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Whatever little sympathy Pakistan wanted to milk for its position on Kashmir was lost because of the Uri terror attacks.

Sustainability requires, among others, adjusting and reorienting to a dynamic situation. In the context of urban areas, “dynamism” is seen in the population and economic growth characteristics. The constantly changing nature of urban centres calls for new and improved strategies to ensure sustainable and equitable development. Owing to population growth and, consequently, greater pressure on resources, there has been increased focus on smart

The high costs of living in cities the world over make it difficult for the poor to live a life of quality and dignity. Yet, the poor in rural regions, as in the case in India, often resort to migrating out of their villages to search for employment and opportunity in the urban areas. Globally, Indian cities are ranked amongst the cheapest in cost of living; within the country, however, they are significantly more expensive than rural settlements

The Modi government is encouraging less dependence on agriculture and the creation of smart cities. To make agriculture more remunerative and attractive, especially for the youth, a lot has to be done - farm credit, access to farm machinery and use of IT. So many villages even today are without power and many more do not have internet connectivity.

In response to increasing criticism of the existing international investment regime, various countries, including India, have been revising their model investment treaties. is paper analyses India's recently approved Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). It makes an assessment of the text's practical implications from the perspective of ongoing negotiations of investment agreements with several countries, as well as India's transition towards

The first universal, legally binding global climate accord signed at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris in 2015 committed to long-term goals for “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” However, as world leaders prepare for the Facilitative Dialogue (FD) ahead o

The twin messages on the Independence Day, respectively from President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have in them core ideas on core issues and core values that have got marginalized in the rough and tumble of every day living and every day politics since the nation c attained Freedom 57 years ago.

Building a set of flexible Asian coalitions that do not include America or China should become a critical element of India's strategy of coping with the historic power shift in Asia and the uncertain evolution of US-China relations.

In recent years, India’s coastal regions have become more vulnerable to multiple risks related to climate change. Intense and more frequent cyclones such as the recent Fani, Gaja and Hudhud as well as severe floods have caused massive devastation to the country’s coastal states. While efficient disaster preparedness in many of these states has helped save many lives, there remain significant challenges in rebuilding damaged infrastructure and

After having made a Lebanon out of Iraq, the US, duly assisted by France and other West European powers, has embarked on a policy, which is likely to make an Iraq out of the Lebanon.

There were four more explosions in London on July 21,2005, but of a much lower intensity as compared to those of July 7,2005. The target again was the public transportation system. As on July 7,2005, there were three explosions in the underground railway system and one in a bus. Apart from injuries to one person, no other human casualty has been reported. Material damage was also very little as compared to July 7.

An ORF study report on the neglect of the Mumbai river Mithi, and how it can be reclaimed effectively was jointly released by Mr. Suresh Prabhu, former Union Minister of Environment and Forests, and Mr. Rajendra Singh, the Ramon Magsaysay Award winner and a noted water activist.

The military must only follow orders and do what it is told. “Charge of the Light Brigade” as a concept has no validity in this day and age.

Until the lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. The sentiment of this famous African proverb came out repeatedly during an interactive session with African journalists at Observer Research Foundation on January 24, 2011.

Exercise Malabar and the trilateral dialogue have assumed significance in the backdrop of the US' rebalance to Asia and India's Act East Policy. The growing convergence of interests among the US, Japan and India on issues such as the Indian Ocean, maritime security, respect for international law and a stable Asian security order has driven the trilateral dialogue.

If India is unable to call the shots in Maldives, who will even take it seriously as a player in the region?

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit Maldives in mid-March as part of the first-ever four-nation southern Indian Ocean trip by any Indian leader. The greater success and long-term achievement of the visit, will depend also on how it all goes and goes down well just now.

Three weeks well into the constitutional deadlock that has stalled governmental functioning an parliamentary proceedings alike, there is no end in sight still to the political crisis overwhelming the Maldivian archipelago. The infant democracy, which otherwise used to be inward-looking until the politico-constitutional changes of 2008, cannot allow to fail itself - and its political leaders cannot try to have it both ways, either.

With the Election Commission formally notifying the presidential polls for September 7, Maldives is gearing up to prove to itself and the rest of the world that democracy is very much at work in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

In Maldives, a midnight police break-in and alleged yet uncontested seizure of 'dangerous weapons' from Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim's residence has led to his unceremonious replacement by Maj-Gen (Retd) Moosa Ali Jaleel, until then High Commissioner to Pakistan.

Now, Maldives seems to be slipping steadily into the 'pressure cooker' mode. No solutions are in sight. None one knows what is going to happen next. May be, the ruling Yameen leadership should look around to learn its lessons from neighbouring Sri Lanka.

The January 16 arrest of Criminal Court Chief Justice Abdulla Mohammed, and the subsequent prosecution of then President Mohammed Nasheed, his Defence Minister Tholhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu and three senior army officials now should indicate the kind of 'institutional reforms' that Maldives requires.

With the presidential elections now set for September 7, political parties in Maldives are vying with one another to identify issues and package them attractively for the voters, many of them youth.

If the legal proceedings mid-way through the Maldivian presidential polls, now before the High Court, run its course, with the possibilities of appeals before the Supreme Court at different stages, the constitutional scheme could end up threatening its own base and basis, one way or the other.

A few incidents in four weeks, and the Maldivian Government is not taking any chances. The illegal import of five double-edged swords and some 'toy guns', shipped from China, and that of a stun-gun and face-mask as

In Maldives, Government parties need to come clean on their strategy for the future in the Roadmap Talks. Only based on such a strategy could they work back, on accommodating the MDP's demand on advancing the presidential poll.

A Male criminal court's sentencing of former President Mohammed Nasheed on 'terrorism charges' for 13 years in prison has revived 'democracy-deficit' charges and consequent global (read: West) discourse, this time against the government of incumbent President Abdulla Yameen.

With Maldive's Supreme Court serving 'contempt of court' notice on Election Commission members, a case is now getting increasingly made out for a review of the rights, powers and responsibilities of 'independent institutions'.

Two events in as many weeks, and Maldives has been making news, both on the home front and in the global arena, for reasons that had been better left untouched. Coming as they did after the successful SAARC Summit in the southern Addu City.

Maldivians, particularly the security authorities in the country, may have heaved a sigh of relief after the competing rallies by the NGOs and the political Opposition on the one hand, and the ruling MDP on the other, went off peacefully on Friday last.

There seems to be a need for conferring permanency of sorts for the All-Party Roadmap Talks that is now headed by Ali Mujthaba Mujthaba, aimed not only at national reconciliation but even more at national consensus and consequent national reconstruction.

India has assured Maldives to extend all technical expertise to resolve the current water crisis. India pressed the button after Maldivian Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon called counterpart Sushma Swaraj soon after the seriousness of the crisis was known.

After privatisation, the 'managed float of rufiyaa against the dollar, and other aspects of governance under President Mohammed Nasheed, the Opposition has begun identifying the ills of 'western ways of governance' to individual sectors, and thus drive home their arguments against the Government, even more.

Maldives may have already opened up a national debate on the need for early electoral reforms, with a public assertion by President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik that the Bill that he had returned to Parliament on fixing a minimum membership of 10,000 for political parties to be registered for State funding,

A piquant situation seems to have arisen in Maldives, on the domestic front and also for its relations with India, after the trial court issued a second order to the police to produce former President Mohammed Nasheed, who has been in the Indian High Commission in Male.

That is the question large sections of the people of the Republic of Maldives have been raising as the small country in the Indian Ocean gets ready for the elections to its Parliament (Majlis), which are due to take place on December 31. While the Indian media and analysts have been devoting considerable attention to the coming re-poll (December 26) to elect the next President of Ukraine in order to see whether the elections there would be free a

In Maldives, all the four present and former presidents need to talk to each other, not talk at each other, as has been the case over the past five years if they are serious about constitutional and administrative reforms, in whatever way each one of them visualise.

The sudden and inexplicable way in which an 'investor-row' involving the Indian infrastructure group, GMR, is getting a new twist in recent days in Maldives, if unchecked, has the potential to rock the bilateral relations.

By applying for clemency to President Abdulla Yameen during the month of Ramadan, former President Mohammed 'Anni' Nasheed has put the ball in the court of the Maldives President. Yameen is now under twin-pressure on the Nasheed front.

Not all seems to have been lost to the infant Maldivian democracy. Arch-rivals in the still -unfolding national political drama have come together again, to re-vote two Bills to ensure mandatory assent after President Waheed Hassan Manik had returned them.

Maldive's new President Mohammed Waheed's hands are going to be full as the country is left with a bagful of unresolved crises, each piling upon the other, all of them needing urgent or not-so-urgent attention from the new leadership.

In Maldives, the stage is now set again for a possible, limited confrontation between the Executive and the Legislature with President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik returning two of the three crucial Bills passed by Parliament.

Three court orders in two days, one of them overseas, and the Maldives Government and the leadership of President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik seem to be in full control of the evolving political situation.