Search

The BRICS leaders have accepted the report titled "Towards a Long Term Strategy for BRICS", the recommendations made by the BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC). Observer Research Foundation is the Indian representative at the BTTC.

Has the emergence of BRICS had an impact on IBSA, was the question posed by Mr M Ganapathi, former Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India.

The Fortaleza summit will represent the reboot of BRICS. Prime Minister Modi has the biggest political mandate among his BRICS counterparts, and also the weight of the largest expectations.

Sino-Indian ties have been going downhill for the last few years. At the BRICS summit, India sought to re-engage Russia more substantively.

BRICS as an institution must nurture independent growth trajectories of member nations keeping their individual interest at the forefront.

New Delhi should also be aware that a US-China trade spat opens up new possibilities for India, both vis-à-vis Beijing and Washington, and it should not be hesitant to exploit them

BRICS Summit this weekend in Goa with will invariably be coloured by the recent events in South Asia in the aftermath of the surgical strikes.

Think tanks from five BRICS countries, participating in the 5th Academic Forum meeting in Durban, have announced the setting up of the BRICS Think Tanks Council (BTTC).

The unity and purpose of BRICS has been the target of speculation and scepticism from various quarters. With the Delhi Declaration, BRICS members have been able to assuage such doubts as they have begun to create a credible hedge against traditional global narratives of security and development.

China as the leader of the pack will use BRICS for control and dominance. The West will see this as a threat to existing arrangements and try to pull it down before it takes off. Indian presence will remain weak so long as our economic reforms and progress remain slow and our internal political and policy frameworks remain uncertain.

BRICS is an evolving process, and any exaggerated notion of it becoming a power bloc will be out of place. It might work towards "a multi-polar (or poly-centric) world", which a former Brazilian President had described as an important goal of BRICS, but in no sense it is a ganging-up against the US or the West.

Ambitious expansion meets internal divisions as the bloc strives to redefine global power dynamics.

The digital divide is a manifestation of exclusion, poverty and inequality and continues to be exacerbated due to the effects of unemployment, poorly functioning digital skilling programmes and socio-cultural norms in some economies, depriving women equal access to digital services. Digital skills provide the poor a catalyst to break out of the cycle of poverty and empower themselves. A three-pronged digital skills strategy is required for develo

This report is part of the Observer Research Foundation’s “Financing Green Transitions” series which aims to find potential linkages between private capital, in all its forms, and climate action projects. The series will primarily examine domestic and international barriers to private capital entry for mitigation oriented climate projects, while also examining potential avenues for private capital flow entry towards adaptation and resilienc

India and Bangladesh relations got a new boost following Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's brief visit to Bangladesh recently, demonstrating New Delhi's keenness in enhancing bilateral relations.

The current gap in global adaptation finance for developing countries is estimated at US$194-366 billion per year. This brief highlights the critical role of domestic public funding in driving adaptation initiatives. While international climate finance mechanisms exist, their effectiveness is limited by slow disbursement processes and regional disparities in fund distribution. Public finance management systems can act as catalysts for mobilising

Samir Bhattacharya, Caroline Kathure Gatobu, and Raymond Onuoha, “Bridging the Gender Digital Divide: Africa’s Imperatives,” ORF Special Report No. 238, December 2024, Observer Research Foundation.

Any suggestion of a look west policy compels a comparison with India's much-celebrated Look East policy and presents us with a paradox. India's relationship with the Gulf is much denser than with Southeast Asia. Yet the Gulf does not resonate as much as Southeast Asia in Indian Foreign Policy discourse.

An era of Taliban rule, followed by the 18-year-long war between the United States and the Taliban, has left Afghanistan in massive disorder: the country’s infrastructure is dilapidated, the quality of life is poor, and basic amenities such as healthcare are absent. While the post-Taliban Government of Afghanistan has tried to rebuild the healthcare system, it remains largely dependent on foreign aid. Over the years, India has tried to help reb

Financing is a critical factor in realising the targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. In the decade of action (2021-2030), the least developed countries (LDCs) will be the battleground where the SDGs could be either won or lost. This paper estimates the level of SDG spending required in the LDCs, measures the current levels of domestic resource mobilisation and foreign aid and capital received by these countr

The Delhi government is facing numerous challenges in managing water demand and supply in the capital, primary of which are water shortages and declining groundwater levels. One of the strategies that are being employed to address these issues is the promotion of rainwater harvesting (RWH). This report provides an account of the growth and development of Delhi’s RWH sector. The analysis shows that while the programme has met with some success,

The 2nd session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) was held in Beijing from Mar 5-13, 2009, the first session after the onset of the global economic crisis

Climate change defined officially as 'a change in the state of the climate that can be identified among other things by changes in the mean and / or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer' is among major challenges facing countries.

Sustainable magic requires that the magician remain credible.

This brief underlines the immense potential for increased cross-border trade, tourism, and people-to-people interactions between India and its Southeast Asian neighbours. In particular, it evaluates the importance of India–Thailand relations, emphasising the present state of the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway (IMT-TH). Although India and Thailand share a maritime boundary along India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Th

India has achieved better Covid-19 vaccine coverage than most other countries in its income class, aided mainly by domestic production capacity and the government’s decision to offer the vaccines to the adult population for free. There are stark sub-national differences, however, in the pace and coverage of the vaccine rollout. This special report tells the story of the district of Raigarh in Chhattisgarh—one of the low-income, Empowered Acti

Post-Brexit Britain needs to move away from its China-centric policy and step up trade engagements in the region, which offers potential for win-win economic gains. London should also look to join its allies, including the US, India, Australia in the support of regional security to manage the risks posed by Beijing

Boris Johnson has succeeded in breaking the logjam in British Parliament on the deal by presenting a solution which has now much greater traction than ever before. However, that’s just not enough in overseeing Brexit.

The NBSA process needs to keep pace with the fists of fury that politicians are unleashing on each other. Particularly so as the level of unsubtantiated allegations is getting worse as we're getting closer to the General Elections 2014.

The recent India-Bangladesh border incident suggests a need to rethink the dialogue processes among the border guarding forces.

Spillovers from unconventional monetary policy in the AEs pose a systemic risk for emerging market economies (EMEs). Unconventional monetary policies to ensure cheap liquidity and easy credit conditions have been used not only in the US but in Europe as well as Japan.

The focus on delivery of various schemes is missing in this budget. Each year, public money is being poured into them, but things remain the same unless there are dynamic state ministers monitoring everything. Some provision for effective monitoring should have made in budget 2013-14.

The revenue from the Central Goods and Services Tax remains significantly below the target of Rs 6 trillion.

The Finance Minister announced allocations for various sectors in the Budget. But these are a regular feature of every Budget. What was different in this Budget? Almost nothing except that there has been fiscal consolidation. Obviously, it is not going to satisfy the common man, farmers, industry or foreign investors.

Structural issues like partial utilisation of allocated funds, slow implementation of projects, and short-staffing pose a major challenge to the successful implementation of the budget