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Inaugurating the ORF conference on "Generating responses to an uncertain monsoon", Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat emphasised the need to understand the science behind the behaviour of the monsoon for achieving a long-term drought-proofing solution.
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.
In 1990, after the end of the Cold War and the unification of Germany, the United States of America gave an assurance to the Soviet Union that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would not expand its role beyond the borders of Germany.
Can China slow down without imploding? No, says Mr. Osamu Tanaka, the Executive Vice President of the Policy Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance, Japan. He predicts that 2017/8 will be the beginning of a Chinese financial meltdown.
Although neither India nor China envisions participating in decisive naval battles given the interdependent nature of the world order, naval suasion continues in the Indian Ocean. The underlying strength for control of the Indian Ocean, however, is not geopolitical but economic power.
The geo-strategic uncertainties that prevail in Asia will drive India and Japan increasingly in the direction of jointly addressing the need for maintaining the prevailing balance of power in the continent, according to scholars from India and Japan.
German CEOs, who flew in with Chancellor Angela Merkel, think Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to fulfil his promise of making doing busines
Pakistan's present actions of ratcheting up tensions not only on the Line of Control but also along the International Border, while obviously making an attempt to regain the initiative, is actually unlikely to pay any dividend for a number of reasons.
An autonomous Judicial Commission can effectively nudge the judicial system towards its intended Constitutional mandate; apolitical, enlightened and efficient application of the rule of law and protection of the fundamental rights of private entities, against encroachment by the executive or the legislature.
India must come to terms with the fact that what it does with one country is bound to affect its relations with others, notwithstanding the declarations to the contrary. For international relations is not a series of discrete bilateral relations. The answer lies not in circumscribing one's own options but in intensifying engagement with all.
The recent terrorist attacks in China's Xinjiang and the involvement of terrorist camps operating in Waziristan and nearby areas have raised serious questions about Pakistan's commitment to battle terrorist groups.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have just made back to back visits to the United States. In keeping with the times, both began their tours from that Mecca of our age - Silicon Valley.
The Chinese objectives are in perfect congruence with those of Pakistan in Afghanistan. Pakistan is also mindful of the fact that an enhanced Chinese presence will keep India away (at least Pakistan is hopeful of), thereby ensuring Pakistan the strategic depth that it has been seeking to achieve in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gillani lost a sliver of a chance in Pakistan's supreme legislative body National Assembly (on May 9) to steer his embattled country away from the perpetual dilemma of being stuck at the crossroads of destiny.
The panacea for the current problems emanating from a one-sided media coverages is public service media, insulated as much from the government as the market, something the Prime Minister promised during his earlier term - UPA-I.
Terrorism is not a new phenomenon. It is the calculated, targeted and indiscriminate use of intimidatory violence to achieve an objective, which could be political, economic, social or religious or to give vent to anger arising from political, economic, social or religious reasons. A terrorist gives vent to anger on behalf of a group or a community.
Global challenges such as the pandemic and the Ukraine crisis have worsened the food crisis in recent years.
Efforts are being made on a global scale to improve public health. One of the ini tiatives to attend to the many problems and challenges in the public health sect or is the creation of the Health Impact Fund (HIF).
PM Narendra Modi's interest in the diaspora is about recognising India's possibilities as a "global nation" that is not defined in narrow territorial terms. Delhi, of course, is not yet ready to give dual citizenship of the kind that some countries do. But short of political rights for the diaspora, Modi has begun to offer much.
West Bengal Governor and former National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan recently noted that contrary to what many security and strategic analysts in the West profess, terrorism remains by all means a grave threat to the civilised world. The reality is global terrorism is expanding, especially in Asia.
In the early years of the 21st Century, we find ourselves relearning the most enduring lesson of history. That is, ¿Only thing constant in nature is change. It is not the reality that is changing but change, which is becoming a reality.¿ The difference now is that the revolution in technology is making changes, including global trends and strategic changes, faster than ever before.
Growing urbanisation and its resultant problems and issues have drawn the attention of international organisations, national governments and the civil society. The United Nations (2012) has reported that while "unprecedented increase in urban population will provide new opportunities to improve education and public services in Africa and Asia,...
Eminent economist Professor Jagdish Bhagwati has defended globalisation staunchly in his latest book "In defence of globalisation" and so has the editor of Financial Times (London) Martin Wolf in his book "Why Globalisation works".
The recent violent actions of the Maoists have made big news. It will not be easy to resolve this problem because these are the people who have been deprived of their land and development, and they form the core of the movement. Only better distribution of the growth story can bring peace to these people
India lacks resources and direct access to Afghanistan, but it can derive some comfort from the fact that, if the past is any guide, you can always trust Islamabad to give us the opening through its propensity to overreach.
The US constitution builds a wall of separation between the church and the state, interpreted as prohibiting the state from meddling into the affairs of the church and vice versa. However, this constitutional provision cannot negate the church's influence in impacting who gets elected as President.
The All Party Hurriyat Conference¿s rather studied acceptance of the Centre¿s offer of talks while welcome should also add to the seriousness of the peace process in Jammu and Kashmir. While distancing Pakistan from a process that had been trilateral in the past formulations of the Hurriyat, the current round would expect the Centre to go beyond traditional pulse-feeling, and gestures.
The Indian proposal for a SAARC power-grid, revived by Union Minister Piyush Goyal, has the potential to increase power-generation in South Asia. It also has the potential to reverse the way the South Asia thinks about itself - and the world thinks about South Asia, besides cutting oil bills of countries like India.
Saying that South Asian countries need to work closely to share, and not divide, water, the author says the consequence of bringing water to a pedestal on India-Pakistan relations can have devastating effects on regional security and prosperity.
The Power sector reforms in the country have presented the next strategic challenge that could redefine global interest in India. The country has set an ambitious target of producing 20,000 MW of Nuclear power by 2020 i.e. around 1000 MW of additional nuclear capacity per year for the next 17 years.
In the current and preceding years, the government has been trying everything to limit gold imports to control the current account deficit. Yet this commodity has one of the largest share in terms of exemption given. In 2012-13, the estimated amount of custom duty foregone for diamond and gold would be Rs 61,035 crore or 20.5% of the total revenue foregone.
The New Telecom Policy if implemented in letter and spirit has the potential to fundamentally transform governance.
Pakistan's first transfer of power between elected governments is indeed a milestone, but how strong a precedent it will set is very much dependent on the performance of Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N. Confidence in civilian institutions, high voter turnout aside, remains dreadfully low.
Radical transformation in governance can only begin when we are pushed to the wall and have no other option but to take the monster head on
The Defence Minister's annual review of progress in self-reliance in defence efforts will end as a ritual unless a common minimum quantification of self-reliance efforts is arrived at. Else, we will be perpetually confused as to how self-reliant we are in defence production.
A lot has been discussed about PM Modi's first year in office. While actions and policies on economy, security, external affairs, 'Make in India' are being deliberated upon extensively, there is little attention on how the government has fared on gender equity.
An international conference on South Asia's water future, organised by Observer Research Foundation in association with the PHD Chamber of Commerce, has underlined the need for proper management of this largely exploited and poorly utilized natural resource.
When compared to countries like the US, the Indian government is understaffed and it affects the service delivery, says retired revenue secretary M.R. Sivaraman. He says the Indian government has only 257 people serving every 100,000 population against 840 in the US federal government.
