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While the defence of our motherland is the mandate of the toiling soldier, that soldier too needs to be shielded from unjust onslaughts. The defender must be defended. If we ignore this fundamental truth, we will do so at our own peril.

Indian decision makers face two hard choices: either reduce the size of the Indian Army or significantly expand the defence budget.

On November 26, 2008, 10 terrorists who attacked Mumbai undid in less than 60 hours what governments of two sovereign nations had been struggling for over four years to achieve-peace and stability in the region. These terrorists were from Pakistan, recruited, trained and armed by Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), a terrorist group with visible presence across the country.

The military-mullah alliance is fundamental to the pervasive role of the army in Pakistan’s polity. This trend has led to many Islamist and terrorist organisations seeking the status of political parties, a move dubbed as ‘mainstreaming of terrorists.’

Following a tip off, the Colombian Police have chanced upon an indigenously built mini submarine in the port of Tumaco, near the Colombian border with Ecuador. Reportedly, the vessel can carry up to 10 tonnes of cocaine valued at about $US200 million in the international market. According to Eduardo Fernandez, head of the Administrative Security Department (DAS), a detective force, ¿They started building the submarine about six months ago, using

The Himalayan nation is far from resolving its governance woes more than five years after the democratisation and a change of elected government. If charges of corruption against government functionaries were not enough,

No one expects the MoD's current leadership - both political and bureaucratic - to take bold new initiatives towards ASEAN. What surprises southeast Asia is the passive incoherence of the MoD's participation in the various defence forums of ASEAN - neither ready to lead nor willing to respond.

The nature of mob violence, now, is different. It is more seemingly random and anarchic.

This report is part of the Observer Research Foundation’s “Financing Green Transitions” series which aims to find potential linkages between private capital, in all its forms, and climate action projects. The series will primarily examine domestic and international barriers to private capital entry for mitigation oriented climate projects, while also examining potential avenues for private capital flow entry towards adaptation and resilienc

Emphasising that majority of Taliban cadre can be won over for establishing peace in their war-torn country, Afghan government spokespersons said the peace initiative would become successful once ordinary Afghans realise that international forces are not going to remain in the country indefinitely.

India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions for climate action emphasises the creation of an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to three billion tonnes by 2030 by increasing the country’s green cover. At the same time, however, harmful human activities such as legal and illegal logging, as well as deforestation for development purposes seem poised to negate the impact of these climate-action plans. While steps are being taken to prevent t

Modi 2.0 must be about deregulating the economy and improving core regulatory skills to monitor and punish deviations without snuffing out the freedom to innovate, grow or diversify, which are at the heart of entrepreneurship.

PM Modi’s first term was about expanding political power. This term is about instituting governance.

India has always been shy of adding a religious tint to its foreign policy. In the last decade, however, the aspiring global power began engaging in what has come to be called 'Buddhist diplomacy' in its outreach to countries in the South, East and Southeast Asia. 􀀫e prime minister is diligently pursuing India's 'Buddhist agenda' and taking it beyond its borders, emphasising the Indian and Hindu links with Buddhism. Concurrently, another Asian

New Delhi is yet to get its defence engagement with Jakarta in shape. Through the decade-long UPA rule, Delhi and Jakarta had been talking about expanding bilateral defence cooperation. But progress had been rather slow thanks to the government's dysfunctional defence policies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to France, Germany and Canada beginning Thursday should help New Delhi consolidate three of India's very special relationships -with France, Germany and Canada. Modi's visit to Europe and Canada should help restore some balance to India's international engagement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's penchant for using social media to address the public directly has apparently caused a rift within India's mainstream press.

Once again, Modi proves his skeptics wrong.

Earlier this month, India and Russia took stock of the bilateral relationship in a range of sectors, including civil nuclear, trade and investments.

PM Modi has made another high decibel visit to the US, once again holding out hope that India is ready to do business. However, unfortunately not much has changed back home between his last trip and the ongoing one. Rules, laws and regulations remain inflexible.

In 2018, significant developments could take place in Southeast Asia, beginning with the Indo-ASEAN commemorative summit on January, followed by New Delhi hosting all the ASEAN leaders collectively as chief guests at the Republic Day function.

Given the state of India-Pakistan relations, India doesn’t have much diplomatic leverage with Islamabad at this juncture.

A plan is needed to deal with the changing nature of the militancy.

The Modi government's real challenge in Nepal is not China. It is the tragic failure of Delhi's own engagement with Kathmandu. Despite geographic proximity, cultural intimacy, economic interdependence and shared political values, India has stumbled in Nepal.

Silencing both critics and skeptics, Modi had categorically stated that “relations between the two countries cannot be determined or be even remotely influenced by incidents related to individuals.”

Mauritian Prime Minister Ramgoolam has shown remarkable diplomatic deftness in balancing India and China. The invite to Modi shows India’s importance to his vision for Mauritius.

One hopes that by the time Modi gets to places like Janakpur, Lumbini and Muktinath, India would have taken concrete steps towards the promotion of trans-border connectivity and tourism between the two countries.

Given its proximity to India and its importance in global value chains, ASEAN is in a vital zone of India’s strategic interests.

The man is full of energy, strong in the saddle and is likely to be around till 2030.

Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping met in Tianjin to discuss border issues and cross-border terrorism. Modi emphasized the importance of peace along the Line of Actual Control. Both nations agreed to work towards border demarcation. The SCO declaration condemned the Pahalgam terror attack. India maintains its right to build relations with Taiwan. New Delhi signals strategic autonomy to Washington.

The new Prime Minister will also have to wrestle policy decisions out of the hands of the media panels at primetime. Less than 10% per cent of homes with TV sets watch news and less than ten per cent of those homes watch English news.Yet, anchors and media personalities claim to speak for the nation.

If all goes well, India and the US could partner at the ICANN high table, in the sort of Security Council of Internet governance. In engaging with the tech community in California, Modi was bolstering India's credentials for such a role.

No longer just a balancer, the prime minister wants to make India a major power in its own right. And his cabinet pick shows he’s serious about doing so.

By announcing the creation of a chief of defense staff, New Delhi hopes to modernise India’s armed forces.

The Government's honeymoon is perhaps already over and realistically it has another 6 to 12 months to start putting flesh on the bare-bone schemes and ideas announced this past year. If these do not eventuate, one may well witness emptier stadiums abroad and hear shriller voices at home.

Even though India's defence, security and economic relations with Israel have been on the upswing since the 1990s, Modi has been credited with elevating the strategic dimension of India-Israel partnership by bringing relations "out of the closet".

Experience has shown us that governmental systems run by bureaucrats cannot be reformed by them. Reform and restructuring is something only the political class can bring. But the Modi government has sought to rely on the bureaucracy. The result is a seriously underperforming government.

As one of the world's largest economies and as a rising power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is suggesting that India needs "multi-alignment", or more intensive partnerships with all great powers, including America and China.

Under Modi, India must find the right balance between a strong national leadership, popular expectations for change and an optimistic vision of progress. Change can certainly be achieved, but Indians need more than just the will of a strong leader.

Is it realistic to expect the new Prime Minister and his team to bring about a turnaround when some of the key economic indicators have been stagnating for so long? He struck the right note at his inaugural speech by asking people to build a developed and inclusive India.

India has signalled that it will embed its regional policy within the framework of SAARC. This should reduce the disquiet among our neighbours arising from the sheer size of India and its economy. This has a history since India's Pakistan policy of today is rooted in Vajpayee's visit to Islamabad to attend the 12th SAARC summit.

India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces a tough challenge in balancing cost-optimisation for ordinary people while mitigating environmental risks, meeting the needs of stakeholders and interest groups from energy companies to activists to regular folk who rest their hopes on his electoral promises of cheaper, cleaner and safer power.

Continuity, rather than change, is the true hallmark of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy. True, he has been far more vigorous and muscular than his predecessor Manmohan Singh, but the difference is in tone and emphases, rather than substance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fluent Hindi, through which he engages foreign interlocutors and the rhetorical instinct for catchy phrases, is helping expand India's diplomatic lexicon.

Modi's forays into the global investment hot spots will pay dividend only if we reform ourselves, if we decide once and for all that this is the economic agenda which we need to chart out for future proofing India, one that improves our structural inadequacies bogged down by an iron willed bureaucracy.

No matter how you nuance the outcome of the recent Sharif-Modi meeting, the fact is that continuity, rather than change, marks the Indian PM's new Pakistan initiative. And, Time has shown the success of this strategy because India has, if anything, become more resilient, while Pakistan has come to the brink of collapse.

A decade of far-reaching defence reforms under Modi has transformed the Indian military’s reputation and capabilities

Other than neighbouring countries, any future Indian government's principal focus will be on the vast swathe that begins in Sri Lanka and ends in Sydney, and can be described under a variety of rubrics: Look East, Indian Ocean Region, the Indo-Pacific. Countries such as Japan, Indonesia and Singapore present India big windows as it strives to become an economic and maritime power.