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This brief examines India’s defence budget for 2023-24. It outlines the economic context for India’s latest defence allocations, and examines the drivers of growth, the broad distribution of resources among the defence forces, and the impact of such distribution on modernisation and the domestic defence industry. The brief posits that the new defence budget, coming on the back of a hefty mid-year upward revision of the previous alloca

The neighbouring waters around China have been marked by competing maritime territorial claims for decades. In recent years, tensions have intensified as Beijing’s inroads have increased in pace and extent. Today China’s economic security is closely linked to the South China Sea. With Beijing repeatedly engaging in acts that are widely seen as violative of international maritime law, there is a growing need to underscore the significance and

It is time that the Modi Government carried out a comprehensive assessment of our internal security structures and put in place measures to enhance their efficacy. Also, the feasibility of the earlier proposal by the army for permitting lateral movement of its personnel into the CAPF needs to be re-examined.

The government has to free India's top 50 institutions across all disciplines from the iron grip of UGC and AICTE. The institutions must be given the freedom to devise their own course curriculum. After all they have the best subject experts.

There is uncertainty in the availability of domestic coal and in this context there is probably a need to rethink India's energy security strategy based on domestic coal

The late-first millennium BCE Arthaśāstra is popularly known for its vile recommendations—a perception that tends to overshadow its far more comprehensive and holistic message on state-building. While the treatise itself gives no geographical or chronological pointers, this paper takes a historicist approach to contextualise it in time and space to show that it was not a one-off product but the result of an entrenched tradition of enlightened

Human traffcking remains a highly acute issue in India and rehabilitation efforts must be stepped up to make sure that those rescued from these hazardous situations are given a chance to rejoin mainstream society. However, various loopholes exist in the judicial and executive processes involved in the country’s rehabilitation systems. This paper describes such problems evident in the process of home enquiry for the rescued victims: fraugh

India, despite being at the receiving end of many terror attacks, has had domestic successes that do not find mention in the prevailing counter-terror discourse

It does not require much investigation or analysis to prove that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is not really inclined to set his house in order when it comes to terrorism.Take his July 22 address to the nation. He seemed to be at pains to explain how Pakistan itself was a victim of terrorism.

States are no longer insulated from distant geopolitical realities. As India has witnessed, trade and supply chain linkages can extend conflicts to uninvolved states

For India, there is much to be worried about, but there is also much to learn

China's new maritime law – in which foreign vessels will have to submit details to Chinese authorities when transiting through its 'territorial waters' – has now come into force.

In 1990, China's GDP was roughly the same as India's and parts of its infrastructure, such as its railway system, were considered inferior. Today, China's GDP is around $9 trillion and India's is $2 trillion. The high speed train travelling at 300 kph from Shanghai to Beijing signals the extent to which China had pulled away from India.

Public displays of exasperation reflect Beijing’s disappointment with the lack of progress in its relations with Kathmandu.

The Centre seems to be keen on development of Free Trade Agreements with our East Asian and South-East Asian neighbours. The general idea floated in this context is: Trade is good. More is better. But, unbridled market force in the form of unbridled trade without the concomitant safeguards in regulation and risk management mechanisms might not be a wise idea.

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

It has an opportunity, with the expansion of G7, to be a part of both the global south and global west

It might be interesting to analyse our diplomatic handling of China and Pakistan on a comparative basis. These two countries pose the most difficult and complex foreign policy challenges to us. Is our approach to both countries similar, or there are differences in the way we engage them?

Chandrayaan-2, India's indigenous moon mission will set off for space, India's next mission will surely be to send humans to moon.

The global pandemic has hit amid the 70th anniversary mark for relations and affected perceptions and realities in ties.

150 innocent lives have been lost in the serial blasts set-off by terrorists in Mumbai on July 11, 2006; the death toll is likely to mount. The blasts, sadly, are a chilling reminder that terrorist can strike with impunity and at will, secure in the comfort that they cannot be touched. If the 1993 Bomb blasts in Mumbai had a fig leaf of an excuse (the demolition of the Babri mosque), the current blasts have none.

Water needs a multidisciplinary approach that exceeds the capacity of reductionist engineering and myopic neoclassical economics.

A Rohingya insurgency has been around since 1948, but it has waxed and waned depending on the level of repression.

In the US, the party primaries to elect the candidates for the November election have begun. It is clear from the primaries that the Republican party is seeking to return to the middle ground from the excesses of the past when it was held hostage by the right-wing Tea Party.

How radicalised is Pakistan Army today? was the question which formed the focal point of an intense discussion organised by Observer Research Foundation on September 20. Well-known academics, journalists, experts and military officers attended the discussion which was chaired by Mr Vikram Sood, Vice President (International Affairs), ORF and former chief of Research & Analysis Wing.

At a meeting organised by ORF several experts said the current discourse on the Maoist challenge has been dominated by a "paranoid" view

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.

Rather than having an ambition of $5 trillion economy that seems almost unattainable by 2024, it is now important that the next three years focus on the creation of better provisions of public goods and services like health.

India's thinking about the Middle East, whether from the UPA or NDA, has tended to be ideological and rooted in their domestic political considerations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to break from this tradition and develop a strategy towards the Middle East that is firmly anchored in realpolitik.

Young Indians now prioritise national security, view China as a military threat, and support stronger ties with the US.

Despite the promise of 2014, India's neighbourhood policy has run into some confusion. There are many examples. With Pakistan, India is paying for the Narendra Modi government's initial missteps.

Trade relations between Europe and India require new eclectic and dynamic ways of thinking. This brief examines hurdles in mainstream policy thinking that block the way for imagining and doing trade differently.

The loopholes and technicalities of the Women's Reservation Bill should be open to scrutiny, but the Bill and its purpose must not be forgotten. Perhaps the revival of the debate over the bill could be an opportunity for PM Modi to demonstrate his party's focus on gender equality.

To take India-Japan ties to the next level, three issues need to be resolved. First, early end to their negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation. Second, a decision on the offer of the US-2 amphibian aircraft. Third, the symbolism of Japanese technology products which can be used for military applications.

New Delhi’s expected involvement amid recent tensions with some other participants will make for interesting dynamics.

The US-led TPP would face increasing competition as China recently concluded a free trade agreement with Australia (ChAFTA) and South Korea and is pushing for a broader Asia-trade pact - Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

It is gratifying to note that women's safety did figure in the Annual Budget 2014-15 with an outlay of Rs 200 crore. Good enough for the lowered expectations but not sufficient given the exponential rise in violence against women across the country. Same allocation for the Patel statue has made the matters worse by pitting living and breathing population against a memorial.

It is gratifying to note that women's safety did figure in the Annual Budget 2014-15 with an outlay of Rs 200 crore. Good enough for the lowered expectations but not sufficient given the exponential rise in violence against women across the country. Same allocation for the Patel statue has made the matters worse by pitting living and breathing population against a memorial.

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

India and China have to shoulder greater responsibility to ensure that they adopt more inclusive and cooperative approach in addressing each other's concerns. And no amount of multilateral level cooperation (BRICS, G-20, WTO) can diminish some of these vexed issues.

Intelligence agencies are prone to exaggerate an adversary’s capabilities. Indian intelligence in the mid-1970s, meanwhile, severely underestimated Pakistan’s nuclear cunning. For a crucial part of those years, India could not identify AQ Khan’s clandestine nuclear activities to acquire Uranium enrichment technology. This brief names three reasons: hubris, biases, and overlearning from one’s experiences. For New Delhi, this is as much a p

Public education is a tool for human capital formation. In India, even as private institutions provide an option, a majority of students attend public schooling; yet, private-school students continue to outperform their public-school counterparts. Using parameters associated with Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4 – Quality Education), this paper estimates the sub-national level state of public education in India by constructing

Human rights issues have been a cornerstone of US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. This paper examines Washington’s human rights focus on India and China under former President Donald Trump, and identifies trends under the current Joe Biden administration. The paper notes an emergent US bipartisan approach to refocus on Beijing’s human rights record following a period of policy dissonance owing to concerns to protect its economic

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.

आम्ही इंडो-पॅसिफिकमध्ये तंत्रज्ञानाची घोडदौड पाहत असताना, iCET चे उद्दिष्ट दोन्ही देशांना गंभीर आणि उदयोन्मुख तंत्रज्ञानामध्ये भागीदारी वाढविण्यात मदत करणे आहे.

The new militant movement in Kashmir, which began with Burhan Wani in the southern areas, has escalated the conflict in the Valley. While militancy is not new in Kashmir, the Pulwama attack put the conflict back on the radar of the international community. This paper examines the changing nature of militancy in Kashmir, specifically with regard to training, recruitment patterns and the use of social media, public support for militants, and an app

Half a century after the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the current debates are focused on new sets of challenges such as space mining, which used to belong only to the realm of science fiction.  This paper analyses the rationale for extraterrestrial mining, as well as the efforts and responses of various countries—i.e, USA, Luxembourg, Russia, China and India. In examining the legal and go