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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive economic and social fallout for India, as it has across the globe. In India, large numbers of people lost their jobs, and supply chains across industries and agriculture have been disrupted. At the same time, environmental indicators—notably air and freshwater quality—showed improvements following the long period of a nationwide lockdown. This brief outlines why India must make a focused decision to mov

Ways to attain growth, create jobs, and meet developmental targets with minimal carbon emissions are priorities for both India and the EU.

Greece may be far away from India but the lessons to be drawn are many. Bringing down fiscal deficit through harsh austerity measures has brought Greece to the brink. India should also not cut the important social sector spending in order to bridge the fiscal deficit.

Why was Devyani Khobragade allowed to employ Sangeeta Richards in her home in the first place despite the fact that her father is employed with the US embassy in New Delhi? It is worrying that as of now Indian diplomats and consuls can take just about anybody they want with them for their posting overseas. There is no detailed dive on the assistant's threat perception nor periodic review of the likely vulnerability.

By 2040, the proportion of the population below 34.5 years will fall to 50 per cent from 65 per cent today.

A lot of thinking should be done about how to reinvigorate agriculture because rural demand is important for reviving manufacturing sector. Agriculture is important also because 52 per cent of the population is still occupied in agriculture and it has a share of 17 per cent in the GDP.

The two countries are moving closer in the security domain.

ON the economic front, there is much to cheer about with the GDP growing at 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2010-2011. There is now hope that the annual growth rate this fiscal year will be 9 per cent which means that India will be catching up with China soon

Everyday fears of violence against women have sharpened in the recent past. However they are increasingly being addressed by new prescriptive do and don't lists of precautionary measures for women. This is happening even while we consistently assert that the onus need not be on the women to keep themselves safe.

Growth is too weak in Europe today to support the necessary fiscal consolidation of the Member States. And without growth, there will be no budgetary and fiscal consolidation, says Pierre Sellal underlining the need for a growth pact.

While the common man or woman has to save for hard times and cut corners on everything, the same is not happening to the budgets of the Central and state governments.

The 2625 kg GSAT-7, developed at a cost of INR 185 crores, will be India's first dedicated satellite for maritime communications, providing UHF, S-band, C-band, and Ku band relay capacity over the Indian landmass and surrounding seas.

Discussions between the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) also saw a general agreement that the Taliban victory in Afghanistan will lead to a civil war with disastrous consequences for Pakistan

If it is any yardstick for a vibrant democracy, India today has six former Prime Ministers around. Only two of them, namely, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and P V Narasimha Rao completed a full term, and thus became mascots of political stability in their time. Yet, subsequent elections proved that stability was not the only concern of the Indian voter. To him, political stability is a vehicle for his deliverance and in ways he understands.

While India's economic presence in the Gulf region has transformed from merely an exchanges between merchants and human capital, as a geopolitical player, India's role has remained subdued.

Will President Obama's passionate call for stricter gun laws from the pulpit bring any change, or will he go towards the sunset in 2016 with having done practically nothing on this issue?

The story began on March 18th, when Pakistan¿s leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf casually mentioned in an interview with CNN¿s Aaron Brown that it is likely that Pakistani troops have surrounded a ¿High Value Target¿ in the tribal ¿agency¿ of South Waziristan. Some enterprising Pakistani ¿intelligence official¿ leaked to the eager

Of all the reasons, there is one reason why the world must pay immediate attention to what is happening in Balochistan. Here, a military dictator ruling without any political legitimacy for more than five years has now launched an ethnic cleansing which, to say the least, is colossally retrogressive and inhuman.

With the Chinese refusal to take charge of the operations at Pakistan's Gwadar Port and a series of handicaps and security issues, this facility may fail to achieve its intended target of building it into a strategic asset.

In 2006, then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh named  Maoist insurgency as “the single biggest internal-security challenge”[i] the country has ever faced. He would repeat the same warning in the succeeding four years.[ii] This paper argues  that today, the insurgency no longer poses the same degree of threat to the Indian state. It outlines the trajectory of the Maoist insurgency from its roots in the late 1960s, to credible domination over

Even if there’s a ground invasion by Israel into Gaza and an extended conflict, the impact on energy prices and the resultant OPEC response would depend on the scale and reach that the conflict takes. If it remains localised without affecting major oil producers or transit routes, prices may see limited immediate change, prompting OPEC to maintain current production levels

The author, who was part of the ORF delegation which took part in discussions with Chinese party and government officials, says that the possibilities for India and China to collaborate must transcend boundary disputes and other age-old issues.

The Haqqani Act of the US Congress, and last week's decision in the US Senate to delay the confirmation of a new US ambassador to Kabul, are now adding to the pressure on the State Department. The next few weeks are likely to see intense parleys between Washington and Rawalpindi to find a way to delay.

Did New Delhi’s ‘big-stick’ approach make Beijing pipe down on the LAC?

As the Year 2005 draws to a close, it is worthwhile to find out where are we today on the path of reconciliation with Pakistan? Is there a process to the peace?

Professional diplomats will find little that is new or startling in the Wikileaks cables. For them the quality and content of reporting in the leaked cables is quite standard fare. Transmitting to Headquarters information gleaned from contacts, assessing its worth,

Given the need to prioritise growth in the developing world, the goals must be 'development-climate compatible,' not, 'climate-development compatible', according to Dr. Youba Sokona, coordinator, African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) based in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

India’s online gaming sector is rapidly growing, surpassing other emerging digital sectors in the country. It contributes to GST revenue, creates jobs, and attracts FDI. The sector also promotes ancillary sectors, contributing indirectly to the economy. However, concerns persist around harms such as addiction, financial crimes like money laundering, and implications to national security. Regulatory uncertainty continues to hinder the sector’s

Traditional Indian fermented foods represent a confluence of cultural heritage, nutritional functionality, and environmental sustainability, offering an effective dietary intervention amidst public health and climate-related challenges. Produced through natural or controlled microbial fermentation involving lactic acid bacteria, bifidobacteria, and yeasts, these foods—such as idli (steamed rice cake), dosa (rice and lentil crepe), dahi (curd),

The thaw in the India-Pak relations has opened a new window of opportunity. In the first stage, it will assist in India hosting the Heart of Asia conference next year and may also lead to a fruitful visit by Modi to Islamabad for the SAARC Summit.

Overall, the infrastructure sector is the winner in this year's budget. The allocation to the sector will go up by 700 bn rupees in 2015/16 over last year. But this sector needs consolidation in policy framework starting from approval to implementation and an institutional mechanism for fair pricing and competition.

The future of the Wagner Group, a private mercenary conglomerate linked to Russian foreign policy, is uncertain, raising questions about its global footprint.

Bangladesh's bilateral relations with India got a major boost with its Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Tripura on January 11 and 12. Sheikh Hasina visited the north-eastern Indian State to attend the convocation of the Tripura Central University at Agartala.

President Barack Obama's State of the Union address to the US Congress begins with America's recent military engagement in self congratulatory terms. Among the more modest claims is: "For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country".

Having crossed the rubicon, it can join the conversations along with other established space powers to ensure that space remains weapons-free.

ORF Chennai chapter pays tribute to R K Mishra, Chairman of the Observer Research Foundation.

With Xi Jinping and the Communist Party facing various pressures, Beijing could be tempted to deflect the attention

Public health is identified by BIMSTEC member countries as one among its fourteen priority areas for cooperation. Such collaborations, however, have been limited around traditional medicine. This year’s launch of the JIPMER-BIMSTEC Telemedicine Network (JBTN) which combines public health, communication, and technology, is bound to change the status quo. In per-capita terms, three BIMSTEC members are wealthier than India, while three are poorer.

The story doing the rounds in Delhi is that in another exhibition of generosity, India is about to withdraw from the Saltoro Ridge (commonly referred to as the Siachen Glacier) in the interest of peace, but without securing the country¿s strategic interests.

If Hindu extremism prevails, India will have little to give the world and be in no mood to learn. Unless the PM acts now to check these negative forces, Modi and the agenda for India could end up being a minor part of the vast collateral damage.

At a roundtable on the situation in Bangladesh, experts underlined the need for ensuring a credible election in Bangladesh for the country's stability and the strengthening of India-Bangladesh relations.

If internecine clashes in the eastern Afghan city of Herat are a sign of the things to come, peaceful political evolution of the country seems to be a messy affair. Around 50 people had been killed in those clashes that continued for eight hours in one of the more stable cities of Afghanistan.