Search

ON the economic front, there is much to cheer about with the GDP growing at 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of 2010-2011. There is now hope that the annual growth rate this fiscal year will be 9 per cent which means that India will be catching up with China soon

New Delhi must be hopeful that this successful visit will undo the damage done by the “unofficial blockade” of 2016.

Never before has India story looked more credible than it does today with the world in turmoil and India standing out as a beacon of hope.

The new political leadership in Delhi has given a ray of hope for the prospect of regional cooperation. In this regard, it is very important for India to understand how it is perceived by neighbouring countries in the South Asian region, says Bangladesh's Deputy High Commissioner Mahbub Hasan Saleh.

India needs to embrace the idea of soft power, and abandon the misconception that 'soft' power somehow equates to a soft country, says Ms Mira Kamdar, a noted author. She believes there is hope, since the Indian people are not taking injustices lying down.

At the second Africa-India Forum Summit held in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa on May 24-25, notable points for cooperation were established with hopes of further strengthening the longstanding relationship between India and African nations.

The year 2021 began with hope that the development, manufacture, and deployment of vaccines will soon bring the COVID-19 pandemic to an end. Halfway through the year, vaccination is underway across the world, albeit at a much slower pace for the mostly poorer nations. There is promising news from countries like the United States and Israel – where the vaccination drive has proven to be successful, and where health experts are considerin

With discussions underway for Canberra to join the Malabar naval exercises, New Delhi hopes to add a new backer in its fight against China

India and the US are poised to expand agricultural cooperation with the hope of bringing about a "Second Green Revolution" in India. Cooperation in this area would, however, need to take into account the interests of Indian farmers as well as issues related to bio-diversity and the environment.

If one thought that the fall of Hosni Mubarak had actually ushered in an era of great freedom to all shades of political and religious ideologies and organisations to emerge in the 'Egyptian Spring of 2011', then their hopes are already in mud, and mixed with a lot of blood too.

While the world is hopeful of a firm foreign policy in the Modi era, the Chinese dilemma lurks in a big way. Modi should devise ways of taking China in its stride on a workable, if not friendly, basis to make the best of the Look East Policy and to put itself on a sound footing for the Asian century.

To any intelligence analyst, it should be obvious that the US has already embarked on a psychological warfare (PSYWAR) campaign to keep Iran on tenterhooks in the hope of thereby breaking its will to resist US pressure to agree to the dismantling of its uranium enrichment capability.

The recent US-Taliban moves offer a ray of hope for the Obama administration to achieve a much needed breakthrough before the President begins his re-election campaign.

PM Modi has made another high decibel visit to the US, once again holding out hope that India is ready to do business. However, unfortunately not much has changed back home between his last trip and the ongoing one. Rules, laws and regulations remain inflexible.

One hopes that by the time Modi gets to places like Janakpur, Lumbini and Muktinath, India would have taken concrete steps towards the promotion of trans-border connectivity and tourism between the two countries.

By announcing the creation of a chief of defense staff, New Delhi hopes to modernise India’s armed forces.

India's new Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces a tough challenge in balancing cost-optimisation for ordinary people while mitigating environmental risks, meeting the needs of stakeholders and interest groups from energy companies to activists to regular folk who rest their hopes on his electoral promises of cheaper, cleaner and safer power.

India and Pakistan are currently engaged in a war of attrition through the use of the soft power of the electronic media and skilful psychological warfare in the hope of thereby making each other's traditional position on the Kashmir issue increasingly untenable and thus making possible a forward movement in their bilateral negotiations on the subject.

Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh is currently visiting Myanmar which is only the second visit by an Indian PM in 20 years. Hopefully political exchanges at that level will be more frequent. It will always be in our interest that we should seek to economically integrate our eastern states with Myanmar.

A delegation of Myanmar civil rights groups was of the view that civil society groups could be used as a catalyst for social change in their country. They hoped that the civil society would be able to play a critical role in further transforming the seemingly changing political system of the country.

Timing chosen by China to resuscitate the boundary dispute is important. It hopes that the border row may find resonance in the public debate before the polls

Pakistan has for long been grappling with several fundamental problems without any visible signs of overcoming them. Its economic, social and political indicators are amongst the lowest in the world. In its conflicts with India, which it perceives as its sworn enemy, all its tactics have proven to be of insignificant success, as has its intrusive attempts to control Kabul so as to gain strategic depth in Afghanistan. The successive governments' m

Nepal is no stranger to Constitution drafting, having gone through six such rounds since 1948, with the seventh culminating in September 2015. is recent exercise, however, was unique as it was conducted, for the rst time, without the oversight of the monarchy. Certain populations of Nepali society had specic stakes in a new Constitution. For many of Nepal's marginalised communities such as the Madhes is, for example, the new Constitution oe

This paper analyses the debate surrounding federal restructuring in Nepal and the position taken by various political stakeholders. It argues that an early political consensus on federalism is imperative; otherwise, the country may slip into greater ethnic conflict. Nepal is currently experiencing perhaps one of the most turbulent phases in its contemporary political history. In 2008, Nthe 240-year-old institution of monarchy—for long seen a

For the young and aspiring India, Narendra Modi signifies hope.

What India needs badly is FDI with it technology transfer and hopefully that would come after Obama's India visit. The inflows have already raised India's reserves to $322 billion recently. Also, the stock market has been on the roll before and after Obama's visit, though because of reasons other than the visit.

Pakistan's first democratic transfer of power should have been a moment of hope and triumph. But, as it stands, widespread violence has marred the historic elections and all but halted the public campaigning by several prominent parties outside of Punjab.

The historic election verdict offers Narendra Modi an unprecedented opportunity. A truly transformative election that was fought on the issues of leadership, economy and governance has raised unprecedented hope and expectations among ordinary Indians. This is a verdict for change and Modi represents the face of that change.

Public health is the worst spot in India’s economic path despite a recent rise in GDP growth. Without a healthy population and labour force, India cannot hope to compete with countries in the West or the ASEAN.

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

One hopes that fiscal 2019 is devoid of breaking news, dull as ditchwater but fulsome in terms of outcomes.

New Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's emphasis on political moderation and ending Iran's isolation is drawing attention to the potential reconciliation between Tehran and some of its Arab Gulf neighbours. He has also raised hopes for a productive engagement between Tehran and the West.

The SAARC energy agreement signed may have given some hope for the realisation of energy cooperation in South Asia. But, it needs to be understood that an overarching agreement has little impact on project-based cooperation, owing to the centrality of India in the South Asian geography.

As signaled by the Myanmar operations against militants, the policy shift in New Delhi must be taken seriously. One can hope that it does have a salutary effect on the extremist elements within the Pakistani establishment and the jihadi organisations located in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir also.

Barely a year after eastern Sri Lanka witnessed a ray of hope under the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP)-Sri Lanka Freedom Party coalition led by former LTTE child soldier Pillayan, things have been going from bad to worse.

Sri Lankans still hope to get jobs and incomes from Trinco development plans — it has not happened in the case of Hambantota.

With hopes, if not indications, of an early revival of some form of consultative process on power-devolution in the air in Sri Lanka, there is an accompanying need for contextualising some of the well-entrenched political positions on arguments in the matter.

The much-publicised first round of the officials-level talks on resolving the India-Sri Lanka fishing issue has ended up as a non-starter. However, hopes still cannot be ruled out for a possible, if not early, solution.

The increasing effort at marginalisation of Sri Lanka in the international arena, with hopes that a vote against the country at UNHRC could well shame the Government into taking pro-active measures at an early political solution are misplaced, at best.

If anyone in southern Tamil Nadu, or across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka, thought that there would be a grandiose shift in India's policy towards the southern Sri Lankan neighbour under a new, BJP dispensation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a lie to their hopes and claims.

Ahead of the PM’s visit to Japan, hopes are high for a greater synergy on security and connectivity issues.

The Ukraine crisis may have effectively ended the rapprochement between the USand Russia, and in turn affecting relations such as those of Japan and Russia. Prior to this crisis,and the subsequent Western sanctions on Russia, Tokyo and Moscow had been reaching out toeach other, and hope flickered for a resolution to the territorial dispute over the NorthernTerritories or Southern Kurils. This paper argues that with nationalist governments in powe

There is hope among the politicians of various political groups in Kashmir as well as the people of Kashmir that Narendra Modi as Prime Minister would take some decisive action in keeping with their expectations. Modi himself has moderated his stand to that there should be a discussion on Article 370.

The arrival of vaccines against Covid-19 gives hope in ending the pandemic that has claimed close to 2.84 million lives so far. However, inoculating millions of people all over the world would require the massive production of vaccines, followed by their equitable distribution. An impediment to production and distribution of vaccines is the intellectual property (IP) rights that their developers enjoy. India and South Africa have together propo

It is hoped that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India not only heightens bilateral relations between the two countries but also benefits the entire region

After a brief discussion on the uneasy relationship between Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO, the implications of the “deep” integration that the EU is seeking with India are discussed, and the respective positions, interests and concerns of the partners in the long drawn out negotiations are examined. The challenges for India in plunging into such “deep” territory, unprecedented in its history of bilateral or multilateral negotiatio

New Delhi, having sent a tough message, will hopefully, be working along a coherent policy perspective. Relations with Pakistan are too important to be left hostage to knee-jerk reactions.

King Gyanedra¿s decision to give audience to the various political parties in early January 2004 preferred the ray of hope that the continuing political deadlock in Nepal might end soon.

The strategic aspects of the BrahMos sale and India’s assistance to Southeast Asian countries should not be minimized.

There is widespread hope that the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow will deliver decisive action on the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. This report gathers different perspectives from analysts in South Asia, Africa, the Indo-Pacific, and the UK on regional priorities and positions on key issues related to the global fight against climate change. Certain threads bind these analyses regarding what the