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An analysis of how the DHIS2 open-source platform was used in Sri Lanka, Norway, and Uganda during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Kashmir floods have exposed our communication faultlines. Why is there no disaster management plan in the case of a communication blackout? This is perhaps even more pertinent given that the remote corners of India, be they coastal, mountainous or otherwise, are not well connected to modern telecom networks.

Whole brain function is required to support not only analysis functions — where we zoom in to see the detail — but also synthesis functions where

There is high urgency for new international legislation which would prevent unfriendly actors from using contemporary technologies for psychological w

India has projected its soft power for centuries, long before the concept was even defined by political analysts. In the past decade, the country wielded its soft power in a more systematic way in the practice of diplomacy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in power since 2014, is becoming known for his passionate use of India’s soft-power assets through both an effective media management strategy and an intelligent use of social media. This Brief

The international community must ensure that measures are in place to deal with the food and health crises unfolding in the Horn region

DACCS technologies can help mitigate climate crisis by reducing CO2 emission, however, there are certain limitations, therefore, these needs to be enr

Obscure government of Delhi data on medically certified deaths — largely unknown to the media — reveal the dengue death toll to be eight times the media estimate.

This brief seeks to understand the importance of Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) initiatives in the Bay of Bengal undertaken by the BIMSTEC countries individually, and the dynamics of their collaboration as a subregional forum. It opens with an analysis of the turbulent nature of the Bay of Bengal, because of which disaster management gains paramount importance for the littoral states. The aim is to understand the BIMSTEC countries’

Despite substantial policy changes, the discom sector has not improved. Could this be chalked up to inefficiency or should political interventions be

Unless the financial health of distribution utilities (DISCOMS) can be revived, progress on energy transition can flounder

By curtailing the effectiveness of the Armed Forces Tribunals, the Government is destroying the military justice system which is a disservice to serving and retired personnel

Nepal is witnessing a clear disillusionment with the federal political system as protests demanding the restoration of monarchy are on the rise

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given enough reasons for President Pervez Musharraf to feel at ease. His unambiguous expression of not letting the peace process between the two countries flag should lay to rest speculations and allegations in Pakistan about India's commitment to peace in the region.

With the idea to dispel doubts about the India story abroad, Observer Research Foundation brought together the spokespersons of the two rival parties, the ruling Congress Party and the Opposition BJP, at a platform arranged by the US India Business Council (USIBC) in Washington on 18 September.

As Pakistan struggles to prod the Taliban to act on militant groups, its dual policy of supporting extremist groups has come back to haunt it

While arguments over methodologies and calculations will find its way to the courts, the telecom regulator believes that symmetry in tariffs will bring about symmetry in traffic.

The US-India strategic partnership is rooted in the Indo-Pacific region. Nonetheless, developments in Europe, such as the war in Ukraine, have implications for US-India cooperation. The Ukraine conflict could distract the US, diverting its attention to Europe, and impeding its efforts to build Indian strategic capacity. Differing responses to the war can also create tensions between the two countries, as the US seeks to punish Russia, and

While a noble attempt, this bill does bring up concerns around biases in law and infringement of personal privacy

Xi’s new term starts on shaky grounds as protests in China rise

In the second part of a two-part series, it is argued that the debate—on whether the extension of cyberspace creates the need for a new generation o

Amid the claims and counter-claims surrounding the Balakot air strikes, the Modi government has been emphasising that it has established a new normal.

The moment finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a mere 4% nominal increase in defence budget pegged at Rs 1,47,344 crore for 2010-11, members of Indian strategic community started showing their frustrations.

The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) of Stanford University and the Observer Research Foundation, had co-sponsored a conference entitled "Does South Asia exist? - Prospects for Regionalism in South Asia." As the title suggests there was considerable and intense debate on this subject during the two-day conference.

On the eve of the February 18 elections, no two people in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi were agreed on the certainty of elections taking place. Elections cannot take place, it was argued then, because the establishment will not risk an open-ended process which might produce inconvenient results. In the Pakistani context, the establishment has always meant the Army, the bureaucracy, big landlords and the United States.

With the IMF being viewed by developing countries with skepticism, the G8 unrepresentative of current global realities and the UN too large, the G20 has done well to fill the gap in an effective global governance model. And the effectiveness of the G20 as an international body would be greatly determined by the structure it chooses to pursue.

This Paper looks at the three most important domestic issues-the state of the economy, healthcare and social issues-that American voters are grappling with in the run-up to the presidential elections later this year.

Across the globe, more than 730 million women report ever having experienced some form of gender-based violence; those in low- and lower-middle-income countries are disproportionately affected. In the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the incidence of violence suffered by women in the hands of their intimate partners, owing to heightened stresses of loss of livelihood, disruption of social and protective networks, a

India has many reasons to nurse a nuclear grievance against China. For, Beijing's decision to arm Pakistan with nuclear weapons has given Rawalpindi the impunity to pursue cross-border terrorism against India. But Delhi has no reason at all to blame Beijing for its own failures on the nuclear policy front.

Welcome, American liberals. Welcome to the special torment of discovering that you do not know your country.

Israel being India's most trusted ally in West Asia and among the three or four closest friends in the world, Prime Minister Modi's visit to Israel needs to be a standalone, a single country trip. The India-Israel relationship is important enough, even sacred enough, to merit that respect.

New Delhi's bid to counter the One Belt One Road by creating transportation linkages through the Iranian ports, is at stake.

The US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal makes it an untrustworthy partner in any subsequent negotiations. The era of American leadership in the non-proliferation order is over

Is the digital economy about digitising the real economy, society and governance - or is it simply a valuation game? The question is particularly valid as a series of digital and e-commerce companies have totted up impressive funding without knowing how to build a sustainable business model.

Nor has the Narendra Modi government been deaf to the needs of the farming community.

From America to Bangladesh and Australia to Europe, those who bet on big breakthroughs with India in the last few years can't hide their disappointment at its seeming inability to seize the opportunities at hand. It is up to Delhi to prove that the concerns of its friends and partners around the world are misplaced.

Recent announcements detailing the probability of an early NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan are not realistic, given the ground realities in the country. Lt-Col Daniel Davis in his article 'Truth lies and Afghanistan' speaks of a misleading picture presented by US leaders.

While the Government continues to celebrate the armed forces’ performance for electoral gains, it will do well to remember that the basic tenet of warfare is that the man behind the gun matters more than the gun. Its failure to grant non-functional upgrade is all the more hurtful

Even though the government seems to be addressing concerns ailing the economy, the slowdown seems to be deeper than what the numbers suggest.

World renowned management professor and author, Dr. Jagdish Sheth, delivered a lecture on "The Tectonic Shift: The New Geoeconomic Reality" at Observer Research Foundation. Dr. Sheth, Professor of Marketing in the Goizueta Business School, Atlanta, USA, and the author of 'Chindia Rising: How China and India will benefit your business' forecast a new geo-economic reality in the world driven by markets of emerging nations.

For China, an economic backlash against South Korea is unlikely to provide any solution to the protracted crisis between the two Koreas.

The problems India is facing are hard to solve in the short term and only incremental changes can be undertaken in the five-year term of any government at the Centre. As per an Oxfam survey, India is a highly unequal country on all counts. There are inequalities in wealth, income and consumption as well as structural inequalities of opportunity, region and social groups.

The 'Elavarasan episode' in Tamil Nadu is a product of an electoral malady for which the political class would only offer words, not pro-active solutions. With greater educational opportunities and industrialisation nearer home rewriting the face of caste equations, the problem has worsened.

There are unlimited possibilities for strengthening maritime cooperation with Bangladesh and Myanmar - ranging from joint scientific research to environmental monitoring and from major trans-border projects to trilateral naval exercises. If Delhi decides to play for small stakes in the Bay of Bengal, it will deal itself out of the emerging great game in the east.

The act of referring to a country’s map is often a political statement.

Difficult basins with poor prospects like the kind in India will never be explored or developed under fair-returns-cost-plus regimes. Successes such as those of Lundin in Norway or Cairn in Barmer do not come to the faint-hearted.

The Delhi police proposal to use drones for day-to-day law and order activities is bound to fail unless it is accompanied by a regulatory and manufacturing ecosystem for unmanned aerial vehicles