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Cyclones are a regular occurrence in the region and contrary to the commonly held perception, the mangrove ecosystem is quite resilient to momentary d

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

The collapse of an under-construction 11-storey building in Chennai which claimed 42 lives should serve as a wake-up call for the housing sector to have a regulatory mechanism for the construction industry.

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.

What are the consequences of illegal construction in urban India?

The invasion of Iraq by the ¿Coalition of the Willing¿ was supinely endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 1483 of May 22, 2003. It bestowed legitimacy on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Paragraph 8 of the Resolution, and sub-paragraphs (d) and (e), specifically referred to the work of reconstruction that the Secretary General¿s Special Representative was to coordinate with the CPA. One year later

While the reconstruction process is long and costly, it is important that good policies are developed.

India’s rising urbanisation in recent years has triggered unbridled construction activities to meet the needs of the growing populations in these cities. Not all of these constructions abide by existing laws, however, leading to adverse consequences on governance systems, the environment, people’s health, transportation services, and overall citizen well-being. In extreme cases, illegal constructions have resulted in loss of lives and propert

सर्कुलर अर्बन इकोनॉमी की ओर बढ़ने के लिए भारत को पॉलिसी फ�

One proposal that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could offer to President Pervez Musharraf, when they meet this week in New York on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, is cooperation in the reconstruction in Afghanistan.

The coincidence is striking. The US ¿ban¿ on ¿non-participants¿ in the ¿international coalition¿ to participate in $ 18-billions worth of ¿works contract¿ for Iraq¿s reconstruction, and also the follow-up talks on the deadlocked WTO negotiations at Cancun. Between them, the two may have begun designing a new course for politics and cooperation in the international arena, where economy now has a major say.

The slow pace of rail track construction in India is a total contrast to the development across the border. China has already built a 1142 km-long electrified railway line from Golmud to Lhasa. Now it has plans to extend it to Shigatze and Yatung, reaching almost Nathu La pass.

Eventually, it has to be a mutual settlement with full understanding between the two parties. They need to come to a compromise, in the highest traditions of the country. There is ample land available land at the site which could accommodate both the construction of a new temple as well as a new masjid.

With a large decline in import duty collection and imposition of high levels of debt due to the China-Maldives FTA, Maldives will find itself in a pre

Open defecation (OD), an age-old practice in India, impacts the health of individuals as well as their communities. To tackle the problem, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2014, aimed at making the country open-defecation free (ODF) by October 2019 by giving more attention to community-based approaches. However, while such approaches have helped solve the sanitation riddle in many countries, curbing OD in India

Access to, and development of indigenous digital platforms and cutting-edge technologies is imperative for robust socio-economic development and national security. In turn, such process needs to be democratised, and undertaken in a sustainable manner. India is a first mover in this novel idea of democratising technology and developing Digital Public Goods. Operationalised in the digital infrastructure called India Stack, India’s strategy aims t

A staggering $20 billion worth of debt split roughly equally between operational and under-construction power projects reportedly at risk and other roundups

Why was the controversial barrage built on the Ganga just upstream of the India-Bangladesh border? What has the construction led to?

This paper evaluates deficiencies in India’s naval shipbuilding programme, and identifies factors that adversely impact naval warship construction in the country. It argues that despite considerable effort, India’s shipbuilding endeavours continue to suffer from systemic deficits that cannot be addressed through ad hoc policy interventions and short-term solutions. Through an assessment of strengths and weaknesses of India’s defence shipyar

There is a blithe assumption in India that national construction will happen on its own. That is simply not true. The states and the Union government need ever closer cooperation and coordination in a host of issues. Sadly, what we are confronted by are leaders who are busy shoring up their vote banks, a sure recipe for a crisis somewhere down the line.

During Prime Minister Manmohan Singh¿s early-December 2005 visit to Moscow, India and Russia signed landmark agreements to further cement their defence cooperation that dates back to almost half a century. These include an agreement on the defence of intellectual property rights that prevents either side from using technologies received from the other without special permission, joint construction of a multi-purpose transport plane

The SCO has so far not been a major factor in discussions about Afghanistan's stabilization. But there is a good possibility that Afghanistan will obtain observer status in the SCO. Given the differing agendas of the SCO and the US/NATO, Afghanistan's embrace of the SCO could greatly complicate reconstruction efforts.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, just after the withdrawal of US-led troops, will have ramifications in Japan’s activities in the region. Since 2001, Japan has provided 759 billion yen (USD6.9 billion) to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. This, despite the fact that Japan does not share geographical proximity with Afghanistan and therefore has no direct strategic interests in the country. To be sure, Japan’s partners s

Enhancing the tourism infrastructure would help create employment opportunities and aid the economic reconstruction of the Valley.

As Nepal is on the cusp of elections, would the new local government be able to meet the people’s aspirations for development?

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.

PM Modi's push to industries - trucking, agricultural purchases, construction - where wages are still distributed in cash towards digital payments

In a surprising move that could have a far-reaching consequence on foreign policy, Nepal has entered into an agreement with Three Gorges Corporation (TGC) of China for the construction of the 750 MW West Seti Hydro Electricity Project.

As the two biggest Asian economies, China and Japan are directly involved in infrastructure development in many Asian countries and this has led to fierce rivalry between the two. The recent decision of the Indonesian government to offer the construction of Jakarta-Bandung high speed network to China came as a bolt from the blue to Japan.

During a recent discussion on Indo-US relations, a former senior adviser to the Government of India, who retired some years ago, expressed his surprise that the community of non-governmental strategic analysts in New Delhi had failed to forewarn the policy-makers of the Government of India over the likelihood of opposition from the US to the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan till the Indian border to sell gas to Pakistan a

It is also unclear to what extent the disaster is the outcome of over-exploitation of resources in the back-to-back construction of dams

As Rwanda commemorates 1994 genocide, now it has become a global example of successful post-conflict reconstruction. A talk at ORF by Rwandan High Commissioner Ernest Rwamucyo focussed on post-genocide Rwanda's unique story where ownership and innovative "home-grown solutions" helped re-construct the nation.

Two years after the conclusion of the ethnic war in Sri Lanka, the nation is still confused over reactions from across the Palk Strait to the current developments - or, lack of them - on the prospects of power devolution and a political solution, also encompassing rehabilitation and reconstruction issues.

One way of helping project finance revive in India is by demystifying risk - and the government has just taken a useful step in that direction

Will Belarus join Russia in a unified state — or will it maintain the status quo and mend relations with the West?

In yet another bizarre turn to the Sankararaman murder case, the Tamil Nadu police have arrested Mutt manager Sundaresa Iyer and junior pontiffs brother Raghu under the anti-drugs law. They have now been charged with conspiring to murder construction contractor Ravi Subramaniam, who has turned approver in the Sankararaman murder case,

Goal 11 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals aims to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.” Its targets include the promotion of resilience to disasters such as earthquakes. Many of India’s cities that lie in high-intensity zones—determined by ‘seismic microzonation’—are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes. Such cities, therefore, must move towards developing and adopting policies that pro

A performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2010-2011 revealed that while shipyards in the US, France, South Korea and Russia took between 66-84 months from the award of contract to the construction of a ship, in India, it took 116 to 120 months.

A consignment of over 100 tonnes of explosives, carried in six shipping containers. The ship was bound for Bander Abbas in Iran where the consignment was to be unlaoded and moved overland from Iran to Jaranz in Afghanistan since Pakistan does not permit such cargo to be sent from India over its territory. The consigment was of commercial grade explosives meant for use by Border Road Organization (BRO) for road construction.

Prime Minister Manmohan?s Singh's visit to Myanmar helped launch the construction of an enduring economic and political relationship between the two nations.

This brief examines state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, taking the cases of India, Israel, Brazil, Hungary and the United States. It studies the language utilised by the government leaders in these countries and finds extensive war-time semantics. The brief explores the interrelationship of such rhetoric with the legitimisation of extreme measures through the construction of an issue as an “existential threat”— a process analysts call

While Open Building holds positive emancipatory potential for urban governance, the adverse impact of technology in an urban space must be kept in min

From the available facts of the jihadi terrorist carnage at the North Ossetian town of Beslan in Russia on September 3, 2004, the following reconstruction is possible:

Defining safety in urban spaces as just one of physical protection is self-defeating as it presupposes the existence of only reactive action. The construction of safety in sheer physical terms reduces, and often completely eliminates, the possibility of proactive action.

The Heart of Asia Conference in Amritsar is aimed at speeding up reconstruction in war-torn Afghanistan and bringing peace and normalcy to the nation

The private sector can best fill the skilling gap. The information technology industry did this to grow and continues to do. Old economy companies in steel, cement, chemicals, engineering and construction are less willing to fund this public good. They complain that trained employees leave for better opportunities and skilling becomes a never-ending drain on company resources.

Much in the manner that the Sino-American dﾂtente transformed the Asian balance of power in the 1970s, the construction of a strong strategic partnership between India and America is bound to change the Asian geopolitical order and rejig the regional alignments.

The pace of Indian infrastructure building along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) bordering China has historically been slow due to financial and doctrinal constraints, but has accelerated in the past 20 years. Construction has become more efficient owing to bureaucratic changes and the infusion of greater financial resources. This paper attributes these changes to strategic compulsions brought about by Chinese actions—both diplomatic and on-th

Since cities have little control over automobile policy, they must accommodate more automobiles within their geographical limits by employing better p

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