Search

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing pushback from a number of large donor countries due to the alleged involvement of some of its employees in the October 2023 attack on Israel. India’s contributions to the agency, meanwhile, remain stable. This brief examines the nature and significance of India’s financial commitment to the UN body.

India’s Northeast Region (NER) can serve as a pivotal connecting space between India and its neighbours to the east in South Asia, as well as to East and Southeast Asia and beyond, enhancing the country’s diplomatic, infrastructural, and commercial engagements. This paper makes an assessment of NER’s cross-border land connectivity initiatives with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, and Bhutan—all members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative f

Our hypersonic Shaurya and canisterized Agni capabilities aim to preserve strategic deterrence and thus maintain stability

On Pakistan, India should be more willing to use conventional military options and call out Pakistan’s nuclear bluff

The security of nuclear and radiological materials is a critical global issue due to the growing number of existing and emerging threats in the nuclear domain. Within the broad domain of nuclear security, several challenges and threats—such as the physical protection of nuclear materials, insider threat, transportation security, and cyber threats—have raised concerns among governments and the international community. This report focuses on th

India’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) sector is a key driver of the country’s economic and social development by fostering entrepreneurship and generating substantial employment opportunities at comparatively lower capital costs. However, inadequate access to finance is one of the most crucial barriers to the sector’s growth. Recent developments in digital public infrastructure in India could present new solutions to boost MSM

The recent announcement of initiatives establishes India’s presence in sectors where it ought to be more pronounced

The paper examines how the Nuclear Suppliers Group has evolved over the years and the role the Group defines for itself. It also attempts to provide a more nuanced understanding of the consequences of India's NSG-membership.

The pace of growth in the Australia-India strategic relationship is quite impressive, but New Delhi’s hesitance on hard security issues may hamper further developments.

Political parties have put up strong resistance to electoral reforms, notwithstanding appointing committees and commissions from time to time.

By improving business ties with Beijing, New Delhi is advancing its economic interests amid uncertainty from Washington.

India’s talk of an ‘Act East’ policy or an Indian Ocean presence sounds hollow when its ability to shape outcomes in its own neighbourhood is so limited

New Delhi is increasingly positioning itself as a significant player in African peace, security and development. Examining the question of how India responds to state fragility in Africa, this brief finds that India’s engagement is mostly transactional: working around, rather than on, sources of political fragility. Development and security interventions tend to operate in silos, but might change if Indian commercial investments are threatened

While India rhetorically endorses the idea of the Indo-Pacific, three issues prevent actual operationalisation of the concept for New Delhi.

The uncertainty and possible further disruptions in the defense supply chain out of Russia could accelerate India’s diversification and indigenization efforts.

Semiconductors are increasingly becoming the fulcrum of national and economic security. They undergird economies that are growing to be more dependent on digital technologies and aided by advancements in artificial intelligence. As the world works to secure semiconductor supply chains with a firm national push, China is emerging as a formidable contender in certain segments. Within this context, India’s semiconductor ambitions must be evaluated

China is a new entrant into the Indian Ocean, and there is a lot of concern over its development of ports and infrastructure and links with various countries. India must not overstate China's significance.

India’s silence on developments in the South China Sea is highly unlikely to win it a lasting friendship with China but has the potential to do it some lasting damage.

India and the US may have policy differences on Russia and Iran, but keep big-picture focus on defense cooperation

The paper analyses small satellite activities within India in various institutions and identifies the opportunities as well as the gaps.

The Smart Cities Mission (SCM), launched in 2015, seeks to improve the quality of life in 100 cities and towns of India. Overall, its progress has been uneven, with many cities yet to achieve the desired levels of transformation. This report evaluates the first five years of the Mission, and draws lessons from its successes and failures. It discusses the physical and financial status of the projects taken up so far, and identifies the mos

The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 changed the strategic dynamics in the region. For India, the new regime and its attendant risks—especially the threat of terrorism—quickly put it in an unenviable position. This brief assesses India’s policy towards Afghanistan since August 2021. It will cover how India has articulated its Afghan policy, domestically and in multilateral organisations, and its incremental

Despite growing Chinese interest in financing and building infrastructure, India remains one of Nigeria’s important partners

The SCO meet exemplified a nuanced balancing act between India and China — cooperation where feasible, vigilance where imperative

Delhi wants to remain an Eurasian power, swinging between East and West according to its priorities. Its military ties with Moscow. The economic importance of Beijing. America as a strategic counterweight – as long as it works.

India’s economic and policymaking commentariat has focused on the factors that have inhibited India’s manufacturing growth. It is time they shift their focus to successful cases

Faced with trade imbalances and geopolitical friction, India is pivoting from overt dependence on China to a “China-plus-one” strategy anchored in resilience and regional realignment

Triangular cooperation aims to forge global partnerships and foster sustainable global development. In such a system, traditional donors provide financial and technical support to facilitate development activities between two developing countries in the South, i.e. one emerging donor country and a beneficiary. Triangular cooperation allows nations to learn from the mistakes of the pioneers of the development cooperation process, bringing about co

This paper projects the nationwide and state-wise size of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) market under various GDP growth scenarios. The market sizes under these scenarios are expressed in monetary values at the scale of both sub-national units and the Indian economy as a whole. With the help of transactions and market share data from Phonepe, a UPI company, the paper estimates the national and state-wise base case scenario market volu

India’s emerging urban moment is caught between two realities: inadequate systems in public transportation, housing, waste management, and access to sanitation and health; and a burgeoning ecosystem of enterprising individuals, communities and start-ups pushing innovative solutions to these very same civic issues. This paper examines India’s urban picture and understands how the urban narrative of crumbling systems and inadequate infrastructu

Why does India have so few available options to manage security threats? In crisis management, Indian policy-makers have faced all-or-nothing choices, either passively absorbing provocations, or overreacting with massive mobilisations and threats of general war. In wartime, with the notable exception of the 1971 war, India has generally fought to degrade enemy military capabilities rather than to achieve decisive operational effects. This paper a

Technology is vital to enabling accelerated socio-economic growth, effective governance, and relief delivery at scale. Many economies are adopting and developing technology-first frameworks to strengthen their population’s social welfare net, and support economic growth. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed both the challenges and opportunities in India that can be addressed and driven by multidimensional technology frameworks. With the rebalancin

The Canadian government, instead of robustly standing up to extremism, has found it easier to pander to some of the most violent and aggressive groups. This is partly because of how these extremist groups have increased their influence over state institutions

Iran's standoff with neighbouring and Western nations does pose a problem for India which has to balance its relations with Iran against its interest in deepening relations with the US. Collaborating with US initiatives in Afghanistan that exclude Iran might persuade the latter to remove the preferential treatment given to India at Chabahar.

It is likely that Indo-Israel ties will expand in the political, economic and strategic realms. Israel's Ambassador to India, Alon Ushpiz, stressed that the bilateral relationship has surpassed a "buyer-seller relationship," and Israel's long experience of working jointly with Narendra Modi has yielded tangible results.

There is a fundamental transformation in the Japanese assessment of India's role in the shaping of new Asian security architecture. There has been a perceptible change in the nature of the bilateral partnership since the turn of the century. Rather than being centred on economic interactions. Indo-Japanese ties today cover a far wider spectrum of subjects...

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan visited New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders in the last week of April,2005. In interviews given before the visit, he did not characterise the emerging relationship between India and Japan as a strategic partnership. However, he spoke of a convergence of strategic interests.

Nepal's outgoing Ambassador in India, HE Mr Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, gave an impassioned call to all countries in the South Asian region to cooperate in curbing, if not eliminating, the culture of violence and fighting insurrectionists. 'Weapons do not respect sovereign borders'

That IPEF member countries have come so far since the group’s establishment a year ago suggests that there is a near unanimous view about supply chain vulnerabilities.

Since January, 2004, there has been a wind of change in Indo-Pak relations for which credit has to be equally shared by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, the former Prime Minister, and Dr.Manmohan Singh, the present. Rhetoric has given place to seeming reason and confrontation to conviviality.

As part of the Indo-Pak Composite Dialogue process, the two countries will hold official-level talks in nuclear confidence building measures (CBMs) on June 19-20, 2004. This is a welcome development since the last round of such discussions was held at the ill-fated Lahore summit in February 1999, even though the CBMs agreed upon were rather general in nature and, at least in spirit, the Pakistan army was not a willing party to them.

The pressures to change in Pakistan are real. It is not inconceivable that over a period of time, Islamabad will recognise that there are alternatives for Pakistan to exercise regional influence.

There is very little doubt that there would be a change of Government in Delhi from June, 2014. It is also most likely that the new Government will be that of the National Democratic Alliance. The BJP is the largest single party among the NDA constituents who will present the new Prime Minister.

In a scenario, where there is virtually no interaction between dispassionate sections of the populace who have no vested interested in conflict and acrimony, it is not very tough to up the ante and exacerbate tensions on an issue that should actually encourage cooperation.

The Observer Research Foundation hosted at round-table discussion on the Indo-US Nuclear Deal of July 18, 2005 to look at the hurdles that are being faced in its implementation. Since the agreement was signed, it has been the subject of intense debate and varied interpretation by interested groups in both the countries.

Despite unhappiness and disappointments in India over the repeated US failure since 1981 to call Pakistan to account for its sponsorship of terrorism against India in an attempt to achieve its strategic objectives, a consensus has developed since the terrorist strikes of 9/11 that the Indo-US Co-operation in Counter-Terrorism as developed since 1981 should be kept sustained and further developed.

Despite a few hiccups in the initial years of the Obama administration, relationship now stands at a comfortable juncture of increased confidence and a substantially high level of cooperation across a host of issues including Afghanistan where the US, despite some initial apprehensions, now increasingly see India's role as positive in nature and pivotal for the economic resurgence of the Afghan people.

Indonesia’s upcoming general elections will see a rematch between incumbent President Joko Widodo (commonly called ‘Jokowi’) and his long-time rival, retired lieutenant general Prabowo Subianto. This paper examines the potential impact of the elections on Indonesia’s foreign policy, especially on the country’s maritime relations with India and other major powers. In the 2014 elections, the Visi-Misi (or election manifesto) of the incumb

Since the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1967, Indonesia has endeavoured to play a leading role in shaping Southeast Asia’s regional security architecture; this continues to be true amidst the more recent shifts taking place in the global geopolitical landscape. Accordingly, the nature of Jakarta’s contributions towards Southeast Asian security reflects the dynamics of its national foreign policy dec

Given the dependence of Indus River on glacial melt, extensive joint studies on the complex and unique Himalayan systems must be conducted and data must be shared openly, suggested an international conference in Kathmandu organised by ORF, Stimson Center, USA, and Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Pakistan.