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If India continues to act rigid, it will result in the failure of the Doha round and bring misfortunes for small countries and tragic outcomes for all the members of WTO. India shouldn't get carried away and link its food security and subsidy issues to the Trade Facilitation deal

The latest U.S. Defense Department report on Chinese military power recounts Beijing’s growing space and counterspace capabilities.

India is keen to join the world's export control regimes, all four of them including the Wassenaar Arrangement, as part of its efforts at integrating with the global non-proliferation architecture. While the Wassenaar Arrangement's predecessor, the Coordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls, was established to control transfers of advanced dual-use technology in the North-South and East-West context, the Arrangement's objectives have

The seminar held in ORF Delhi called for a paradigm shift in understanding the various dimensions of the water crisis facing India

This paper examines current water management ideologies and practices and the impact they create on strategies for pan-Asian connectivity. It suggests that 'business-as-usual' management principles and the harnessing of transboundary rivers tend to undermine efforts at achieving economic and ecological sustainability goals, as well as meeting long-term development challenges. The Mekong and Ganga basin regions, in particular, suffer from inadequa

Water security is a growing concern in South Asia today. Growing population, expanding urban centres, widespread pollution and mismanagement are pushing several countries in the region towards a water crisis. Mr. B. G. Verghese, well known journalist, author and expert on water issues, calls for better understanding and cooperation among the countries in South Asia to address the challenge of ensuring adequate and equitable availability of water

Initiating the discussion on "Water Security in South Asia", eminent water expert and noted writer, Mr. B. G. Verghese felt that while water is the key to cooperation in the region, climate change is the most important issue for all South Asian countries.

The Finance Minister can at best provide an enabling environment through the Union Budget and other policy frameworks that lie in his domain. The political and bureaucratic class need to pull in the same direction over the next few years to reverse some of the structural weaknesses.

The primary objective of the US is to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a launchpad by Al Qaeda

General election in Pakistan is due next year. The terms of the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies expire on November 15, 2007. There are already visible signs of hectic political activity in the drawing rooms and closed-door meetings in Islamabad, Dubai, Washington and London.

Eight million Indians work in the region and send over $50 billion in remittances. This will change

The US interest in West Asia is declining as domestic economic and political uncertainties make it look more and more inwards. The shale oil and gas boom is transforming energy markets with the US likely to emerge as the world's biggest combined oil and gas producer this year. These trends are reshaping the regional order in West Asia and New Delhi will have to respond pro-actively to preserve and enhance its own interests in a strategically crit

Unlike mere Arab dictators, Qaddafi is a maverick megalomaniac draped in spectacle and pageantry - never obsequious, but consistent and unpredictable. But no Islamic fundamentalist which some of the West's closest allies are.

Recent public mobilisations in certain Western countries of separatists demanding that a homeland for Sikhs be created in Punjab (or Khalistan) are raising concerns about the threats that these groups pose to India’s security. Tamil Eelam nationalists are also continuing to mobilise themselves in activities hostile to Sri Lanka that openly display militant iconography and messages. What motivates host countries, such as Canada and the United Ki

A new Syria, where a military and polity are being rebuilt, has renewed security concerns for China

China's ruling Communist Party, at its plenum, will deliberate on the economic and social agenda for China over the next five years focusing on financial reforms and how to maintain growth of around seven per cent. Contrast this with India where the new administration appears somnolent.

It is hardly a secret that China has tried to intervene in local politics and shape elections in other countries

China claims to have purely benign intentions in South Asia. A closer look, however, at Beijing’s actions in the region strongly suggests that it is assiduously securing its national interests, which are likely detrimental to most if not all South Asian nations. In the future, all South Asian countries should be clear-eyed about what precisely Beijing is attempting to achieve in their region, and the potential long-term consequences.

Debating the most important and vibrant, yet confused and polarised, theme in India

For the Narendra Modi government, the demonetisation exercise is not a standalone that simply tackles existing black money.

A closer look at a recent interaction between the two sides.

A closer look at what the recent trip meant for bilateral ties between Seoul and New Delhi.

Nothing of substance came out from the recent low profile visit of the US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates

This new mini-lateral grouping of the US and three of its allies could coordinate actions with the Quad for regional stability

Although India has confirmed it will sign the FTA with EEU, it now needs to take forward the negotiations quickly. The FTA is not just significant from the economic viewpoint but also to counter the growing influence of China in the central Asian region.

We need to develop alternate models that do not ignore the need for greater coordination and synergy within governments.

A closer look at what relations between Washington and Moscow mean for New Delhi.

The trip produced a mixed outlook for New Delhi’s perceptions of Beijing’s inroads in the wider Indo-Pacific.

Indian presence is already being felt across the South Asian region, more than in the past. The situation is still evolving. The question is: Should India allow things to continue taking the evolutionary route or jack-boot its way, which is neither des irable, nor workable - and hence unthinkable for New Delhi too!

The agenda for change is a large one. This list or any other can be multiplied several times and still come up short. But the compulsions of reform are urgent. With a bulging profile of young people, India is said to be on the cusp of a demographic dividend. But that dividend could well become a nightmare unless we are able to fix our politics, our governance system, economy, national security machinery.

How can we differentiate ourselves from China whilst dealing with Africa? Clearly the worst option would be to emulate the muscular Chinese style of economic diplomacy. For one we just don't have the firepower. For another the principle of comparative advantage advocates that everyone must play to their strengths.

Strikingly similar to the crisis that Iran faced at the IAEA Board meeting in Vienna last weekend, India too found itself in a tight spot in April 1994 at the United Nations Human Rights Commission's annual session in Geneva.

What is a secret? Sometimes, it is a conundrum presented this way: The Indian “surgical strikes” across the line of control are a secret at varying levels not only in India, but also in Pakistan

If Merkel's Berlin republic is discarding its many postwar political inhibitions and reconstituting the Eurasian landscape, Modi's putative "third republic" is looking beyond non-alignment to the idea of India as a "leading power". In their second summit in six months, Modi and Merkel may have decisively nudged India and Germany towards a goal that was first articulated 100 years ago.

Prime Minister Abe has been one of the strongest pillars of the India-Japan bilateral ties since 2006.

Getting Pakistan to end the Kashmir conflict has been a difficult task, because Kashmir means many things to them. At one level, it is a cause that unites everyone in that country - the jihadis, the army and the civilian elite. At another, it provides it a means to maintain a hostile posture towards India, something necessary for its current sense of national identity.

Egypt is the fulcrum of the Arab world and developments there can have a profound impact in other Arab nations. That is why it is important to get things right. The immediate challenge for Egypt is to ensure that it does not degenerate into civil war.

It has been five years since General Pervez Musharraf came to power in Pakistan in a bloodless coup on October 12. One questionable referendum staged in April 2002, the less-than-credible parliamentary elections in October the same year, a controversial constitutional amendment and two changes of government this year later, Gen Musharraf is still the numero uno.

Today's nationalism is rooted in economic imperatives. Narendra Modi has understood and mastered the instruments and social forces.

The Russian president, who will be in New Delhi on December 6, is not just coming to maintain the ‘special, privileged strategic partnership’, but to also deepen bilateral relations

Compared to the increasing suicide attacks the world over, India has, by and large, remained safe from these assaults. The reason is that Indian Muslims have a strong sense of Indian identity. In both their grievances and aspirations they think like their fellow Indian citizens, rather through any religious or sectarian prism.

The Congress ended with the insertion of the ‘Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era’ into the Party constitution, confirming Xi as the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping.

While Dr. Manmohan Singh must necessarily wait for Nawaz Sharif to determine the pace at which he might be comfortable moving forward with India, in the case of Bangladesh, the burden is entirely on Delhi to implement the historic agreements it had negotiated with Dhaka.

Taiwan is not willing to be assimilated, at least politically, into the motherland