11235 results found
Traditional development financing is proving insufficient to address overlapping global challenges, such as climate change and fragile contexts. This brief explores new thinking in development finance through two examples. The first is Islamic climate finance, which constitutes less than 2 percent of global Islamic finance. The brief identifies policy priorities and proposes dedicated Islamic climate-finance windows (e.g., in the Green Climate Fu
The recent European Parliamentary election shows the rise of the extreme right wing parties. This is something that would hurt Indians living in Europe and UK. Some of these parties are strongly nationalist and anti immigration (racists), free trade and outsourcing.
Myanmar and Bangladesh are active partners in India’s Act-east policy, projects envisaging connectivity between the Southeast with South Asia and countering insurgency in north-east
The region need to response to the unfolding migrant crisis in the Andaman Sea. India and the Indian Navy must move quickly with other regional players to bring an end to the humanitarian crisis in the Bay of Bengal.
Even as the 'Arab Spring' confrontations develop a sectarian character, the Saudi-Iranian relationship cannot be perceived through the dichotomous lens of sectarianism or of pragmatism. The evolving relationship between the two states incorporates both elements
The SCO is critical for India to advance its priorities for peace and prosperity in its northern periphery and broader Eurasia.
For whatever reason, it seems that Parliament never seriously debated the IT Act and Section 66A now struck down by the Supreme Court. Perhaps all parties wanted the restrictions of Section 66A to be around. It is believed that only three Lok Sabha MPs opposed 66A, the remaining 540 did not.
A perfect storm is gathering — of escalating external threats, a constrained space for economic growth with the slowing of the world economy and heightened protectionism.
East Asia has become an increasingly volatile region amid China’s posturing and territorial claims on land and in the sea. The US pivot to Asia, meant to contain China, is based on a slew of strategic partnerships with its regional allies and partners, such as South Korea. The US-South Korea relationship is an important pillar in checking China’s rise, but in recent years, Seoul appears to be gravitating towards Beijing. This brief se
With tensions persisting on the Sino-Indian border, Delhi’s efforts to bolster its infrastructure in critical areas continues.
Allegations against Hasina’s government include authoritarian governance, hounding of the opposition and rampant corruption. These issues and the India factor will dominate the electoral campaign.
This is an edited version of the talk given by Prof. Sudharshan Seneviratne, a well known historian and archaeologist from Sri Lanka, at ORF on April 9, 2012. Prof Seneviratne, currently Professor of Archaeology at the University of Peradeniya, Colombo, has carried out pioneering research in the field of archaeology and is a widely respected speaker on the subject.
Powerful private interests will collude with the most powerful state to safeguard their mutual energy interest or the private sector may actually end up suggesting and implementing a joint framework agreement.
The recent New Delhi visit of Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations, was very much fruitful to give a boost to Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj's 5s vision and enhance the skill development and cultural ties between the countries.
The rise of Islamic State does pose a strategic threat to South Asia, although the influence might not be direct, according to Prof. Stephen Tankel of American University. He says since the decline of the Al Qaeda senior leadership in Pakistan, the IS has emerged a source of new leadership.
South Africa’s Covid-19 responses are marred by policy paradoxes. How does a country with one of the most sophisticated health systems in Africa account for the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities? This brief argues that contemporary approaches to South Africa’s social, domestic, and foreign policy responses should be viewed through the theoretical lenses of racial capitalism—a racially hierarchical political economy constituting war, mil
The kidnapping of an American University professor and his Australian colleague in Afghanistan resulted in a failed rescue mission.
The election of a new government in Colombo provides New Delhi a great opportunity to reset its relations with Sri Lanka. Both countries need to set aside the contentious past and see how they can construct a 21st century relationship based on economic ties and the awareness of the need to understand each other's security concerns.
Sri Lanka¿s worsening security situation under an undeclared war is most likely to persist. Both the LTTE and President Rajpakshe¿s government are violating the four-year-old ceasefire agreement, which, in fact, seldom was honoured seriously, but neither of them is in a position to formally break it and declare an open, all-out war. Both of them are under intense international pressure to desist from doing so.
Post-CHOGM revival of what otherwise are short-term suspended issues may have the potential to unilaterally commit the Union of India to positions on Sri Lanka human rights issues that may be difficult to rescind closer to UNHRC March session.
At the UNHRC session next month, India should take the initiative to work out a consensus resolution, where not just the Sri Lanka-related 'accountability' concerns of the West but also the competing counter-concerns of 'friends of Sri Lanka' are also addressed.
It may be time for both the Centre and the Tamil Nadu Government to actively consider the alternate, 'deep-sea fishing', away from the Sri Lankan waters, if India's Palk Strait fishers and bilateral relations were not to run aground.
Since 2010, some 250 naval vessels from across a wide spectrum of nations have berthed at Sri Lankan ports. If Indians have to suspect Sri Lanka in the matter of Chinese naval vessels, then they would have to suspect a host of other nations.
The recent faux pas of Prime Minister D M Jayaratne's allegation of 'LTTE camps in Tamil Nadu' had the potential to damage bilateral relations with the Indian neighbour,
The just-concluded parliamentary polls in Sri Lanka may have a lesson or two for political parties in India, which too is facing elections in the coming weeks. If past parallels are any indicator of a sub-continental voter-behaviour, the average Sri Lankan has gone with bread-and-butter issues, highlighted by the United People¿s Freedom Alliance (UPFA)
Unknown to the world and unacknowledged by the international community, Sri Lanka may be running to a point of no-return, all over again. 'International intervention' in the form of UNHRC resolutions has made the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa more vulnerable in electoral terms ? or,
Since the BBC Channel IV film director has indicated that one purpose of the controversial film on the Sri Lankan war may have been to act in a particular way at the UNHRC session in Geneva next month, New Delhi has to be wary of efforts to influence its decision.
With the international community refusing to take its focus off the human rights situation in Sri Lanka even in the midst of developments in West Asia and North Africa, there are now expectations that it could well be Colombo's turn to be called to account for, though to be at a lesser degree.
A delegation of senior journalists from Sri Lanka and Maldives visited Observer Research Foundation and held interaction with its faculty on July 5, 2011. The interaction, chaired by Mr. H.H.S. Viswanathan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF and a former ambassador.
Last year’s economic crisis crippled the island nation, but it also provided India an opening to offset some of the inroads that China has made in Sri Lanka.
In April 2022, Sri Lanka’s sovereign debt default —with China being the largest bilateral creditor—trained the spotlight on the impact of Beijing’s lending on Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. Yet, Sri Lanka’s debacle is a result of far more complex, interrelated factors than indebtedness to China. At the same time, there has been a significant rise in servicing of loans from China over the years, and Beijing is indeed an important
This brief examines state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, taking the cases of India, Israel, Brazil, Hungary and the United States. It studies the language utilised by the government leaders in these countries and finds extensive war-time semantics. The brief explores the interrelationship of such rhetoric with the legitimisation of extreme measures through the construction of an issue as an “existential threat”— a process analysts call
Following the two national conventions held by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, the race to the White House has gained more steam. It was an opportune time to take the debate on the US Presidential election
Head of the Syrian delegation to the 68th United Nations General Assembly and Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Walid al-Moallem, said that aggressive policies towards Syria must stop for any effective solution to the Syrian crisis to develop.
Storm strikes are common in the Indian Sundarbans Delta on the northern Bay of Bengal and will only become more frequent and intense in this era of climate change. Every time a cyclone has hit the Sundarbans, the attempt has been to adapt in situ by creating protective infrastructure, and later return to the same conditions prevailing prior to the disaster. Such reliance on the notion of ‘resilience’ has become increasingly unsustainable and
