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The COVID-19 pandemic sparked rapid digitalisation worldwide, with work-from-home interactions, online payments, and online consultations for various services becoming acceptable practices. While this shift in the manner and nature of work brought enormous benefits, crucially in terms of access, it has also increased the kind of cyber security threats that countries face, with vulnerabilities felt particularly in the health and financial sectors.

Now a mobile App for water management? And, the rapidly dropping price of wireless consumer technology such as WiFi and Bluetooth could turn these individual nodes into a data-rich network.

The devastating floods in Pakistan have not only destroyed lives and property across the country but also seriously undermined the civilian government's reputation among the people.

With the SAARC summit only days away, the focus should be as much on re-positioning India, both in the regional and emerging global context, as on terrorism and security. Prime Minister Vajpayee set the mood a fortnight ago by referring to a 'common currency' for, and hydro-power cooperation among member-nations.

The Union Finance Minister surprised many with his social sector-centric budget. No one expected the Modi government to go for enhancing the MNREGA by Rs 5000 crore or to have a huge kitty of subsidies ($37 billion) aimed at the poor. There seems to be a vision towards giving India a universal social security system for all and especially the poor.

India-Bangladesh relations got a major boost following the meeting between India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mohammad Ali this week.

‘Indo-Pacific’ is being used loosely to mean different things to different nations

India is now being recognized as the fastest growing country in Asia. Even PM Modi recently said that Indian economy is doing much better now. But India's soft underbelly should not be forgotten -- India has the highest number of malnourished children under- five years of age in the world.

A number of initiatives have been recently undertaken to improve the tourism sector in India. These include the introduction of tourist police at key tourist sites in Delhi and the decision to set up an inter-ministerial group to facilitate better co-ordination between the tourism and civil aviation ministries.

India's smaller neighbours are not as concerned about the reach, if any, of outside powers in the region. In this sense, the neighbourhood?s concerns about India are distinct from India's own concerns.

In China’s view, disengagement is a done thing; if New Delhi thinks otherwise, the onus is on it to do what it can.

Across the SCO there is conflict at various levels that complicates India’s engagement, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to simmering Sino-Indian tensions.

Since September 11, 2001, Pakistan has been widely, and publicly, acclaimed as an ally in the Global War on Terrorism by the United States. Early this year, the Bush Administration presented a Bill titled Targeting Terrorists More Effectively Act of 2005 to the Congress for budgetary approval.

The luxury bus leaves downtown Cam hotel to Qassion mountains for a panoramic view of the world's oldest, continuously inhabited city, Damascus. The picture has to be sketched because outside Syria everyone is counting on the level of chaos we did not see.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could not have been more categorical when he said, in his Independence Day speech on August 15, that Pakistan was only making half-hearted attempts to dismantle terrorist infrastructure.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to a full-fledged international armed conflict, and the Ukrainian president has issued a call to people across the world to join the country’s battle through the International Legion of Territorial Defence (ILTD). At the time of writing, 500 Indians have submitted applications to join the ILTD, and one is already in the force. This brief contextualises the rise of Indians fighting ‘foreign’ war

It is absolutely necessary that the central government must consult the state concerned, take care of its grievances, and take it on board while making a decision. At the same time an effective foreign policy requires that the Centre will be in a position to draw the line and assert that the national interest must trump any other interest.

There is no doubt that federalism and the increasing role of states in foreign policy is a reality and not something detrimental. It is important, however, to deal with this reality in a mature and pro-active manner.

In an unpredictable global environment, India needs to shape a domestic consensus in matters of Indian foreign policy.

As a rising India engages the world with confidence in an increasingly challenging environment, informed contestations on foreign policy should be the norm.

As the US Presidential elections unfold, Republican candidates would be thoroughly tested on their merit of thinking creatively on issue-based solutions to global challenges and exploring facets of diplomacy and non-military aspects of foreign policies in contrast to the focus on military interventionism and a hawkish vision of American policies abroad.

Delhi appears set for a regime change, probably by the BJP-led coalition. However, there is unlikely to be any major change in Indian Foreign Policy. There might be more rhetoric, but not much in substance and action. In all probability, it will be a foreign policy which is realist and pragmatic.

In not agreeing to have a parliamentary resolution against Sri Lanka, the Parliament has demonstrated where politics ends and policy-making on a sensitive area as external affairs and neighbourhood relations begin.

The most recent Tokyo Conference on the Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka was held at Washington D.C., on February 17, 2004, as a follow-up meet to discuss the international community¿s support for Sri Lanka¿s peace process.

Observer Research Foundation organised a lecture by Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary, Government of India, on "Indian Foreign Policy: The Challenges Ahead" on Tuesday April 10, at the ORF Delhi campus.

Launching the new book of Dr. C. Raja Mohan, 'Modi's World' on Friday, Indian Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar explained the changes brought out by the foreign policy of the Modi government.

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.

Though Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh's Bangladesh visit was kept low key, the timely interactions she had in Dhaka helped India shed its image of a reluctant neighbour besides helping her make a realistic assessment of the situation there and evaluate possible fallouts on regional stability.

India's total trade deficit with the world now is USD 13472.18 millions. A major component of Indian exports is agricultural commodities. The northeastern region performs well in horticulture. However, challenges to the produce finally turning into exports remain unaddressed for long.

In May 2023, India’s University Grants Commission announced draft guidelines to allow foreign universities to establish operations in the country. This paper explores the potential outcomes of the decision by assessing the experiences of foreign institutions in China, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and Malaysia. The case studies highlight that only a few world-class universities are keen to establish campuses in foreign countries. As su

Someday, Gwadar port in Pakistan might well emerge as a full-fledged Chinese naval facility. For now, Karachi already serves as a major facility for the projection of Chinese naval power into the Indian Ocean.

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

'Nuclear Security in India' Report, launched recently by former PM Envoy on Non-Proliferation Rakesh Sood, sets out a list of policy recommendations which essentially seeks to address the gaps that still remain in the overall architecture of nuclear security in the country.

Over the past decade, Mumbai’s civil society has raised concerns over the way in which the municipal corporation appears to be prioritising rapid development at the cost of the city’s public space. Indeed, the city has lost significant areas of its open spaces owing to various reasons, among them archaic policies, unrealistic goals, and the labyrinthine division of power and jurisdiction between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and othe

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.

With much fanfare, Indian Prime Minister Modi's trip to the United States came to a close September 30. However, beyond catchy slogans, are current Indo-US space cooperative initiatives living up to their full potential? Will space help India and the U.S. move forward together for a better world?

Nearly 20 million people in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen are facing what has been described as the largest food crisis in the world in 70 years. Conflict is the main reason behind these famines, abetted by drought, climate change, poverty, and the existing vulnerability of the people in these countries. Security issues have led to a dramatic decline in agricultural production and have adversely affected the supply and distribution of

In all the hype and hyperbole about what to do with coal blocks, the plain fact is that the real danger lies in our coal reserves turning valueless for the country, of no benefit to the owner - the people of the land. They will be value less if we don't extract them before they turn un-burnable by climate action a few decades from now.

I have no problem with military officers running a nation as long as they are out of uniform and have won the mandate to do so. But when a military officer ousts a legitimate civilian government, refuses to shed his uniform and abuses the basic democratic right of franchise, there is a reason for the civilized world to be alarmed and ashamed. Such men are a blot on the democratic, civilized world.

On August 12, 2016 the Observer Research Foundation convened the first in a series of multistakeholder roundtables on encryption. This report is the outcome of the discussion of issues and proposal of solutions conducted at the roundtable. Being a complex, technical-legal question around access to data for law enforcement, encryption has long been a contested issue. Creating best-in-class regulation on encryption will require targeted interventio