Search

In the ongoing power game in Pakistan, the US would secretly back the Army despite all the ill feeling in recent weeks while publicly supporting the civilian government. Probably the US would prefer that the PPP government be sacrificed in an early election, something the Army would appreciate.

Pakistan Army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani's Independence Day address at Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, attracted widespread comments, mostly positive. In fact, Gen Kayani's speech eclipsed the standard presidential address on the occasion in the media.

Madrasas are Islamic religious seminaries, which were originally meant to train young persons, who wanted to take to religion as a profession. They wanted to work as clerics in mosques and as members of the staff in Islamic charitable institutions. In view of the limited career opportunities open to the students of the madrasas, only those who were keen to become religious clerics joined them. Till 1977,

In contemporary conflicts, information warfare (IW) has shifted from a supporting role to the forefront, shaping perceptions, manipulating strategic narratives, and distorting democratic discourse. Since India’s Balakot airstrikes of February 2019—in retaliation for the Pulwama terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 46 paramilitary personnel—Pakistan has institutionalised IW as an element of its statecraft, targeting India. This

Islamabad will deploy all political and diplomatic tools to lobby in the West. But it senses failure

The Pakistani military might now try to focus on India so as to resurrect its diminishing credentials, especially as General Qamar Javed Bajwa will be under pressure. He will have to prove his worth by making sure the regional security environment deteriorates.

The Pahalgam terror attack of 22 April 2025 raised the spectre of cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir yet again. Initially claimed and then denied by The Resistance Front (TRF), a Lashkar-e-Taiba affiliate, the attack triggered nationwide condemnation and protests, including among the local population in the Union Territory. After the 2019 revocation of Articles 370 and 35A, the Indian government intensified efforts to integrate Kashmir p

Terror training schools, teaching hundreds of new and young recruits in suicide missions and use of sophisticated weapons like AK-47, Mi-5 and Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs), have been active in many parts of Pakistan, including Punjab, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Waziristan and Pak-occupied Kashmir.

The revival of caste and community-based issues in Tamil Nadu (like in Paramakudi and Koodamkulam), the non-resolution of inter-State river water disputes and Sri Lanka-related concerns could added up to the problems of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

As an increasingly powerful China seeks to reorder Asia, Delhi must firmly locate China's Panchsheel campaign in a clinical assessment of Asia's rapidly evolving geopolitics and its consequences for Indian security. China is doing what rising powers, including the US, have done before. But Delhi appears a long way from developing an appropriate strategy to cope with Asia's new power play.

World's two major democracies are getting better at riding through the bumps

The serial terror attacks in Paris on Friday was the third terror incident in recent times and by far the largest ever in France. These attacks were on the French or Western way of life, for its support to the US in Syria, and are meant to instil fear in the French.

Senate's recent decision to pass the 'National Commission on the Status of Women Bill, 2012' was a step forward for the women's rights movement in Pakistan.

It is often suggested that the live telecast of parliamentary proceedings, far from informing public debate on policy decision making, has pushed MPs to act or speak in a manner that sends the appropriate message to a mass audience outside, and always keeps the viewer in his or her drawing room in mind.

India's interest lies in ratifying the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh because this would not only boost the image of the country but also establish India's reliability in delivering promises. Political parties need to rise above their narrow and short-term political interests and see the larger picture.

Although China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the second largest economy in the world and a rising power on the global stage, its approach to the current Syrian crisis has been nearly as passive as India's policy.

Whoever in India that says West Asia is Middle-East, Jammu and Kashmir is ¿Indian Kashmir¿ and painting the face with the national Tricolour at cricket stadia is the height of patriotism have got it all wrong. If anything, they are fast tracking towards a ¿patented one-world order¿, knowingly or otherwise, with India¿s soul and resilience of the past centuries being tormented, without trace or knowledge.

The concept of ‘gentrification’ has been studied extensively in urban agglomerations, specifically in tier-I and tier-II cities. ‘Gentrification’ is largely understood as the displacement of people belonging to certain classes in an area due to the influx of investment and affluent classes into that area. In India, settlements are based on religious and social vectors of caste, rather than economic vectors of class. With settlemen

Get away from the barter system of vote bank politics. Politicians need to rise above petty politics and show they haven't got feet of Vernacular clay. This will be the first step to prove to the world that we are a mature democracy.

A road or a highway will no longer be a 'dumb pathway'. It will be an intelligent network with its own inherent logic and sense of meaning derived from algorithms and predictive software. From the point of view of institutional arrangements, several ministries and departments will have to work together.

The survival of the Communist Party and its legitimacy depends on how seriously they understand the ground voices and act accordingly. The urgency to bring comprehensive judicial reforms may be a survival strategy.

Trump’s comments should be ignored and New Delhi should move on to more important matters.

It is time that India seriously consider "outsourcing" some aspects of its foreign policy to its border provinces. Encouragement of deeper cooperation between border states in both India and Pakistan -especially the two Punjabs, the two Kashmirs, and Rajasthan (India) and Sind (Pakistan) -- could be a good beginning for bettering relations.

Nothing, with the exception of the Kashmir issue, has been more debated, researched and written about in the context of Indo Pak relations than the issue of the Iran-Pakistan-India Natural Gas pipeline in the last decade. From Onshore to Offshore options and international consortia and guarantees to people to contact, almost everything and anything has been tossed around and evaluated, yet to no avail. The pipeline still remains a pipe dream.

The peace process in Nepal has been pushed to a corner and it has reached a very critical stage, after the postponement of the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections.

The demand for India¿s active engagement with the Sri Lankan peace process has been building up for the past couple of years following the gradual erosion in the credibility of Norway as an impartial ¿facilitator¿. With the election of President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is in New Delhi this week, this demand has gained momentum; more so because of the fast deterioration in Sri Lanka¿s internal peace.

Battlefield conditions and operational realities will decide terms of Russia-Ukraine peace settlement

Pakistan created the Taliban in the first place to capture Afghanistan politically. It is Pakistan's dangerous, anti-Indian ambitions in Afghanistan that are recoiling on it today, with the Pakistani Taliban as an off shoot of the country's chosen tryst with its anti-Indian destiny.

The contours of the fledgling peace process with the People's War Group (PWG) Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh are gradually emerging. It is the second attempt in as many years. The Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh, K Jana Reddy, announced on June 29, 2004 that the government has requested S R Sankaran, a retired Secretary to Government and Andhra Pradesh-cadre officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS),

The governments of the South Asian countries can cooperate to solve many of their problems, especially poverty alleviation and fighting corruption. It will bring about stability and good governance. Otherwise, when are people dissatisfied with their lives, they will demand change.

Interest of the people should take precedence in foreign policy formulations which have a direct impact on their lives. This was the overwhelming sentiment expressed by the people living on either side of the India-Bangladesh border during a field visit early May this year.

By directing the Centre to take up stalled works on the ¿Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal Project¿ (SYL) involving Punjab and Haryana recently, the Supreme Court may have re-established the supremacy of the higher judiciary in matters pertaining to inter-State river water disputes, among others. In doing so, Justices Ruma Pal and P Venkatarama Reddi may have also reversed the belief in certain quarters that a political solution may be the best way out

After much bonhomie in Beijing, PM Modi has moved on to raise India's strategic profile in two key states on China's periphery - Mongolia and South Korea. Although geography limits New Delhi's role in East Asia, Modi is betting India can win friends and partners through active engagement.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the ongoing pandemic, is changing as it spreads throughout the world. However, the assertions about a more aggressive strain spreading across human populations is merely conjecture at this point. It is necessary to conduct rigorous studies that couple clinical data (such as patient features and outcomes) with changes in the virus, as well as laboratory studies that test the effect of mutations on the ability

This report collates insights from unstructured interviews with people in South Kashmir about their lives following the Constitutional amendments of August 2019 that revoked the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, and repealed Article 35A. The conversations with the respondents covered issues such as their livelihoods and the economy, the bureaucracy, and militancy in the region. The report is an attempt

The Peshawar attack offers the Pakistan leadership a corner to turn around - it only needs to first define who is a terrorist? But is the military and civilian leadership of Pakistan capable, and willing, to take on the terrorist groups, especially TTP? The rhetoric and actions on the part of the leadership raise serious doubts about the will.