168 results found
The self-goal could have been avoided, but the ruling party saw the emerging warning signals with eyes wide shut. Some party sections clearly felt they were clever enough to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, and that religious polarisation in domestic politics could work to electoral advantage even as the PM and his diplomats wooed the Muslim nations of the Gulf. Perhaps, they don’t recognise that we live in an interconnected world, w
It is time to conduct a reality check on the India-Pakistan peace process. In fact, there is a particular urgency for it. For, the peace process seems to have got hijacked by secessionist elements in Kashmir and Pakistan who never had any stakes in it.
We should not be lulled into complacency about the nature of the militancy in J&K these days. Incidents can be few and far between. But when they occur, they can be deadly. The winding down of the US and NATO operations in Afghanistan could enlarge the area which could be used by anti-Indian jihadis to set up training camps.
Considering India's immense infrastructural needs, the AIIB has opened a fresh window for financing in which there will hopefully be fewer conditions and hassles. All other less developing countries will also be able to access loans easily.
While Beijing’s foreign policy is not focused on the Middle East, its footprint in the region is expanding. Many of China’s short-term aims, such as securing energy, have remained unchanged since the Cold War, but the country’s rise on the global stage is increasingly creating a need for a long-term strategy suited to the changing world order. Especially since the start of the Gaza war, this strategy is slowly materialising, with China leve
Pakistan is today dangling between hope and despair, propelled largely by President Pervez Musharraf's inability, and refusal, to gauge public sentiments for free and fair elections in the coming months. Discontentment, once confined to media and courtrooms, has spilled out into the streets, creating a stifling atmosphere of anxiety and doubt across the country. Political, economic and social differences have sharpened in the past eight years. Re
During the Cold War, India navigated its external relations guided largely by the doctrine and practice of non-alignment. In these contemporary times, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to inaugurate a period of heightened geopolitical rivalries, with the United States and China as the principal poles. India will be differently positioned in this post-Covid “new normal” than it was in the era of the Cold War and therefore will need differe
India’s inability to develop interdependencies with neighbouring countries, both economically and strategically, has left a void that China has dutifully filled. There still remains a window for India to correct its past mistakes and develop a concerted strategy to regain influence in the region.
China’s annual parliamentary meetings offer a glimpse into its future direction. This year, amidst economic headwinds, a key takeaway is the continued surge in defence spending
Riyadh, Jerusalem, Washington, in that order of anxiety, must be in a huddle on the change in Tunisia and chill winds blowing across Egypt, Yemen and Jordan. The State Department has issued a warning that must send shock waves throughout the Arabian peninsula "status quo in the Middle East and North Africa is not sustainable".
The problems of water, energy, climate change, and urbanisation, are all intertwined; they are, also, all 'wicked'. There is little consensus on how to effectively navigate these problems, let alone, how to solve them. Of these, water is key: the threat of climatic changes is primarily manifested in water, its dwindling supply, and the conflicts that may potentially arise. It also encompasses so-called 'toad's eye' concerns of the grassroots, oft
This paper dissects the causes behind Pakistan’s ongoing economic crisis. The causes include dwindling forex reserves, the phenomenon of ‘galloping inflation’, a falling Pakistani Rupee, uncompetitive and undiversified export basket, burgeoning external debt, lack of fiscal prudence, debt distress, and a worsening business environment—all cascading to a balance of payment crisis. While austerity measures, appeals for loan rollover to debt
Bangladesh is known as a moderate Islamic country. There is a strong and committed secular section, but this is dwindling in numbers
In Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd v. Antrix Corporation Ltd, the Supreme Court of India has upheld the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order winding up Devas Multimedia Ltd on the grounds of fraud. Antrix is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and Devas is a multimedia services company. The decision comes at a crucial time, as foreign investors of Devas are endeavouring to attach Indian assets
With Al Qaeda far from being vanquished, and Pakistan and Bangladesh inevitably turning into jihadi outposts in the emerging pan-Islamist network in Asia, India is more than likely to be caught in the vicious tail-wind of the next wave of terrorism, gathering momentum since 9/11.
Taking note of the winds of change sweeping through the resource-rich and people-rich African continent, ORF organised a day-long round-table to unravel the implications of the resurgence of Africa for the India-Africa partnership.
India’s demographic advantage presents a strategic window of opportunity to build a globally competitive and future-ready workforce. This demands that traditional education systems evolve to equip young learners with transferable and job-relevant competencies, commonly referred to as ‘21st-century skills’. Anchored in the context of India’s socio-economic and policy landscape, this paper outlines a strategic framework for integrating 21st
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.
The thaw in the India-Pak relations has opened a new window of opportunity. In the first stage, it will assist in India hosting the Heart of Asia conference next year and may also lead to a fruitful visit by Modi to Islamabad for the SAARC Summit.
The Central European countries can tap into India’s economic growth to expand their strategic outreach in the Indo-Pacific. India’s growth narrative carries significant geopolitical and regional implications, particularly for Europe. As the continent grapples with the ongoing geopolitical and developmental fallout of the Russia–Ukraine war, its strategic calculus is shifting. The war in Ukraine offers India a window of opportunity to deepen
India’s fertility rates have dropped below replacement levels, and the nation faces the prospect of ageing before it becomes rich and escapes the middle-income trap. Vectors like shifting family dynamics and consumer demands, narrowing workforce window with a strain on state capacity, divergent regional trajectories, and urbanisation with new demands, converge into the need to migrate national growth models to productivity-driven frameworks—w
Since January, 2004, there has been a wind of change in Indo-Pak relations for which credit has to be equally shared by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, the former Prime Minister, and Dr.Manmohan Singh, the present. Rhetoric has given place to seeming reason and confrontation to conviviality.
‘Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress’ is the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day. This is a clarion call with particular resonance for India given the barriers to women’s economic participation. Imagine the extraordinary economic tailwinds that can be generated for India if these barriers are dismantled and women have access to capital and technology and supportive public policy frameworks
Facing a double whammy — the strategic window closing, and ground situation in Kashmir improving — Pakistan will do whatever it can to create disturbances in J&K to bring the issue back in focus.
The Taliban today undoubtedly has a stronger hold over how the US militarily plans to withdraw from the conflict in Afghanistan. This raises questions about the continuing challenges to security in South Asia—in particular, the influence of IS Khorasan (IS-K), the group’s Afghanistan avatar, and its rise both as an ISIS-aligned entity and a big-tent brand for various jihadist groups in the country. As the ‘Khorasan’ project of ISIS gets m
The window of opportunity for such talks is shrinking, and delay could see space emerge as an active domain for conflict.
This brief analyses the manifestos of the Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party in the past four Lok Sabha elections. It introduces the concept of “falsifiability” to evaluate whether promises made in manifestos can be verified, to begin with; it then outlines the poll promises that are falsifiable across various sectors. The authors examine whether or not the promises were fulfilled, and if not, if they were carried aga
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi winds down an intensive phase of foreign policy activism, one surprising feature of his diplomacy has been the frequent evocation of Buddhism. The PM has put Buddhism at the heart of India's vigorous new diplomacy.
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.
Winds of change in the Arab world left Israel initially distraught with the fall of Mubarak. But then the mood changed. Changes elsewhere were seen as popular quest for empowerment in which, for once, Arab-Israeli peace was not the centre piece.
Reports that the Centre is considering the winding up of the Task Force on the possibly over-ambitious project for the inter-linking of rivers need to be received with concern. It is nobody's case that the report, or the project, should be accepted in toto,
Modi and Obama need to focus less on India's near-term carbon emissions and find ways to boost its use of renewable energy like solar and wind. Such an approach will address Delhi's need to grow its economy and Washington's desire to lessen the weight of coal in India?s energy mix.
