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In not agreeing to have a parliamentary resolution against Sri Lanka, the Parliament has demonstrated where politics ends and policy-making on a sensitive area as external affairs and neighbourhood relations begin.

Launching the new book of Dr. C. Raja Mohan, 'Modi's World' on Friday, Indian Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar explained the changes brought out by the foreign policy of the Modi government.

In May 2023, India’s University Grants Commission announced draft guidelines to allow foreign universities to establish operations in the country. This paper explores the potential outcomes of the decision by assessing the experiences of foreign institutions in China, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, and Malaysia. The case studies highlight that only a few world-class universities are keen to establish campuses in foreign countries. As su

'Nuclear Security in India' Report, launched recently by former PM Envoy on Non-Proliferation Rakesh Sood, sets out a list of policy recommendations which essentially seeks to address the gaps that still remain in the overall architecture of nuclear security in the country.

On August 12, 2016 the Observer Research Foundation convened the first in a series of multistakeholder roundtables on encryption. This report is the outcome of the discussion of issues and proposal of solutions conducted at the roundtable. Being a complex, technical-legal question around access to data for law enforcement, encryption has long been a contested issue. Creating best-in-class regulation on encryption will require targeted interventio

After sending out confusing signal for months, France may have chosen the worst possible moment for intervention. Because its procrastinations allowed a whole range of potential opponents to mingle and be jointly prepared just in case the French did intervene.

France has continued to remain one of India’s trusted strategic partners, with cooperation extending across many issues.

It would be worth France, India, and Japan beginning an institutionalised and wide-ranging dialogue to ensure that the three of them can better coordinate their activities in the Indo-Pacific — not necessarily to counter China, but to encourage it to cooperate.

France will continue to work closely with the new US administration irrespective of uncertainty in President-elect Donald Trump's policies.

The trilateral partnership has the potential to emerge as an action-oriented minilateral in the broader Indo-Pacific.

In this digital age, how free speech is dealt with in a multipolar world, and the emergence of the new and complex forms of censorship were discussed in a talk on "Rethinking Media Freedom in the Digital Age" at the Observer Research Foundation.

The COP21 was at the heart of the conversation on July 28 at the French Embassy in India, where the fifth in a monthly series of talks leading up to the Paris conference was held in partnership with Observer Research Foundation.

Should the story of the French in Syrian custody become public in France, the voters will ask: did the government sanction illegal entry of our soldiers into foreign countries? Is the Syrian rebellion an imported rebellion?

Progress will probably require developing small, technical agreements given that big, all-encompassing agreements have proven too difficult under current international circumstances.

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

With Male facing increasing domestic and foreign policy challenges, Mohamed Muizzu is possibly aiming at a reconciliation with India

The Vice-President of Maldives, in his address to the ORF faculty, recounts the long and bitter-sweet struggle against autocratic rule in his country. With an elected government now at the helm and democracy gradually taking roots in different spheres of society, he outlines the crucial challenges that lie ahead for the island nation.

Beginning in 2017, the first Trump Administration steered United States (US)-China relations from engagement to competition. Thereafter, Biden largely built on this policy, while giving indications of moving towards a phase of “competitive co-existence”. Under Biden, the US sought to reassure China that it was adopting a strategy of “de-risking” and not “de-coupling,” and its goal was to adopt a technology export regime that would als

Cities across the globe are increasingly using materials such as concrete, which store more thermal energy than natural materials and absorb sunlight rather than reflecting it, warming their surroundings. This ‘urban heat island’ (UHI) effect has consequences on health, ranging from heat exhaustion to cerebrovascular events and circulatory failures resulting in death. Compounding the challenge is that the impact of extreme heat on health is u

Climate adaptation has been at the forefront of UN climate negotiations over the past decade, given the increasing frequency of extreme weather events at the global, national, and sub-national levels. Climate vulnerability and risk assessments (VRA) are essential for adaptation planning, as they help identify areas, populations, and systems that are most at-risk from the impacts of climate change. They can also be used as a tool to develop adapta

Underlying all practical steps between India and France is a shared strategic vision, particularly driven by the strategic uncertainties around China’s rise and its growing assertiveness.

There is an increasing realisation amongst the media community in Pakistan that their State had been actively involved in training India-centric terrorist groups within Pakistani borders, said a delegation of Urdu journalists from Pakistan who visited ORF.

जी20 के असरदार प्रबंधन से “संशोधित बहुपक्षीयवाद” से जुड़ी भारत की मुहिम को ज़्यादा विश्वसनीयता हासिल हो सकेगी. भारत आज वैश्विक ज़िम्मेदारियों में अपना योगदान देने को तत्प

वैसे G20 में ग्लोबल अजेंडा को नया स्वरूप देने की भारत की कोशिश की कामयाबी इस बात पर भी निर्भर करेगी कि अन्य देश इसे कितनी गंभीरता से लेते हैं. 

The alignment of G20 policies with the Sustainable Development Goals, and emphasis on energy security, is high on India’s climate agenda.

The G20 Summit at Antalya in Turkey is expected to focus extensively on infrastructure investment on one hand and climate and energy policy on the other. The latter seems quite natural, ahead of the Conference of Parties in Paris in December.

As the GCC pursues a joint defence shield, this requires coordination with the US to solidify, but perhaps the Trump administration is not as keen as its Democrat counterparts to become the region’s ‘security integrator’

Gender-sensitive disaster management can be best aided by gender inclusive efforts. There is a lot that women could do to aid the process of relief and rehabilitation. For instance, traditional knowledge and skills of women can be used to manage natural resources, aid the injured and sick, prepare community meals.

Historically, the values of gender-caste-based minorities have been systematically kept aside from being even counted, and this bias leads the prior data to be gender-biased or rather gender-invisible.

Gender equality is a fundamental human right. This principle is also found in the SDG 2030 Agenda where its signatories, including India, reaffirmed their commitment to mainstreaming gender development and ensuring equal representation of women in political and economic decision-making. This paper outlines gender-budgeting norms for resource allocations as an essential prerequisite for India to achieve progress towards the SDG-5 on gender equalit

Rapid advancements in medicine and falling fertility rates have contributed to the rise in the population of India’s older adults in recent decades. This demographic and epidemiological shift has a gendered impact: A higher proportion of women over the age of 60, compared to their male counterparts, suffer from Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension, heart and bone diseases, cancers, cognitive decline, and depression. T

This article explores the role played by General-Purpose Technologies (GPTs) on the ebbs and flows of countries’ heft throughout history. From the printing press to artificial intelligence (AI), countries that embraced and innovated on these technologies have gained economic, military, and geopolitical advantage in various forms. Today, AI stands as the defining GPT of the current era, presenting both unprecedented opportunities and massive cha

Inaugurating the ORF conference on "Generating responses to an uncertain monsoon", Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat emphasised the need to understand the science behind the behaviour of the monsoon for achieving a long-term drought-proofing solution.

The geo-strategic uncertainties that prevail in Asia will drive India and Japan increasingly in the direction of jointly addressing the need for maintaining the prevailing balance of power in the continent, according to scholars from India and Japan.

Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gillani lost a sliver of a chance in Pakistan's supreme legislative body National Assembly (on May 9) to steer his embattled country away from the perpetual dilemma of being stuck at the crossroads of destiny.