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It is important to differentiate between physical capital as produced means of production in contrast to natural capital which is naturally endowed. The latter facilitates a host of ecosystem services[i] that flow through human processes, both societal and economic. Unlike physical capital, natural capital cannot be substituted easily. Therefore, this stock of natural capital processing into the flow of ecosystem functions need to be valued and

Rather than having an ambition of $5 trillion economy that seems almost unattainable by 2024, it is now important that the next three years focus on the creation of better provisions of public goods and services like health.

The central government is considering a proposal to select aspiring IAS and allied services candidates after the 12th standard with a view to catching them young for a career in the bureaucracy. Presumably, a new academy will be established for this purpose because the Mussoorie academy has a different charter.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have had a long history globally and in India. While the Indian government supports this partnership model, PPPs have experienced little success in delivering municipal infrastructure and services. This is despite the demands of a rapidly growing urban population for local services, which the municipal bodies are often unequipped to deliver. Indeed, in many cities across the world, there is an emerging push for

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, which is threatened by the formation of the Narendra Modi government in Delhi, have been reactivating networks of LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad in Kashmir since May/June 2013.

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

India is a sovereign nation; is it digitally sovereign, too? This paper examines the degree to which India is self-reliant in electronic hardware. After all, for a country to be self-reliant in the information age, it has to either attain indigenous capability in electronic manufacturing and services or be equipped to protect data and mitigate the threats associated with supply chain vulnerabilities. This paper refers to self-reliance in electron

India, which has experienced a 4.6 per cent growth rate in 2013-14, requires higher public spending on infrastructure. More public services and goods are needed to bring relief to the lower income groups, especially health services, otherwise they are likely to slip into poverty.

If India were able to sustain the launches of remote sensing satellites as per the plans, it would significantly beef up its ability to deliver services, products and other inputs in the field of climate, cartography and agriculture.

India and Africa’s complementary sectoral priorities and similar roles in the evolving global food markets present numerous opportunities for collaboration in the agricultural sector. This paper analyses the potential for India-Africa cooperation towards food security and capacity building. It makes an assessment of Indian partnership with African countries in the areas of agriculture and food security, outlines current initiatives in both regi

The doctrine’s ambitious purpose, in principle, is to help provide a framework for an integrated approach to warfare by all the three branches of the Indian armed forces. However, the JDIAF makes little substantive progress toward force integration among the three services.

The world is witnessing a paradigm shift: India is becoming a more active player not only in contributing goods, services and training, but also in shaping the global development agenda itself. This Brief is a map of India's growing economic footprint in the developing world.

The Integrated Defence Staff released the first-ever public joint doctrine for the Indian armed forces (JDIAF-2017) in April 2017. Absent a publicly articulated national security strategy, the joint doctrine presents important clues about what that strategy might be. This paper examines JDIAF-2017 in conjunction with other Indian military doctrines, public writings of leading Indian strategists, as well as foreign military doctrines and strategie

India is experiencing the fastest increase in prices among the big emerging market countries. The Reserve Bank raised interest rates 10 times since March 2010 to control inflation, and its adverse impact on the demand for goods and services, investment and corporate profits is already visible.

No Indian terrorist group is co-operating with the international jihadi terrorist movement headed by Al Qaeda.However, certain Pakistani jihadi terrorist organisations, which are members of bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF), are being used by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for organising terrorist attacks in Jammu & Kashmir (J) and other parts of India.

India will never lose its allure in some ways because of its unique culture and warmth. But on other fronts, India is slipping especially if it does not care about giving an equal opportunity to all its citizens for a better life -- like good rural roads, affordable housing, clean drinking water, food, sanitation, education and health services.

The Observer Research Foundation (ORF) organised a brainstorming session on 'Issues in Captive Coal Block Development in India' on March 5, 2009 in partnership with CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory Services

For the first time in India's history, a common technological platform is available to provide governance services to all Indians through one single smart card.

The pandemic showed us how digital divides worsen inequality - this project shows they’re not inevitable

Latin American companies that have invested in India since the 1990s have had varied experiences: some have achieved considerable success and remain in business, while a number of them have exited. This paper is a primer on enterprises from the Latin American region that have engaged the Indian market in the past 30 years. It finds three key factors that have pulled these businesses into India: the country’s myriad value chains, the massive con

There are six key takeaways for India from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The Indian armed services, especially the Indian Army, has its task cut out.

Growing economic protectionism and recurrent geo-economic and geo-political tensions in recent years are testing the resilience of the global economic order. Erstwhile proponents of globalisation such as the United States and the European Union are themselves recoiling from the global value chains that are over-reliant on China. As the localisation of goods and services has become more critical, it calls to question the viability of a globalised

LEMOA permits US and India to use each other’s facilities and provides for easier access to supplies and services for military forces of the two countries.

The post of Director-General (DG) of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), believed to be the second most important post in the country's military set-up now, has a designated successor to the outgoing Lt-Gen Zaheerul Islam.

At this juncture of weak economic performance, India has done well not to sign the treaty. It can still join if its main complaint about rapid tariff reduction by 80 to 90 per cent on imports from China is resolved. Also, its concerns about services have to be dealt with, especially regarding the movement of service workers within the region. India could not at this point have opened its huge market to ASEAN and China unconditionally.

Ties between India and Japan are historical and enduring. In the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), the leaders of the two countries have married their respective countries’ “Act East” Policy and “Free and Open Indo Pacific” aspirations. The AAGC is envisioned to provide a renewed opportunity for partnership where both regions can complement each other’s development and growth.  The AAGC will bring out the economic gains for Afr

Modi's visit to Dhaka is likely to focus on greater economic cooperation and engagement. Some of the major highlights of the visit will be on rail, road and water connectivity as well as coastal shipping services.

Municipal governance has once again taken centre stage in Indian polity. There is a current re-shaping of narratives within the national government to make local governance effective. It is realised that deficit in the delivery of urban services results in chaos, which forms the basis for citizens doubting the functioning of the local government.

The bulk of the new banking consumers are digital natives and don’t think of branches as an interface for financial transactions

Myanmar is ill-equipped to handle growing COVID-19 caseload on its own — it requires external help.

The Indo-Pacific, which holds most of the world’s mangroves, faces serious risks from natural disasters, including those related to the long-term sustainability of coastal communities and valuable ecosystems. Mangroves uphold biodiversity, support ecosystem functionality, and sustain local livelihoods; however, financing their conservation is proving to be a massive challenge. This report examines the ecosystem services provided by mangroves, i

As India's water availability declines, a holistic approach to water pricing will be needed to avoid conflicts

Globally, there is an upsurge of sectarian movements and informal community-based organisations that affect the daily lives of the urban poor in the way they provide for their need of tangible goods and services.

Sectors such as oil and gas, non-renewable energy, natural resources, agriculture, etc. hold tremendous potential for cooperation between India's North-East and the BCIM region. There was a need to ensure seamless movement of goods, services and people across borders to promote trade.

After a long delay, the government has finally announced the much awaited new foreign trade policy, with thrust export promotion, reducing trade transactions costs, e-commerce, services exports and ease of doing business. It is a welcome relief to see that economic reforms on the trade front are back on track and in full swing.

Thailand is one of the few developing countries in the world that have successfully implemented Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Beginning three decades ago, Thailand’s UHC first covered the poor, then the near-poor, the formal sector employees, and the children and the elderly, through various publicly funded and contributory schemes until it reached 71 percent of the entire population in 2000. The government elected in 2001 implemented full-p

Infrastructure investments are required to enable economic growth and provide the services required by a growing population. The infrastructure already available is threatened by climate change, damaging existing assets and reducing future productivity. Investment in new infrastructure has to increase to fill the gap; as this occurs, the operation and maintenance cost of infrastructure are also expected to rise. Furthermore, as resources are scar

Digital financial services have benefits but pose privacy risks that harm consumers, merchants, markets, and nations alike. Some payments systems in India suffer from vulnerabilities because they were not prospectively designed on the basis of the ‘privacy by design’ principle. At the back-end, the centralised storage of data is risky. At the front-end, faulty capture devices enable data misuse. Across the middle mile, data is transmitted wit

This paper argues in favour of integrating valuation of ecosystem services in development policy planning in India. The paper presents three cases where monetary values of ecosystem services have been estimated to illustrate the significance of the exercise: the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) in Uttarakhand, the Kunigal Wetlands in Karnataka, and the Indian Sundarbans Delta (ISD) in West Bengal. The first two cases highlight the ecosystem-livelihoods

India’s competitiveness in manufacturing and the success of ‘Make in India’ depend on its ability to produce high-quality products and services. Product quality is important for human health and consumer safety, as well as for protecting the climate and the environment. One way of ensuring that products and services meet certain standards is through technical regulations with mandatory compliance. However, technical regulations also have th

The financial condition of the Indian Railways (IR) is weakening by the day because of mounting losses in the passenger business. This, at a time when it is making efforts to improve its services through new capital intensive initiatives. IR’s freight revenue has traditionally subsidised its passenger revenue, resulting in one of the lowest passenger fares but one of the highest freight rates in the world. Since freight trains and passenger tra

India's progress in reducing the prevalent stunting rate in under-five children has been slow, and it must work hard to double the current annual rate of decline if it hopes to meet its sustainable development goals. Among others, this target requires ninety-percent coverage of women and children in the first one thousand days of life with evidence-based Essential Nutrition Interventions (ENIs) and maternal-child health services. Such coverage of

In August 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its final guidelines for a regulatory sandbox for fintech firms.[1] Technology innovations are disrupting the traditional financial sector, and the RBI’s regulatory sandbox exercise is an attempt to be more agile and absorb some of this disruption. ‘Sandboxes’ give regulators a chance to work with fintech innovators, mitigate potential risks and develop evidence-based policy, while fi

To supplement the still lagging Afghan and ISAF security capabilities, alternative structures have been used or created, especially in rural or hard-to-reach areas. Two important groups among these are private security contractors (PSCs) and 'community defence' organisations or local militias. This paper assesses the impact of these entities on Afghan stability. Beginning March 19, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, drawing both material an

Land use on floodplains needs better regulation so that rivers have space to flood and contribute ecosystem services

Humanity depends heavily on the various benefits that nature provides us. It's impossible to truly estimate its value. However, economists and environmental scientists have estimated in dollars what it would cost us to accomplish the services nature provides. Using multiple databases, they estimate that nature provides $33 trillion dollars worth of services every year¿that's nearly twice the annual Gross National Product (GNP) of all the countri

SAARC conjures up an image of jamborees and no results. The South Asian Association of Regional cooperation with its seven members ( India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh) remains one of the most dysfunctional trade blocs and there is hardly any freedom of movement of goods, services and people. The next (13th) SAARC summit is going to be held in Dhaka in the beginning of January 2005.

A recent report of the 2017-2018 Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence (PSCOD) has revealed that India’s defence services are facing a severe resource crunch. Given the enormous amount of money that the country is already spending on defence, the chances are slim that the government will come up with the significantly higher amounts of funds needed for modernisation. Meanwhile, the armed forces are facing obsolescence in equipment. The wa