2992 results found
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have seen strong and accelerating progress in the energy transition, driven primarily by economic more than environmental factors. The adoption of low-carbon energy, including nuclear, renewables and batteries, has been most prominent in the electricity sector. Most of the Gulf countries have set net-zero carbon targets and all have renewable and hydrogen production targets in place as well. A key objecti
This brief discusses the challenges faced by urban local bodies (ULBs) in India in accessing urban climate finance (UCF), and proposes solutions based on successful strategies used by some of them. The hurdles include institutional barriers and limited capacity. The brief finds that ULBs that have met with success in accessing UCF overcame the obstacles through early sensitisation programmes and global network connections. It offers plausible sol
An enormous amount of capital is required for climate change mitigation and adaptation globally, but especially in emerging markets that have the dual burden of achieving development and meeting national climate goals in the coming decades. Although it is tough to estimate the precise amount of capital required to achieve these goals, it is anticipated to be in the range of trillions of dollars. However, the flow of capital into green sec
The potential misuse of chemical precursors, toxic industrial chemicals, and pharmaceutical-based agents (PBAs) by non-state actors poses a massive threat to national and international chemical security frameworks. There is an urgent need to strengthen the oversight of dual-use chemicals to arrest the frequent use of ammonium nitrate-enhanced improvised explosive devices and the potential use of fentanyl-linked PBAs in domestic terrorist attacks
Africa faces various challenges in ensuring equitable access to life-saving drugs. Drug prices in the continent are largely unregulated, making locally produced drugs more expensive than the imported ones. The African countries thus rely heavily on imports to meet their pharmaceutical needs. Further, the medicine delivery systems in the countries are encumbered by the poor implementation of regulatory policies, if they are in place at all. East A
Accompanying these country-level strategies is a range of defensive measures that the EU has put in place. These include two-way screenings of investments and anti-coercion mechanisms under the umbrella of its 'derisking' approach. At the same time, Europe is attempting to diversify its trade partners and supply chains in favour of more 'like-minded' nations in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere.
With one seventh of the world's population and one of the fastest growing economies India has the potential to be a major player in global trade negotiations. It should bear this position in mind while moving ahead with the EU-India FTA.
The current debate on Delhi’s approach towards the Rohingya crisis focuses principally on the implications. While this aspect, without doubt, deserves careful examination, there is a need for a more holistic understanding. This brief fills the gap by shifting the focus on the role that India is playing in finding a solution to the crisis. It looks beyond what the approach means for India and explores ways for Delhi to further deepen and expand
Contemporary India–Australia relations can be best described as being loaded in intent but limited in action. Over the years, pledges of “common destiny” have repeatedly been made, only to remain unfulfilled. The 2018 release by the Australian government of its India Economic Strategy 2035 is an attempt to lay down a vision for capturing the opportunities offered by India’s market. Among these opportunities is mining. This brief discusses
As anticipated, the much-touted and ill-prepared protest by the Bhiku movement and Sarath Fonseka's Democratic National Alliance (DNA), seeking to replace the Executive Presidency, has Sri Lanka ended in a whimper.
The government will need a lot of explaining to do about the rising corruption in the Budget session and will have to cast its tax net wider to catch the tax dodgers. What it will do to make the tax base bigger could be an interesting feature of Budget 2013.
In recent years, both nations have displayed a renewed focus and prioritisation of establishing strong relationships with each other and the neighbouring ASEAN countries.
With India seeking to connect the next billion, and becoming a key player in the global Internet debate, it is important to have clearly formed domestic policies. The combination of regulatory interest, corporate opposition and constitutional rights suggest that the time is right for a nuanced debate on net neutrality in India.
The metaverse is a real-time, three-dimensional world that is accessible through Virtual Reality (VR) head-mounted display. Called ‘the next Internet’, the metaverse is multi-technology and incorporates hardware infrastructure with immersive technology, blockchain technology, computer vision, and ubiquitous interfaces. Globally, metaverse is still in the nascent stage as stakeholders work to figure out its innovative and practical app
The unguarded optimism about reconciliation with the Taliban may seem misplaced, but the proponents of the concept are increasing in number. The success of a negotiated peace deal with the Taliban, however, will hinge on the sustainability of the power-sharing arrangement that emerges as a result of conciliatory talks. Whether the Afghan government, or the international community will be able to devise an effective peace-building strategy in the
Delhi—a city and union territory of India containing the country’s capital, New Delhi—continues to grow in population, posing challenges to civic agencies in the provision of citizens’ essential needs. This brief examines the experience of Delhi’s water agency in obtaining raw water, amid the growing gap in supply and demand that is only being exacerbated by climate change. The brief finds multiple reasons for the inadequacy of raw wate
This paper attempts to make a contribution in the context of the recent push in making India an e-empowered economy for promoting exports. The study stems from the premise that exports respond significantly to the costs associated with breaking into foreign markets and sustaining in those markets, whereas e-commerce offers a ready platform to minimise such costs. The empirical exercise focuses on export decision and export intensity, after adjust
Social media is becoming an increasingly useful tool for radicalisation and the recruitment and mobilisation of individuals for extremist activities. India, with its unique socio-political landscape, is particularly susceptible to the misuse of social media. This brief explores the challenges posed by social media extremism in India and globally. It examines the psychological and societal impacts of platforms like X, the interplay between local a
While New Delhi must be mindful of export restrictions, the US-India semiconductor accord marks a major shift in the US’s high-technology strategy
Since 1995, when the first incident of jihadi terrorism took place in Saudi Arabia, there have been 25 acts of terrorism as indicated below:
FASTag हा चांगल्या हेतूने केलेला आणि अत्यावश्यक असणारा बदल असला तरी, अनियोजित आणि घाईघाईतील अमलबजावणीमुळे गोंधळ माजू शकतो.
As Delhi focuses on managing Washington's pressure to reduce oil imports from Iran and avoid the imposition of unilateral U.S. economic sanctions on India, it could easily miss the unfolding power play in the Gulf between Tehran and Riyadh.
Initiated in 1970, the FMR experienced a resurgence in 2016, finding a place within the broader Act East Policy of New Delhi.
Microfinance, which began in India 50 years ago, extends credit, insurance, loans, access to savings accounts, and money transfers to small business owners and entrepreneurs, especially those not served by the conventional banking system, or indeed the rest of the financial sector. This paper traces the history of microfinance in India and evaluates its impact. It finds that although the microfinance sector has emerged as a salient player in Indi
Defence structures around the world are seeing a technological upheaving as new and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are being added to military arsenals. However, military AI largely lacks precision and is often developed without any threat-modelling which takes gender into account, examples of which are already being seen in civilian applications of AI. Translated into a conflict environment, deploying such AI systems cou
As the world confronts multiple challenges which are intricately connected, our path for development stands at a crucial juncture. In the context of the embroiling polycrisis, progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) has been steady but fragile with major and persistent challenges. Financing for Agenda 2030 has emerged as a major bottleneck with several developing economies, especially the least developed countries (LDCs), low-income
All these issues will be in play in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which explains whether this was a preview of the general elections.
Given that pilot training is solely based on an individual's ability to afford it, and his selection by airlines dependent not just on an assessment of his capabilities but also the question of supply and demand, we can be fairly certain that unless this aspect is given due consideration, incidents like that of Germanwings will continue to plague us.
In the case of trafficked children in India, excesses or oversights are commonplace. Gaping holes in the existing system of home enquiry lead to inaccurate assignations on the part of courts and concerned agencies.
India has emerged as a global automotive manufacturing hub, with exports contributing a significant revenue percentage for auto firms. This growth has been driven by liberalised FDI norms, competitive market dynamics, and positive policy interventions, attracting foreign auto firms to set up plants locally. In contrast, defence manufacturing continues to lag, constrained by regulatory bottlenecks, limited foreign participation, and non-availabili
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.
China’s approach to trade has stood impervious to change. It is time for a new geoeconomic approach to counter China. Like-minded nations can fashion rapid arrangements to grow the supply chains that matter most, such as for electric vehicles (EV). The US and India, plus Australia, Canada, Japan, Britain, Taiwan, Korea, and Mexico can form an EV supply chain compact to create a level playing field within the group and incentivise their
In all the hype and hyperbole about what to do with coal blocks, the plain fact is that the real danger lies in our coal reserves turning valueless for the country, of no benefit to the owner - the people of the land. They will be value less if we don't extract them before they turn un-burnable by climate action a few decades from now.
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
India pulled out of the planned Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in 2018 after entering negotiations in 2013. India has a trade deficit with 11 out of the 15 RCEP countries and some analysts have theorised that India decided to opt out of the agreement because of such adverse trade balance. Indeed, India has a trade deficit with most of its trade partners in past free trade agreements (FTAs). It is in this context that this br
If the ISIS is not brought under control, the chances are that it could spread to Pakistan, especially Waziristan, a tribal region which plays host to most terror outfits. This could in turn affect India by means of border infiltrations.
China remains a superpower in the making but its journey has now become profoundly more difficult
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
With displays of outright incompetence in many situations, the thin-on-talent Modi government has bungled its way through four years of diplomacy and policy without any sign of course correction.
This paper analyses India’s participation in more than two decades of global climate politics. India has transitioned from a protest voice on the fringes of global climate policy to one that is actively shaping international efforts to combat climate change. Analysis of the drivers behind India’s negotiating positions on climate change thus far has focused on the competing motives of equity and co-benefits, which has however been insufficient
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
Starting this week, ORF brings you the main events that have taken place in the week gone by in India's neighbourhood, from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka
After President Donald Trump’s 2017 visit to Asia, the Indo-Pacific region assumed greater significance in the United States’ foreign policy calculus, as articulated in the ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy Report’ released by the US Department of Defence. On 31 December 2018, Trump passed the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA), which authorises US$1.5 billion in spending for a range of US programmes in East Asia and Southeast Asia to “develop
The countries of BIMSTEC, or the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, are working to translate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into action plans to ensure access to adequate and nutritious food. They are transforming their food systems based on their priorities and capacities to fulfill, in particular, the 2030 SDG Goal 2 that aims to “end hunger, achieve food security, and promote sustainable
This Issue Brief seeks to provide inputs for further discussion to gain from potential windfall opportunities that might arise for India's natural gas industry as well as lay the requisite foundation for a future plan.
As the German G20 presidency aims to put in place a stable environment for investment in Africa, the spectre of famine is haunting millions of people in Africa and the Arab peninsula.
