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Military modernisation was the fourth and last of Deng Xiaoping’s ‘Four Modernisations’. Even before the third modernisation got underway—that of science and technology—China began using commercial technologies to advance its military capabilities. This strategy has gained salience since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 and made it the state’s key goal to transform the PLA into a “world-class military”. Military-Civil Fusi

The white paper is an amalgamation of past experiences as well as the role that China will play in the global order in the coming years.

China’s evolving security dynamics with the United States have compelled it to rethink its nuclear strategy to achieve effective deterrence. It is aiming to modernise its nuclear arsenal and increase its nuclear ambiguity through conventional-nuclear entanglement. Ambiguity will increase the risks of mischaracterisation and can have a destabilising impact on the Indo-Pacific region. This paper highlights two areas where India ought to be most c

China’s nuclear weapons arsenal has grown and modernised over the recent years, and current estimates say the country has 350 operational warheads ready for delivery, over 248 land-based ballistic missiles, and 72 sea-based ballistic missiles. China also has 20 nuclear gravity bombs and additional warheads intended to be armed on land- and sea-based missiles. This brief outlines a history of China’s nuclear weapons programme, scrutini

New Delhi’s Indian Ocean woes aren’t confined to Sri Lanka. Across the Indian Ocean’s littorals, the Chinese navy has been preparing to establish a stronger security presence. On Pakistan’s Makran coast, the PLAN has deployed regularly, including at Gwadar, also constructed by CMPorts. Earlier this year, the PLA is said to have initiated talks with the Pakistan military for another outpost at Jiwani.

This brief aims to examine one of China’s possible responses to the various extremist and terrorist activities that plague the internal security of Pakistan, given the necessity of securing its USD 62 billion investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Given that Pakistan is failing to control this problem, China will have to take measures of its own to secure CPEC. The response of China could possibly be inspired by its strateg

China’s actions in Ladakh since 2020 are in violation of common understandings and have brought the focus of bilateral relationship back to the issue of the border. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of China’s behaviour along the India-China border by exploring a fresh perspective that explains the instability along the border as a function of China’s two-front conundrum. It makes a historical account of past events to arg

China’s moves in the region, despite the pandemic, are only likely to generate fear and inspire greater cooperation with Washington.

China’s ‘three warfares’ strategy (TWS)—understood as public opinion, psychological, and legal warfare—has received considerable attention, but most analyses focus on Beijing’s sovereign claim to Taiwan and its maritime claims in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. This occasional paper evaluates the manifestation of the TWS against India in Ladakh and China’s motivation for adopting the same approach in the Arctic and Antar

It is being argued that since 2024, China-India relations have shown signs of easing, with frequent high-level interactions.

Since the onset of the twenty-first century, China has employed various instruments of exchange diplomacy to overcome its historical 'century of humiliation’ and realise its 'Middle Kingdom’ dream. Riding on the platform of the Belt and Road Initiative, China has leveraged its strong economy and large human resources through tourism, education, and sister-city arrangements to strengthen people-to-people contact between its citizens, diaspora,

Beijing’s pressure on Taiwan and on other countries is generating greater sympathy and support for Taiwan.

The 6th BRICS Summit brought together the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa on July 15 in Brazil. The annual diplomatic meeting announced plans for the New Development Bank, which would be located in Shanghai, China.

The Chinese action in the Doklam plateau is the usual creeping barrage of aggression, presenting fait accompli.

Even today, renewable energy sources definitely cannot replace fossil fuel that is getting scarce over time. Given this theoretical underpinning, why do we have a negative price for crude oil?

Global warming threatens lives and livelihoods across the Bay of Bengal region. With about nine million people living in low-lying coastal areas in these littoral countries, it is important to understand the changes in key climate variables in the region—primary of which is sea-level rise—and examine the states’ response measures. This brief describes the strategies being taken by countries of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral

Coal companies can achieve a great deal if they strategise action plans to improve mine productivity, capital equipment utilisation, mine recovery ratio etc., to international standards. There is also urgent need for introducing more advanced technologies and modern management systems.

My revered teacher late professor Matin Zuberi had once remarked that major states in global affairs, real or aspiring, end up possessing superfluous arsenals often times through superficially planned and mostly ad hoc manners.

Corruption has plagued India’s political and corporate landscape since Independence. In the United Kingdom (UK), Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) have proved to be an effective measure in combating corporate corruption. In the context of parallels between British and Indian laws, this report seeks to analyse the feasibility of applying a DPA system in India. It examines DPAs and their potential in India, and highlights the challenges in i

This paper highlights the increasing importance of Community Driven Development (CDD) in the delivery of public services to the poorest sections and enhancing access, voice and accountability in developing countries. Community participation in the delivery of ‘public services’ to the poorest sections of the population in developing countries has often been regarded as an effective mechanism to enhance access, voice and accountability.

Open defecation (OD), an age-old practice in India, impacts the health of individuals as well as their communities. To tackle the problem, the Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2014, aimed at making the country open-defecation free (ODF) by October 2019 by giving more attention to community-based approaches. However, while such approaches have helped solve the sanitation riddle in many countries, curbing OD in India

Senior Supreme Court lawyer and ORF trustee Lalit Bhasin moots a comprehensive law to replace the obsolete Aircraft Act of 1934

The rise of modern technologies may drastically alter the employment landscape in India, potentially displacing large portions of the workforce. India requires an inclusive future of work that retains those currently in work while also creating sufficient new opportunities for the growing labour force. This paper reviews extant literature on technological change, automation, and their impact on the future of work in India and, by extension, educa

Notwithstanding the partial admission of the allegations made by India about the Mumbai attackers, Pakistan's complicity in allowing Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), the terrorist group behind the Mumbai attack, to retain most of its extensive infrastructure and capability to pursue its terrorist activities calls for an intense global scrutiny.

It is sad that caught unawares, the nation is finding new ways to explain away the current puzzle that Jammu and Kashmir once again has become. Issues such as 'trust deficit' and 'governance deficit',

The earth's geological past has seen violent climate shifts. The extinction of the dinosaurs, the Neolithic Revolution that followed the retreat of the last ice age, and the sudden demise of ancient civilizations, has been linked to climate change. While mankind has been altering the planetary environment ever since the Neolithic Revolution, it is only after the Industrial Revolution that it has attained the weight of numbers and technological ca

The expansion of PLA Navy submarine activity in South Asia is quite in keeping with a powerful navy’s need to familiarise itself with alien operating conditions.

The Indian Ocean is important to China because Chinese trade and energy resources transit this route.

Social media platforms facilitate the sharing of information and enhance connectivity and civic engagement. At the same time, however, they are vulnerable to abuse by malicious actors who use the channels to spread misinformation and hateful and divisive content. Regulatory reforms must seek to align the utility of social media platforms with the welfare of citizens, while safeguarding the right to free speech. This paper explores the regulatory

Prolonged periods of military rule in Pakistan have enabled the military to penetrate all structures of the Pakistani state. Political parties, the judiciary, bureaucracy, and the media — today all have their share of pro-khaki elements. Therefore, a military coup d’etat is no longer the only way to unseat a democratically elected political leader who may have differences with the Army. Indeed, if former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had compl

The gig economy is part of a crucial transformation occurring in India’s work landscape, and ride-hailing companies are examples of platforms on which “gigs” can be found. The Indian ride-hailing market was projected to grow by 15.5 percent until 2023; the COVID-19 pandemic, however, has disrupted the trajectory. The drivers of these companies—numbering approximately four million—are considered as “independent contractors” and thus

The former Governor of Chhattisgarh, Lt Gen (Retd) K M Seth, called for a national strategy and national level coordinated action plan to successfully deal with Naxalites of the CPI (Maoist). He was making a presentation on Naxalism in India, at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, on April 13, 2007.

In January 2015, African states, at the 24th session of the African Union (AU) Summit, adopted Agenda 2063—a development plan for ‘The Africa We Want’ that aims to turn the continent into a powerhouse. For Africa to achieve the vision, it needs access to massive financial resources, as well as reforms that enhance its role in global economic governance systems. However, the institutions comprising the global financial architecture continue

Immersive technology is a key part of the emerging Web 3.0. A prominent aspect of this evolution of the World Wide Web is the Metaverse, which aims to build a fully immersive and self-sustaining virtual shared space for humans to use as they would the physical world in all aspects of life. Existing concerns and debates on privacy, user protection, and the ethics of monetising platforms also extend to the Metaverse. This brief discusses the three

With Maldives again in the midst of political chaos, its former Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem says India can play a crucial role in taking the country out of the crisis by keeping a close watch on it and helping reform the judiciary to ensure that the Yameen administration does not kill off democracy.

This paper offers a comparative study of India and China in higher-education reforms for the development of talent in artificial intelligence (AI), and in AI research. It analyses the AI development plans and strategies of the two countries, their automation readiness index, talent retention, and research output. The analysis is based on both primary and secondary sources including interviews, government and industry reports, and recognised ranki

The mass arrival of refugees could well cause the international community to contemplate a model where European troops take care of different sectors to keep the peace in the Mediterranean. But since European intervention will smack of re-colonisation, the ball will be tossed upto the UN Secretary General to devise a muscular UN Force.

Digital adoption, hastened globally by the COVID-19 epidemic, brought along with it both benefits and threats, including concerns of safety and security of the cyberspace. Current geopolitical dynamics, ongoing strategic and economic disputes, as well as attempts by authoritarian regimes to preserve power have allowed companies with malicious intent—known as ‘cyber mercenaries’—to develop and deploy offensive cyber capabilities. The tools

With both the goods FTA and services FTA in place, India is well set on the path of a comprehensive economic partnership with ASEAN. India, whose services sector contributes about 55% to the country's GDP, has been keen to sign the services FTA with ASEAN as it will help the Indian companies tap the ASEAN markets easily.

Free flow in data can unlock huge social and economic value in user data that is usually locked in silos. With this motivation, Data Empowerment and Protection Architecture (DEPA), a public-private endeavour, is being developed in India as a template for users to access and share their data on their terms. Not only does this form of data sharing promote competition, but it fosters innovation as well. This brief dissects the conceptual layers of D

In recent years, China has increasingly invested in West Africa to further its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, diversify its supply chains, and acquire critical minerals and raw materials for its domestic industries. Indeed, China sees immense potential in West Africa for the region’s ability to provide a secure supply of critical minerals and energy resources insulated from the West. Beijing is now the region’s largest bilateral trading

Recent grey-zone activity in maritime-Asia suggests an increase in hybrid warfare, even as the lines between military, economic, diplomatic, intelligence and criminal means of aggression become increasingly blurred. By replacing overt military aggression with soft provocations – kept well below the threshold of open warfare – aggressors attempt to leverage asymmetry, ambiguity and incrementalism for strategic effects. These tactics are highly

The rapidly changing battlefield—framed by emerging transnational threats and the rising influence of public opinion—has transformed military diplomacy; today the focus is shifting from traditional combat to joint multinational operations and non-combat activities. Since the early 21st century, China has modernised its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and expanded military diplomacy to protect the country’s interests. Using civil-military f

As an emerging power in the current multipolar global order, India can use the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to protect, promote, and project its geostrategic and geoeconomic interests. The SCO is also a platform for India to reaffirm its commitment to revive and deepen its centuries-old civilisational, spiritual, and cultural ties with other member countries. This paper explores India's priorities at the SCO, chiefly connectivity, coun

The new land acquisition bill has brought transparency in land acquisition. But by incorporating too many instruments and agencies to ensure the same, it instead risks making the process bureaucratic. Thus, the bill ends up replacing a coercive colonial law with a cumbersome one.