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As the partner that stands to benefit the most from any expanded BRICS play, China needs to be singularly more magnanimous and mindful in accommodating the legitimate interests and aspirations of other member states.

Emissions from fossil fuel-powered motor vehicles adversely affect air quality and contribute to global warming. The manufacture and use of electric vehicles (EVs) is among the ways by which this challenge can be mitigated. This brief evaluates the best practices adopted by countries in the forefront of EV adoption, and outlines the lessons India can draw from them to inform its own EVs strategy. It finds that in addition to strengthening

It will, however, be an important platform to underscore the commitment of major powers for global economic stability

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, reforming the global health governance system has become a key area of concern for the G20 and other multilateral platforms. This comes at a time when the world has increasingly become volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. As a grouping of developed and developing countries, the G20 must prioritise addressing global health challenges by identifying its direct and indirect determinants. This brief

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government headed by Mr. A. B. Vajpayee had made India increasingly invisible in its neighbourhood. It was content to play second fiddle to the US in Nepal and Sri Lanka, let Norway, the European Union and Japan play a more active role in Sri Lanka, maintained a silence on the growing confrontation between President Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives and the pro-democracy activists

Why was Devyani Khobragade allowed to employ Sangeeta Richards in her home in the first place despite the fact that her father is employed with the US embassy in New Delhi? It is worrying that as of now Indian diplomats and consuls can take just about anybody they want with them for their posting overseas. There is no detailed dive on the assistant's threat perception nor periodic review of the likely vulnerability.

While India's economic presence in the Gulf region has transformed from merely an exchanges between merchants and human capital, as a geopolitical player, India's role has remained subdued.

Even if there’s a ground invasion by Israel into Gaza and an extended conflict, the impact on energy prices and the resultant OPEC response would depend on the scale and reach that the conflict takes. If it remains localised without affecting major oil producers or transit routes, prices may see limited immediate change, prompting OPEC to maintain current production levels

Due to the persistent adversarial nature of the Sino-Indian border environment, and because China is now a de facto maritime neighbour as well, India needs to examine its options of leveraging sea power. This brief analyses some fundamentals of sea control and sea denial, and examines some misconceptions about these. By using factors of time, force and space, the brief argues that while maritime economic warfare (explained as counter-value operat

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to “leave no one behind’’ and directed all countries to work together to end poverty and other deprivations. Achieving the SDGs requires collaborative strategies aimed at improving technologies of the Least Developing Countries (LDCs) in the productive sectors such as agriculture. Understandably, in most developing countries, the agriculture sector is characterised by informality, small scale,

India and Nepal are fellow riparian nations in South Asia and thus could potentially use their shared water resources as avenues for collaborative effort. Using water to generate hydropower for maximum benefit comes from a place of mutual interest, allowing for optimum leverage for the socio-economic development of both countries. This brief outlines a history of the India-Nepal hydroelectric power scenario, and offers recommendations for growth.

It is time that the Modi Government carried out a comprehensive assessment of our internal security structures and put in place measures to enhance their efficacy. Also, the feasibility of the earlier proposal by the army for permitting lateral movement of its personnel into the CAPF needs to be re-examined.

Could the new Defence Planning Committee headed by Ajit Doval be a creative answer to the gridlock that has prevented real reform in the higher defence management system?

The elections in Nepal will complete the democratic transition. India must play an enabling role

The late-first millennium BCE Arthaśāstra is popularly known for its vile recommendations—a perception that tends to overshadow its far more comprehensive and holistic message on state-building. While the treatise itself gives no geographical or chronological pointers, this paper takes a historicist approach to contextualise it in time and space to show that it was not a one-off product but the result of an entrenched tradition of enlightened

It does not require much investigation or analysis to prove that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is not really inclined to set his house in order when it comes to terrorism.Take his July 22 address to the nation. He seemed to be at pains to explain how Pakistan itself was a victim of terrorism.

For India, there is much to be worried about, but there is also much to learn

Sooner or later, other countries are going to see through China's plan, and India should cooperate with likeminded countries to help build infrastructure of littoral states

Chinese borders with Bhutan have arisen through their establishing control over Tibet.

Public displays of exasperation reflect Beijing’s disappointment with the lack of progress in its relations with Kathmandu.

Use of weaponized drones, do-it-yourself armoured vehicles and a well-planned internet strategy have given Islamic State an unprecedented edge

A new “more equal” world has to replace the old unequal world with a paradigm propagating equality from spatial and temporal dimensions.

India got a reality check recently when newspapers splashed the shocking conclusions of the first Socio-Economic and Caste Census since 1934. The message from the numbers is obvious: India has to resolve some very basic issues within before it can aspire to be any kind of power, regional or global.

The emergence of this new grouping is clearly an outcome of the Abraham Accords of Aug 2020 and the possibilities that they have created for Israel and the UAE to be on the same platform with India and the US. As President Biden moves to Saudi Arabia for the second leg of his visit to West Asia, we are likely to see a push towards integrating Israel through trade, technology, direct flights and people-to-people contact even with countries where f

The Indian Air Force’s problems with numbers is no secret, It has been plagued by poor decision-making, poor acquisition strategy and shoddy quality control and contract delivery.

The higher levels of development seen in the northern and southern Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh serves to highlight that successive governments have been unable to leverage the agricultural productivity of the region and enhance basic infrastructure throughout the state.

Half a century after the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the current debates are focused on new sets of challenges such as space mining, which used to belong only to the realm of science fiction.  This paper analyses the rationale for extraterrestrial mining, as well as the efforts and responses of various countries—i.e, USA, Luxembourg, Russia, China and India. In examining the legal and go

This brief examines the evolution of the ‘Indo-Pacific’ concept in the context of the dynamic role of “regions” in international relations. It argues that the conception of these theatres is a consequence of power relations; that as power dynamics change, so does the conceptualisation of regions. This would also explain why the boundaries of regions can be arbitrary—why, for instance, the Asia-Pacific stops at Myanmar and does not inclu

Indians need to realise that the time has come for decision-making and thinking which is multi-year, though not in the Five Year Plan kind of a way. What is needed are steps that go beyond partisan approaches and election-cycles aimed at providing the desperately needed transformation of the way India manages its governmental system.

The Bay of Bengal—home to a number of major ports that are lifelines for the economies and populations in India’s east coast that depend on them—is highly prone to extreme weather events. This brief examines the disaster-resilience of three of the ports on the Bay of Bengal: the ports of Kolkata in the state of West Bengal, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The brief describes the destruction wrought on these ports

Is the United States in the process of creating a brand new Muslim bloc? If that be the case, it would know that the execution of the plan necessarily involves the cessation of Kosovo from Serbia in the name of "Self-Determination". This, Russia will not allow at any cost. Belgrade is Moscow's Slav ally. And, in a complex way, the Albanian-Serb and the Washington-Moscow stand-off links up with the global scramble for energy source

While President Obama has been categorical that the new US defence strategy should not be seen as a drawdown of the U.S., the important question is how the proposed budget cuts are going to affect certain weapon platforms such as the F-35.

As Sino-Indian enmity in the maritime domain intensifies, the relationship between space assets and maritime capabilities in this constantly evolving rivalry remains understudied. This paper fills the gap with a comparative analysis that brings to the fore the importance of space sensors in the conduct of naval operations for both India and China. Equally relevant to this competition is the relationship between space assets and the nature of the

Defensive cyber operations are necessary to protect a network. At the same time, Offensive Cyber Operations (OCOs) cannot be neglected in military planning and should get as much attention as defensive cyber missions. Given the massive requirements for investment in cyber military capabilities geared for OCOs, this paper makes a case for the importance of OCOs for India. It outlines a roadmap for New Delhi to achieve effective OCO planning.

This paper considers and explains the shifts and consistencies in India’s engagement with structures of global trade governance beginning from the Uruguay round of trade negotiations in late 1980s. It makes three major arguments. First, that although India has participated actively in global trade negotiations since the establishment of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) it was only under the present-day trade governance institut

Over the years, sanctions have emerged as a preferred foreign-policy tool for many States, especially in the West. Sanctions serve a number of purposes, including the application of economic and political pressure on specific governments with a view to change their stance on a particular issue. International organisations, throughout the 20th century, used sanctions to impose their positions. The League of Nations first imposed sanctions in 1921

Proactively taking advantage of China’s involvement in the Taiwan Strait to fight China in multiple theatres is something Indian military planners should think about.

The financial crisis across the globe and the ensuing responses by nations and non-state actors has dominated both public consciousness and political debate in the recent past. The discussion on suitable stimulus packages, the causes for the financial disorder and future restructuring of the financial systems has often been dominated by the rhetoric of specific constituencies serving individual interests even as it loses sight of the substantive

riangular cooperation is a growing trend in India’s global engagement. The term refers to development cooperation in which traditional aid donors work together with Southern partners to address challenges in developing countries. Largely absent from this type of cooperation in the past, India has gradually become a more visible partner. The current government’s endorsement of triangular cooperation in joint statements with key partners, as we

PM Narendra Modi has an opportunity to play peacemaker at the most important peace summit since World War II. India’s well-established relationship with Russia is the key.

India is on its way to becoming “the Saudi Arabia of data”. This brief argues that India enjoys unmatched advantages of demography, economy, and geography and could be a hub of the submarine cable network that would facilitate the transport of data across the Indian Ocean. India’s public and private sectors should leverage these advantages to push the country to the centrestage of connectivity across the region and beyond. India’s

This paper explores how India has been able to achieve cooperation in the sphere of international development, but has been unable to replicate such success on issues of international security. It maps out India’s engagement on these two issues through four case studies and places them in the context of multilateral theory and international cooperation theory. It further considers factors within the game theoretic models of cooperation, includi

Plans for the ambitious One Belt, One Road initiative should emphasize multilateral cooperation — or risk opposition.

India must play a leadership role in the development of global Internet policy. The government needs to respond to the demands of its citizens and reset its position on international Internet governance issues, in line with the progressive developments that have occurred at home. In essence, India should be doing a better job at linking the local to the global.

Dr. Derek Chollet, Principal Deputy Director of the US Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff, visited Observer Research Foundation for an interaction with ORF faculty.

The visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had put relations on a higher plane and the overall situation in Bangladesh had turned for the better in 2006

The New Year of 2022 has come with intriguing messages from China, not in the least for India.

What explains New Delhi’s greater engagement with the country’s military government?