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It aims to signal its diplomatic ascendance and challenge Washington as the big shaper of outcomes

Cherry-pick the BRI and look for business opportunities that can be fruitfully exploited

West Bengal is conducting a massive, potentially historic eight-phase state legislative assembly election between March and April 2021. This paper gives a historical account of the different factors that are influencing the conduct of the elections, including the economic challenges facing the state, unabated political violence, and the plight of religious minorities. It also examines so-called ‘Hindu nationalist’ and ‘Bengali sub-n

As Germany makes an important outreach to India, New Delhi will carefully watch how Berlin deals with its economic entanglement with China.

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

This special report was written before the 2020 United States presidential elections. Under the incoming Biden administration, the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan is likely to be more gradual and “responsible”, despite the President-elect being in favour of American troops exiting the war-weary country soon. In retrospect, Donald Trump’s insistence on pulling out all US troops from Afghanistan by Christmas 2020 was not misguided, si

Financial health of Indian banks deserves scrutiny. The RBI should strike a careful balance in its policy objectives. Tighter lending norms are unlikely to be a panacea. It must resist the temptation to resort to such short-term fixes.

This brief employs text analytics to assess the extent to which speeches at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on matters of peace and security find resonance in resolutions passed by the UN Security Council (UNSC). These two are among the six main organs of the UN system: the UNGA is the main deliberative and representative body; and the UNSC is tasked with maintaining global peace and security. This brief studies four contemporary issue

Europe’s relationship with China has transformed in recent years, with Chinese behaviour and actions now increasingly at odds with European values and interests. As Europe adjusts to new global realities amid a full-fledged war, the European Union (EU) and its member states are recalibrating their strategies and relationships with China. This paper aims to decipher these evolutions by assessing the EU approach and those of certain key European

Sundarbans is facing twin challenges of increased population pressure in the north and rising sea levels in the south, occasionally teamed with cyclones from the Bay of Bengal.

Against the backdrop of the Pulwama suicide bombing and the Balakot air-strikes, national security has acquired a political salience that it might not have otherwise. This is reflected in the manifestos of both the main national parties, the BJP and the Congress.

While there is no doubt that Modi’s outreach has paid us rich dividends, it takes two to tango. The UAE leadership has taken a pragmatic and forward-looking view of the rise of India. It also sees a convergence of interests in standing against religious extremism. As the IPL kicks off, it is important to shed our own stereotypes, to update perspectives and take a fresh look at a country that has emerged as such a vital partner in such a short s

The European Union (EU) had been lurching from one crisis to the next even before a majority of British voters expressed their desire to leave it. While staying away from the Brexit debate itself, its implications for UK and EU, and the politics and motivations in the run-up to the vote, this paper argues that at the very least the referendum is a wake-up call for Europe to begin to address some of its structural and operational shortcomings in a

There is the possibility, albeit remote, of the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the region. Riyadh has always been unambiguous in its stance of acquiring a nuclear weapon if Iran does and the Kingdom's longstanding support for Pakistan's nuclear program alludes to this possibility.

The distribution of military and economic power in the world today resembles an irregular pyramid. The face of the pyramid depicting the military dimension of power rests on a narrow base, while that representing its economic dimension is much wider. Economic power is more broadly diffused among the major states than is the case with military power.

There are two streams of debate on India’s current nuclear doctrine: one on its current interpretation and deducing its form and what such form means for India’s overall nuclear strategy; and another, more internal to India, on what should be the Indian nuclear doctrine with respect to the evolving nature of threats. The two debates are not mutually exclusive. However, neither of them have contended with all conventional contingencies, in par

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has served as a laboratory test to assess the effectiveness of Cyber Warfare (CW) capabilities. It would be misleading, however, to extrapolate sweeping conclusions from this conflict about the relative ineffectiveness of CW. Rather, diligence should be exercised by Indian strategic and military planners in assessing the CW capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force (PLASSF) and enhancing

Doklam is merely a symptom of a revanchist China that no longer sees the need to play by the book. India needs to change its strategy as well.

China aims at a world order in which India is firmly established as a subordinate power.

Internet of Things ensures that all data cannot be treated as equal. The principle of net neutrality needs an overhaul to reflect the complicated future of the cyberworld

This paper presents a status report of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on two crucial development parameters—inequality and poverty—that have a significant bearing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; especially SDG-1 and SDG-10). The paper tracks the origins and movements of absolute and relative poverty, and income and wealth inequality in the BRICS economies over time, highlights the associated cha

While the trip offered a chance to build on cooperation, it also reinforced existing differences between the two countries.

It seized the moment to create a front against China. But long-term sustenance will depend on timeliness of delivery

The legacy cross-border payment infrastructure is replete with issues of high costs, limited access, low speed, and opaque structures, which have limited the potential of cross-border payments to enhance international trade and foster economic growth in emerging economies. The increased demand for transparent, accessible, faster and cheaper solutions in the financial sector has pushed the private and public sectors to accelerate investments in in

It has been a few weeks since the ¿momentous¿ Islamabad declaration by Indian PM Vajpayee and Pakistani leader Gen.Musharraf. The full effects of the declaration may not be known for a few months at least, but there have been enough clues coming out of South Asia for prognosticators to decipher. But first one must look at the declaration itself.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been raising the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh for a long time now, identifying itself with the “anti-foreigners agitation” in Assam in the 1980s. The party has recently amplified its position, twin-tagging the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh with a promise to update the National Register of Citizens, and amend the Citizenship Act to grant citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs

Even as Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS) promise to revolutionise the battlefield, very little analysis moves beyond the great powers to examine the interests that middle powers may have in these systems. Shaped by their own geostrategic contexts, demographic issues and geography challenges, countries like India, South Korea, Indonesia or the Philippines may find utility in LAWS for improving the efficiency of their forces, reducing both

The key to a stable future in the Subcontinent might lie in producing the long overdue structural change inside Pakistan and with it the definition of its interests in Afghanistan and India. As it grasps at the slim chance of reordering the relationship with Pakistan, India will need all the support it can get from the US.

Observer Research Foundation (ORF) invited Hon'ble Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt. Sheila Dikshit on April 10, 2008 to deliver a talk on the 'Bhagidari Programme of Delhi Government' at the New Delhi campus. The event was attended by more than 80 participants

For a country as self conscious of its past as India, culture and civilization are alluring themes. In recent weeks two themes have surfaced which may attract attention. One idea has been placed in the public square by Justice Markandey Katju.

In the 'Bhullar case', the Supreme Court could now be construed to have applied the 'reasonable restriction' theory in the larger application of Article 14 of the Constitution, promising 'equality before law and the equal protection of the laws'.

Noted author of a book on Bhutan, Omair Ahmad, argued that the way forward for India was to acknowledge that it could no longer insulate Bhutan. In the past, India engaged the monarchy and the elite, and the time has come to broaden the relationship, he said.

The announcement on the side-lines of the Rio+20 Summit that Bhutan and China have decided to establish diplomatic relations is not only a reflection on the evolving foreign policy of the Kingdom but it also carries with it broader implications for the political dynamics of Asia.

The landlocked Kingdom of Bhutan, which borders two Asian giants--China in the north and India to the south-- is some sort of a misfit in this tightly enclosed geographic space. Its two neighbours when compared to Bhutan are a world apart,