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This was a budget without many surprises. Maybe we have evolved to being an economy, in which the budget is a mundane, technical exercise, of interest to economists and accountants, but of little immediate consequence for those who live in the real world.

While the coverage of Budgets in the media and research reports are mainly limited to high interest items like income-tax, sales tax, excise, inflation etc., the "Part A" of the budget, which is an indicator of government intention and priority, remains relatively under explored.

The accompanying politico-administrative changes apart, Elections-2004 has caused the mid-course review of the economic reforms, seeking to introduce the missing "human face", about which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had begun talking about while in the Opposition.

America is different: different in its impulses, in its terms of debate, in its responses. A young country, struggling to acquire an identity, moving away from a melting pot approach to a multicultural one¿in theory if not always in practice; religious in traditional terms despite trappings of post-modernity,

Decisive and ruthless crackdown on jihadis is the need of the hour, not more empty rhetoric ---- Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), headed by Hafiz Saeed based in Pakistan, is a threat to India's security and sovereignty and must therefore be branded as 'enemy of the nation'. There need not be a legal provision to do so. The Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is empowered to take such a decision.

The current series of notifications issued by the Central Government has the potential to create a 'police raj', under the Intelligence Bureau, when that may not be the intention even of the Union Home Ministry.

ASEAN and India will need to adopt a more inclusive and pragmatic approach towards Myanmar — one that involves all key stakeholders

Can Africa’s energy transition break the resource curse? With global aid shrinking, African leaders look to clean energy to boost growth, jobs, and autonomy

The deal with Iran should boost efforts to do an Iran with North Korea's nuclear programme as well. This would be more difficult given the authoritarian nature of the regime in North Korea but is still an idea worth pursuing. The major powers should carry forward the momentum and energy to solve other issues in the Middle East.

Engaging the Myanmar Army in exercises such as those with India provides an opportunity for Myanmar Army officers to learn from the experiences of other armed forces in international military operations.

The list of China's signs of displaying its assertiveness in the South China Sea is numerous - like the incident with the Japanese coast guard and the USNS Impeccable. The Pentagon accused the Chinese vessels of "harassment" during the US ship's routine operations in international waters.

A recent sale to the Philippines is a major win, but India faces obstacles to its big ambitions.

If Narenda Modi could turn around Gujarat's agriculture so dramatically, he can be instrumental in turning around agricultural productivity, marketing and storage in all States. He has to act quickly. Otherwise, there would be more problems of large scale migration from the rural to cities.

In an ironic situation, President Obama finds his own party, the Democrats, his key opponents while, the Republicans, his greatest allies as he pushes for the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement.

AUKUS adds another layer of deterrence against China. The group is likely to strengthen the military dimension, contrary to the belief that it undercuts Quad.

Given the quantity of investments, China can’t afford to have the OBOR initiative fail. Sceptics like India can use that to persuade China to make modifications.

The compulsion of states to trawl ever increasing volumes of data must also be understood. Besides criminal activities like child pornography, money laundering and online fraud, the Internet is also an important vehicle for the jihadist terrorist. A great deal of recruitment and motivation takes place online.

A common enemy does often become a powerful uniting force, but the fact that the US has so many friends and not a single ally to fight the Islamic State speaks volumes about its foreign and defence policies in Wes Asia.

A civil nuclear agreement is one of the key outcomes New Delhi is pushing for in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan that starts on August 30. Recently, in Naypidaw, Myanmar, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj called on her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida to "bring talks on civil nuclear agreement to their logical conclusion".

US’ expected policy shift favouring Moscow aligns with its renewed focus on the Indo-Pacific.

From two ends of the Pacific, our nations have a shared interest in contributing to the rise and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region. Yet new threats stand in the way of achieving this potential

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Canada this week should help rejuvenate an important relationship that has long been neglected in New Delhi. If real political differences alienated India and Canada during the Cold War, it is Delhi that has not been sufficiently attentive to the possibilities with Canada in recent years.

More than the Pakistani elections of 2018, it is the Indian General Elections 2019 that could see some movement on the Indo-Pak track, if at all.

The new generation challenge for our diplomats and policy makers today is to capture the American mindspace. This is a task that requires subtlety, but its crucial asset is the human capital connect that we have established with the US.

Beware the vaccine diplomacy model of China, focus on rapid vaccination at home.

The crux lies in reimagining the allocation of funds from the Central government

The UPA's cash transfer scheme, delivering over Rs.3.2 lakh crore in subsidies and welfare programmes to the poor directly to their bank accounts, if executed well would not only reduce poverty faster would curb a lot of the wasteful spending that has fattened vested interests at all levels.

As the complicated nature of security across this geography changes, the Asian footprint is expected to only grow

Accountability is needed for both past and present regimes

Process on to rejig forces to meet the Chinese challenge

The Centre's Notification of the Cauvery Award should encourage Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to work with the Centre and the other two riparian stake-holders to revive the proposal to build an additional reservoir to store the excess waters, to be shared among them.

सेंट्रल बँक डिजिटल चलनांना स्पर्धात्मक सिलोमध्ये भू-राजनीतीचे विघटन लक्षात घेऊन एकत्रित जागतिक दृष्टिकोनाची आवश्यकता स्पष्ट करत आहे. 

Chemical-Biological and Radiological (CBR) threats are being increasingly perceived as the new face of terrorism. The possibility of non-state actors employing non-conventional weapons using CBR materials.

His role is not just about tri-service cooperation, but also to ensure that acquisitions do not exceed capital allocations

There is a need to fix the BRICS, by altering growth strategies, reducing external dependence, securing domestic demand and investments, providing jobs to the unemployed, and aiming at lowering untenable inequality.

Politics of appeasement must be done away with and New Delhi should extend all the anti-corruption laws of India, especially the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in Jammu and Kashmir.

While Quad’s agenda was expanded significantly under Biden, the extent of Trump’s commitment to non-security issues in Quad remains to be seen

Though the recent Assembly polls in Bihar witnessed developmental agenda replacing caste and related equations, the power structure is yet to change at the societal level. There only the rich and influential mattered, with caste playing a dominant role, based on individual regions.

The ¿Mother¿s Day¿ on Sunday, May 8, and the ¿Akshaya Tritiya¿, or Akha Teej¿, falling on Wednesday, May 11 this year, may have marked a further turning-point in the traditional Dravidian mores. It had witnessed a revival and the peak through the 20th century Tamil Nadu, but evolving circumstances had begun rendering it inconsistent, redundant and irrelevant to the times in the last quarter.

Last fortnight's India-China joint naval exercise, however limited, may be a new opening in bilateral relations. Coupled with the politico-economic CBMs of the past years, the Shanghai naval exercise is an indication that both nations are learning to overcome the bitter past.

Traditionally, a newly elected South Korean President visits Washington first, followed by Tokyo. But the new President Park Geun-hye, as expected, did visit Washington first in May, but followed it up by a visit to Beijing and not to Tokyo. This is interpreted this to speculate that China has taken precedence over Japan in Seoul's diplomatic calculations.

India will likely struggle to achieve the SDGs for financial reasons. At present, a shocking 2-3 per cent of Indians pay taxes. Mobilising domestic finance ? including optimal tax collection reform ? can help supplement the traditional sources of aid.

The Chinese government and its private sector, both have reached out to nations as diverse as France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, and even the US

The relationship is more robust than ever before. But deepening ties will bring its set of challenges