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Professional diplomats will find little that is new or startling in the Wikileaks cables. For them the quality and content of reporting in the leaked cables is quite standard fare. Transmitting to Headquarters information gleaned from contacts, assessing its worth,
Agriculture remains the world’s biggest employer and the most important source of food and raw material for various economic activities. The fulfillment of a number of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is anchored on the performance of the sector. This brief examines the most crucial negative consequences of how modern agriculture is practiced, and how these will make it difficult for the world to realise the SDGs. Drawing on examples fr
BRTS cities are now struggling with a surfeit of public transport systems — the normal bus service, BRTS and the Metro.
ORF Chennai chapter pays tribute to R K Mishra, Chairman of the Observer Research Foundation.
The increasing range of cross-boundary health issues has prompted the integration of health into the discipline of diplomacy, and this trend is reflected in India-Africa partnership. India’s development partnerships are, however, predicated on the idea of development effectiveness, which requires active private sector engagement. By focusing on four opportunity sectors — medical tourism, tele-health, frugal innovations, and the pharmaceutica
Throughout history, healthcare has often been a privilege of the affluent, a trend that continues into 2024 despite technological advancements
While the Health Index 2018 accords a favourable position to Chhattisgarh in terms of annual incremental performance, the state ranks 12th in terms of
The Hindu rate of growth, like Sanatan Dharma, has evolved—Raghuram Rajan and other narrative economists are stuck in the past
Household savings have merely moved from financial to physical assets, with an increase over time
The only realistic option for India and other Indian Ocean powers might well be to work alongside more able and willing partners
India’s geographical landscape is vast, cultural differences can be sharp, and income disparities are stark in certain regions. Access to healthcare, therefore, is varied and the on-ground gaps and challenges are complex. The NITI Aayog Health Index is an attempt by the current government to formulate a mechanism to monitor at the sub-national level the country’s performance in improving healthcare. This paper uses the findings of the Health
Across India’s burgeoning cities, the supply of affordable homes is highly inadequate to keep pace with the growing need; as a result, slums and other informally built areas, where living conditions are extremely poor, have grown. In 2015 the Indian government implemented a national housing programme, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (urban) or PMAY (U) to bridge the gap in affordable housing. This report evaluates the progress of PMAY (U), and finds
FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s first tranche of announcements of the fiscal stimulus for economic recovery closely follows PM Modi's vision of making the economy self-reliant.
New Delhi must be hopeful that this successful visit will undo the damage done by the “unofficial blockade” of 2016.
The past practice of seeing all poverty in a rural light and applying rural solutions in urban conditions will not yield the expected results.
Terrorists have taken to the use of social media networks in a big way. This brings us back to the old dilemma of how much data is information and how much information is adequate intelligence. The other dilemma is how much surveillance is enough for security. The third dilemma is how much liberty is to be sacrificed for security.
QAnon has been increasingly used as a hashtag to create content that continuously attacks Democrat leaders and points towards impending doom.
When the Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal was finally elected as the new Prime Minister of Nepal, the country breathed a sigh of relief.
Before PM Modi can pat himself on the back for a fine diplomatic performance in Lanka, Modi now faces a big political test in the Maldives, where the regime of Abdul Yameen has arrested former President Mohamed Nasheed on charges of terrorism and a perverted judicial system has sentenced him to 13 years in prison.
It would perhaps be wiser for the government to focus on how to stop the outflow of black money instead of just chasing money already stashed abroad. One method is to enter into agreements and treaties with countries to share information, like the way the US is doing now.
Child-friendly cities’ is an emerging concept in the urban management sector in many countries across the globe, including India, where it complements government schemes that aim to develop India’s urban spaces as centres of human capital development, knowledge hubs, and drivers of growth and prosperity. These flagship missions include, for example, the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMR
As the debate on using humans as guinea pigs rages across Asia, the rationale for developing new drugs, new treatments and new research is equally stronger. The solution lies somewhere in between where governments, pharmaceutical companies and those in medical profession have to wear ethical hats and delineate profit from greed.
An international posse led by the US has set off along with a motley crowd hunting for one of the two remaining leaders of the Axis of Evil. The British are there, as always, galloping along close to the Americans. The Germans and the French have returned to the fold after staying away in the hunt for Saddam Hussein.
A recent paper by the Indian Council of Medical Research puts the popular theories linking the COVID-19 vaccination and the rise in sudden deaths amon
The EU's proposed International Code of Conduct (ICoC) for space activities would not be successful if major space actors stay out of the ICoC, according to Indian PM's Special Envoy for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Amb. Rakesh Sood. He says the ICoC was welcomed simply due to the lack of alternate initiatives.
Adoption of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can affect the performance of firms in a variety of ways, including faster processing of information and products, the facilitation of changes in business practices and improved internal organisation and management. Indeed, much of the recent research on developed countries in this area has emphasised less the adoption decision per se than what adoption facilitates. In particular, ICT is
The Narendra Modi performance juggernaut can be rolled out uniformly across the state.
Pakistan may want to normalise relations by bifurcating their “India policy” from their “Kashmir policy”, but this is no longer acceptable to
With pan-Islamic and Pakistan-based terrorist organisations weaponising the deluge of footage from the Gaza Strip, their propaganda will impact terror
While many of the recent developments have been due to Russia’s apparent violation of its commitments, at least as the US maintains, the real reason is more likely the intensifying Sino-US competition and Washington’s determination not to tie its own hands.
Indians need to realise that the time has come for decision-making and thinking which is multi-year, though not in the Five Year Plan kind of a way. What is needed are steps that go beyond partisan approaches and election-cycles aimed at providing the desperately needed transformation of the way India manages its governmental system.
The process of government formation in Nepal seem to be going nowhere if one is to go by the record of recent political parleys between the leaders of the three 'big political parties' of Nepal.
If States cannot agree on legally binding rules, norms are the next best option for shaping State behaviour in cyberspace, but is that enough?
We the people of Iraq, who in all our forms and groupings undertake to establish our union freely and by choice, to learn yesterday's lessons for tomorrow, and to write down this permanent constitution...
BIMSTEC member states have issued, on occasion, joint statements recognising the importance of holistic public healthcare and the need for alliances. Yet, intra-BIMSTEC collaborations so far have been limited, mostly focused on traditional medicine. Amidst COVID-19, the region’s states have an opportunity to take their health-sector partnerships to a “new normal”. Given the highly endemic nature of communicable diseases and the porous bor
While India cannot match China's economic heft which is luring sections of the European political elite, it can entice Europe with the values which it espouses.
As misinformation and propaganda become the mainstay of public discourse, the space for reason is shrinking
The digital revolution opens new avenues for women's economic participation, however, to ensure true inclusion, this revolution must be steered by gen
Tamil Nadu has a history of Dalit-centric violence, which has erupted independently in the southern districts, and also the western Dharmapuri belt, where Naxalites have thrived and revived from time to time.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which is threatened by the formation of the Narendra Modi government in Delhi, have been reactivating networks of LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad in Kashmir since May/June 2013.
The Indian economy cannot attain normalcy in the long run without addressing glitches in its industrial sectors — particularly in manufacturing.
The purpose is to create, through law, a permanent threat to hang over every single Muslim head in India
The Pacific and Indian Ocean islands states require support from external partners to protect the integrity of independent thought and defend themselv
Financial Inclusion can help formalise the economy, increase transparency and efficiency, and provide financial stability for India and Africa.
The India-Japan engagement has been enhanced both on the bilateral front as well as in minilateral formats such as the Quad in recent years.
As the decade long UPA tenure comes to a close, it is quite clear that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma have not been able to persuade the Congress Party to see the strategic virtues of trade liberalisation.
Indian envoy to Russia, Ambassador D. Bala Venkatesh Varma, discusses Indo-Russia ties and the recently concluded Modi-Putin Summit in Vladivostok. Th
It has never been a better time and never before has India come with this much strength to the negotiating table. In the end, reaffirmation and recalibration of Russia' role in India's future was prominent and the short and successful summit was capped by perhaps another nuclear submarine for India and a doctorate for Prime Minister Singh.
