition should thus remain high
Globalisation has made the farm-to-fork journey complex, and with it comes the potential for food contamination in local contexts to spiral into global crises. A largely reactive food safety approach, the rapid growth in urbanisation, and climate change events are linked to the spread of food-borne illnesses, which affect hundreds of millions of people in low- and middle-income countries. This brief argues that building resilient food safety syst
In the case of trafficked children in India, excesses or oversights are commonplace. Gaping holes in the existing system of home enquiry lead to inaccurate assignations on the part of courts and concerned agencies.
Deep social change is at the heart of economic progress.
As President Barack Obama reaches the twilight of his first term, he has to enter the grind yet again, go all out to try and convince the voters that he deserves another term.
Indian Foreign Secretary Ms Nirupama Rao has suggested joint management of fisheries resources, alternative methods of fishing and examining alternative livelihood to resolve the fisheries disputes between countries in the South Asian region.
China’s approach to trade has stood impervious to change. It is time for a new geoeconomic approach to counter China. Like-minded nations can fashion rapid arrangements to grow the supply chains that matter most, such as for electric vehicles (EV). The US and India, plus Australia, Canada, Japan, Britain, Taiwan, Korea, and Mexico can form an EV supply chain compact to create a level playing field within the group and incentivise their
The Observer Research Foundation organised a roundtable on the "Forthcoming Presidential Election in India" on April 27, 2007 at the ORF Campus, Delhi. The roundtable was attended by several eminent personalities from the media, academia, political parties and think-tanks. The discussion largely focused on the possible contenders, the current electoral strengths of various political formations and possible scenarios that are likely to emerge.
Progress will probably require developing small, technical agreements given that big, all-encompassing agreements have proven too difficult under current international circumstances.
Poor choices and domestic turmoil have hindered India’s economic transformation
India’s relations with China involve the four C’s — conflict, competition, cooperation and containment. The areas of conflict are well known — the border, and China’s relationship with Pakistan.
Cities across the globe are increasingly using materials such as concrete, which store more thermal energy than natural materials and absorb sunlight rather than reflecting it, warming their surroundings. This ‘urban heat island’ (UHI) effect has consequences on health, ranging from heat exhaustion to cerebrovascular events and circulatory failures resulting in death. Compounding the challenge is that the impact of extreme heat on health is u
Climate adaptation has been at the forefront of UN climate negotiations over the past decade, given the increasing frequency of extreme weather events at the global, national, and sub-national levels. Climate vulnerability and risk assessments (VRA) are essential for adaptation planning, as they help identify areas, populations, and systems that are most at-risk from the impacts of climate change. They can also be used as a tool to develop adapta
The countries of BIMSTEC, or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, are working to translate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into action plans to ensure access to adequate and nutritious food. They are transforming their food systems based on their priorities and capacities to fulfill, in particular, the 2030 SDG Goal 2 that aims to “end hunger, achieve food security, and promote sustainable
