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The Indian and Chinese diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka sparred on social media over the visit of a Chinese military research vessel to the island nation.

The Integrated Defence Staff released the first-ever public joint doctrine for the Indian armed forces (JDIAF-2017) in April 2017. Absent a publicly articulated national security strategy, the joint doctrine presents important clues about what that strategy might be. This paper examines JDIAF-2017 in conjunction with other Indian military doctrines, public writings of leading Indian strategists, as well as foreign military doctrines and strategie

As data drives technological innovation in finance, open banking has gained global relevance. India has advanced in this domain through initiatives like the India Stack, as well as frameworks such as the Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA) and the Account Aggregator (AA) framework. Additionally, the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act is increasingly shaping India’s open banking landscape. Given the importance of data pr

India’s interest could be more than economic, spilling over into the domain of strategy.

This report is part of the Observer Research Foundation’s “Financing Green Transitions” series which aims to find potential linkages between private capital, in all its forms, and climate action projects. The series will primarily examine domestic and international barriers to private capital entry for mitigation oriented climate projects, while also examining potential avenues for private capital flow entry towards adaptation and resilienc

Speculations are rife about India possibly inviting Australia for the next Malabar naval exercise—which COVID-19 has caused to be moved to 2021.[1] If true, this would represent a break from the past and signal a change in the Asian strategic environment. Over the past few years, India has consistently resisted including Australia in the exercise, despite the latter’s willingness. The only other time that Australia was included in the Malabar

Given the Maldives’ geostrategic location in the Indian Ocean, it is understandable that China has long-term strategic interests in it. The island nation sits atop of critical sea lanes of communication (SLOCs). Gaining a larger footprint in the Indian Ocean is now part of China’s stated strategy.

The Western Indian Ocean Region (WIOR) is linked to India in several ways, yet it remains conspicuous in its absence from India’s foreign policy discourse. This lack of attention is now beginning to reverse as external players stake their geopolitical claims in the region. India has responded by reorienting its own nautical outlook towards WIOR and building friendly relationships with African countries that straddle the region. This bri

India seeks to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group with the objective of playing a more proactive role in the nuclear non-proliferation realm. Political issues remain, however, particularly with regard to its status outside the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This brings to fore questions on the relationship between the Treaty and the Group with regard to their scope, mandate and membership. An assessment of prospective benefits

The country continues to face the sober reality of both rising threats and serious resource constraints.

While a recent test is no doubt historic, New Delhi has much work left to do to address the challenges that remain.

The argument that Indian workers could still be alive under ISIS arrest has, as of today, become even more unviable.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing pushback from a number of large donor countries due to the alleged involvement of some of its employees in the October 2023 attack on Israel. India’s contributions to the agency, meanwhile, remain stable. This brief examines the nature and significance of India’s financial commitment to the UN body.

The Indian prime minister’s national security credentials are poised to have benefits at the polls.

India’s Northeast Region (NER) can serve as a pivotal connecting space between India and its neighbours to the east in South Asia, as well as to East and Southeast Asia and beyond, enhancing the country’s diplomatic, infrastructural, and commercial engagements. This paper makes an assessment of NER’s cross-border land connectivity initiatives with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, and Bhutan—all members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative f

Our hypersonic Shaurya and canisterized Agni capabilities aim to preserve strategic deterrence and thus maintain stability

India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) sector is a key driver of the country’s economic and social development by fostering entrepreneurship and generating substantial employment opportunities at comparatively lower capital costs. However, inadequate access to finance is one of the most crucial barriers to the sector’s growth. Recent developments in digital public infrastructure in India could present new solutions to boost MSM

The recent announcement of initiatives establishes India’s presence in sectors where it ought to be more pronounced

Population relocations driven by economic reasons or caused by land speculation have led to people settling in peri-urban areas (or areas in the periphery of the urban). The in-migration of population and emergence of new activities is transforming such areas, as seen in changes in land use and occupational patterns, reduced farm activities, and growth of built structures. Inadequate planning and governance of peri-urban areas by local government

The pace of growth in the Australia-India strategic relationship is quite impressive, but New Delhi’s hesitance on hard security issues may hamper further developments.

Political parties have put up strong resistance to electoral reforms, notwithstanding appointing committees and commissions from time to time.

By improving business ties with Beijing, New Delhi is advancing its economic interests amid uncertainty from Washington.

The United Nations Security Council has emerged as the key arena and barometer for evaluating the promise and progress of accommodating new, rising powers in the international system. The case of India provides one of the best examples of a rising power coming to terms with its increased power, role and expectations of itself and of other powers, great and small, in negotiating its place in the reformed Council as a permanent member. This paper b

India’s talk of an ‘Act East’ policy or an Indian Ocean presence sounds hollow when its ability to shape outcomes in its own neighbourhood is so limited

Once synonymous with inefficiency and slothfulness, India's public service delivery system is finally being overhauled and put on the path of reforms. Ironically, these reforms are being spearheaded by a set of state governments. This paper attempts to capture the key trends of this impressive development which has far reaching consequences for democracy and governance in the country.

The Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched in 2015, seeks to improve the quality of life in 100 cities and towns of India. Overall, its progress has been uneven, with many cities yet to achieve the desired levels of transformation. This report evaluates the first five years of the Mission, and draws lessons from its successes and failures. It discusses the physical and financial status of the projects taken up so far, and identifies the mos

India’s back-to-back moves to boost relations with Japan and Russia, particularly in security matters, appear to indicate it wants a bigger naval role in the contested South China Sea to counter a rising China. The reality is far different

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 changed the strategic dynamics in the region. For India, the new regime and its attendant risks—especially the threat of terrorism—quickly put it in an unenviable position. This brief assesses India’s policy towards Afghanistan since August 2021. It will cover how India has articulated its Afghan policy, domestically and in multilateral organisations, and its incremental

Despite growing Chinese interest in financing and building infrastructure, India remains one of Nigeria’s important partners

The security dimension of Chabahar is based on a preferential approach towards Indian interests rather than one based on exclusivity by Iran

In the Trump 2.0 era, India’s pivot toward bilateral trade deals with trusted Western economies has become a necessity rather than a choice.

Faced with trade imbalances and geopolitical friction, India is pivoting from overt dependence on China to a “China-plus-one” strategy anchored in resilience and regional realignment

From elections in India to Trump running the Presidential show on his terms, to Brexit — here is a wrap of what to look forward to in 2019.

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

This paper explains Russian co-option of India into the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) at a high level of participation in September 2019 and the range of agreements involved. It argues that the co-option was the result of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dissatisfaction with the economic outcomes so far for the Russian Far East of “northeast Asian regional cooperation.” Moscow related this behaviour to skewed priorities of East Asia’s �

On the job creation front, there is need for higher manufacturing growth and the creation of 'decent' jobs and not just menial jobs of security guards and peons as around 10 million people will be enter the job market each year over the next decade.

Given the existing alliance pattern involving the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu and its partnership in the Congress-led UPA coalition at the Centre, people's perception of issues like price rise could become a double-jeopardy for the alliance in any election.

India must learn to quickly indigenise defence production to cut out both dependence on external sources and corruption that is endemic to the system and to provide employment to Indians along with a sense of pride. This will not happen overnight and there will be obstructions by vested interests.

Technology is vital to enabling accelerated socio-economic growth, effective governance, and relief delivery at scale. Many economies are adopting and developing technology-first frameworks to strengthen their population’s social welfare net, and support economic growth. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed both the challenges and opportunities in India that can be addressed and driven by multidimensional technology frameworks. With the rebalancin

The Canadian government, instead of robustly standing up to extremism, has found it easier to pander to some of the most violent and aggressive groups. This is partly because of how these extremist groups have increased their influence over state institutions

Iran's standoff with neighbouring and Western nations does pose a problem for India which has to balance its relations with Iran against its interest in deepening relations with the US. Collaborating with US initiatives in Afghanistan that exclude Iran might persuade the latter to remove the preferential treatment given to India at Chabahar.

It is likely that Indo-Israel ties will expand in the political, economic and strategic realms. Israel's Ambassador to India, Alon Ushpiz, stressed that the bilateral relationship has surpassed a "buyer-seller relationship," and Israel's long experience of working jointly with Narendra Modi has yielded tangible results.

Both India and Japan consider the visit of Emperor Akihito as a very significant landmark capable of giving further impetus to the growing partnership. The fact that the Imperial dignitaries make very rare visits overseas nowadays due to their health conditions, further heightens the importance of their forthcoming sojourn.