Search

Political parties appear to lack imagination. In this age of information technology, they need to apply their mind to devise innovative ways of arousing popular interest in public issues. There is a serious disconnect between the political representatives and the people.

The premise of this Budget seems to be a market oriented growth strategy - wholly fair given that the government will struggle to fund the growth needs of the country otherwise. One should hope this budget has set the controls for a larger shift in the government's approach towards administration and efficacy.

This essay examines the Union Budget 2022 from the perspective of the changing paradigm of development governance as acknowledged globally.

The budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam falls short on climate action, failing to bridge the gap between ambition and execution for a sustainable future.

What the people want of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and indeed expect, is an economic revolution that will change their lives and those of their children. To this end, Modi's actions, so far, add up to several IOUs, and a number of promises in the form of temporary measures pushed through in the form of ordinances.

If the dreams of this Union Budget have to become a reality, two important aspects need to be addressed -- transparency and efficiency, says former Revenue Secretary Sivaraman.

Continuity rather than change may well be the mark of the second Bush administration's foreign policy.It was billed as `the liberty speech.' George W. Bush, beginning his second term as President, said: ""It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.""

From 'being the Congress's most trusted alliance partner' during the UPA years, the CBI has now morphed into the BJP's instrumentality of 'fixing' political opponents. Prima facie it appears to be the case and analysts think one will see more empirical evidence of an aggressive CBI in the coming weeks as the BJP feels the pressure on rising intolerance in the country.

Natural gas is an efficient bridge fuel between high-emission fuels and renewable energy systems. Due to limited conventional natural gas reserves, India imports more than half of its natural gas requirements. Increased production of natural gas from domestically available resources could help India reduce gas imports, achieve national emission intensity targets, and honour international climate commitments. Marine gas hydrates ar

After the Ladakh intrusion, Delhi has sensibly stepped up the conversation on LAC management with Beijing. The recent violence on the LoC demands the same with Islamabad. When he meets Nawaz Sharif in New York next month, Manmohan Singh must seek Pakistan's renewed political support for the LoC ceasefire and an agreement to translate that commitment into a military reality.

The current phase of disturbances in Tibet began when five monks in the monastery town of Derge in Gansu province on 27 January demanding the independence of Tibet and return of the Dalai Lama demonstrated outside the monastery attracting crowds of villagers

Protests broke out in Tunisia after opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi was assassinated outside his home on 25 July, 2013. His assassination is not the first in recent months.

India is all set to begin serious efforts to secure a permanent seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC). Two years of non-permanent membership after 19 long years with rotating Presidency of the Council twice over the next two years will mark India's innings.

India will repent at leisure if it gives up the race for the UNSC seat now only to find, after some years, that countries with lesser weight but greater perseverance have left us irretrievably a rung lower in the international hierarchy.

India's nuclear doctrine and strategy still continues to harp on the mantra of "minimum credible deterrent", even though Pakistan has now overtaken India in the number of nuclear warheads it possesses. Some analysts say that there are no signs that the Pakistani buildup is slowing down.

The Observer Research Foundation (ORF) India-China Centre (Kolkata) in association with the University of Calcutta, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (Kolkata), and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, supported a seminar on Urban Experiences: India, China and the Chinese Indians. The seminar was organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kolkata on August 5, 2008 at the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities, Calc

As Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram go through the process of Assembly elections, ORF Urban Policy research team looks at development patterns in these States. Here is a preview of "Book of Charts", covering Delhi and Rajasthan, on the status and developments in such important areas as employment, education and infrastructure, etc.

Jagmohan's address to the ORF faculty included a discussion on six important topics, namely slums and illegal constructions, human settlement patterns, culturally significant towns, cities and climate change, pattern of governance after the enactment of the Constitution (seventy-fourth amendment) Act, and resource mobilisation for city development

Acknowledging health as a central component of urban planning and governance will help achieve health SDGs and ensure policy coherence.

Vehicular congestion and insufficient parking facilities are significant emerging challenges for India’s mega and metropolitan cities, severely impairing mobility. Although curtailed by constitutional mandates, many Indian cities are seeking to resolve the issue through parking policies, focusing on regulations, pricing as a management tool, new technologies, and off-street parking provisions. This brief assesses the parking policies of Ahmedab

A country's development is judged by visitors from the general atmosphere and ambience of its big cities and not by the number of five star hotels and their posh lobbies

ORF and GIZ, Germany, have jointly initiated an Urban Workshop Series 2013 to facilitate interaction among key national and international stakeholders and offer and discuss critical inputs that are urgently needed for effective policy-making in India and other emerging economies.

A striking feature of India's urbanisation is the phenomenal size of population of some urban centres. As per Census 2011, there are 53 cities/urban agglomerations in the country that have recorded a population of more than a million. In some of these centres, the population is as high as 18.4 million.

Urbanisation in China is taking place at an unprecedented level and is set to continue over the next decade. This is likely to present many challenges not just for policy makers but for the economy and society as well. This Paper tries and understands the ongoing process of urbanization, the impacts produced and the way that lies ahead.

The limited development of India's maritime capacities is a cause for strategic concern, especially considering the impact on the nation's economy, which is currently dependent on sea-borne trade for its well being.

India needs to improve its border infrastructure in the background of the changing geopolitics of Asia that will increasingly be shaped by Sino-Indian relations, pointed out a panel discussion on "India's Border Infrastructure" at ORF.

Do we need the IAS? This was the subject of an interaction organized by Observer Research Foundation Chennai Chapter on Saturday, 4 September, 2010, in the light of 'IT czar' N R Narayana Murthy's call for abolishing the system of generalised administrators under the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)

Cross-border payment is one part of the banking sector that has yet to benefit from recent progress in digitalisation. Most international transactions are still processed using a 600-year-old correspondent banking system devised by the Medici.[1] However, this system of manual entry of transactions is not a scalable solution for the burgeoning digital payments space. While this may seem like an issue for institutions, a huge segment of the popul

Uttarakhand devastation would not have been so furious but for years of human greed, administrative and political connivance. We greedily ravaged nature beyond its tolerance and without any rules. When nature responded with a kind of pent up fury, our response was sluggish and confused.

The recent suicide bombings in Uzbekistan that killed more than 40 persons, mostly policemen, reveal an emerging pattern of terrorism in the region.

Results of the 2004 parliamentary elections have generated a serious debate among scholars and analysts following the unexpected ouster of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the victory of the Congress-led coalition. Some see it as ¿the revenge of the poor against the pro-rich image of the government¿ and there are many who ascribe this to ¿the supposed maturity and ingenuity of the India voter¿.

Releasing ORF's latest book on China, the Vice President of India, Mr. M. Hamid Ansari, called for introspection and change of mindset to address the issue of India lagging behind China in the field of science and technology.

The Vice President of India, Shri. M. Hamid Ansari and the Union Finance Minister, Shri. Pranab Mukherjee, remembered the contributions of late Shri R.K. Mishra, ORF Founder Chairman, while releasing 'A Brahmin Without Caste: Remembering Rishi Kumar Mishra' -- a volume contributed by 56 personalities from different walks of life.

Indian Army Vision 2020, the new publication of Observer Research Foundation, was released in Delhi on Tuesday (April 29, 2008) by the Vice President of India, Mr. Mohammed Hamid Ansari.

Possible maritime cooperation with Vietnam and the US - a collaboration unimaginable until very recent times - will strengthen India's current approach to multilateral engagement to secure its strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific.

Hanoi's decision in granting oil blocks to New Delhi could make China uneasy as Chinese foreign policy, especially towards the South China Sea and the East China Sea, has undergone a major shift in the last few years.

The "Pakistan" thesis doesn’t hold water because no other country can be so self-destructive as Pakistan is in its rivalry with India.

As an ASEAN member, Vietnam has worked hard to secure peace and reconciliation among Southeast Asian nations, which were once deeply divided by war.

The South China Sea dispute is today at the centre of the emerging geopolitical game in the Asia Pacific region. The growing US-Vietnam friendship will have a strong bearing on the direction of the changing regional security dynamics.

Indian Navy's reported lack of enthusiasm in increasing the number of participating ships and aircraft reflects the susceptibility of the Indian establishment to cave in to Chinese sensitivities. From a peak contribution of eight warships in 2007, the number has dropped to four this year.

The string of financial fraud and chicanery that we have faced over decades has made the innocent suffer the most. We must make sure that public sector institutions are no longer the private entitlement of politicians.

Cyber security threats have amplified significantly in the last decade, creating security concerns across the globe. Media reports during this period have highlighted how information network systems have been exploited by cyber criminals-as well as States-on numerous occasions for espionage and intelligence gathering. In this backdrop, this Paper focuses on cyber security concerns related to Social Engineering.

Statements made by public officials in certain G20 member states as well commentaries by financial analysts suggest that emerging market economies stand on a different footing from developed counterparts in their regulation of virtual digital assets. They attribute these differences to the distinct institutional, demographic, and economic vulnerabilities of developing countries. This paper examines this notion by presenting a quantitative