Recently, the European Union and India have been in the news for a near-final free trade agreement, as have the United States and the 10 other countries who are hammering out the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While these agreements could bolster economies that were weakened by the recession or that are …
Last week’s blackouts illuminate three fiascoes holding India back
The massive, cascading power outages that left the northern half of India in the dark for two days last week bring to mind a telling juxtaposition of events in mid-1998. India had just concluded a momentous series of nuclear weapon tests, code-named …
A couple of days ago, over 600 million people (that’s not a typo, six hundred million – 600,000,000) lost electrical power when three electricity grids in India collapsed. The cause was simple, demand outstripped supply, and the mechanisms in place to manage the imbalance were just not up to the …
Whatever Singh’s own faults as a government leader, India’s economic malaise is due to more basic problems.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is on the receiving end of a barrage of slings and arrows these days. The most recent salvo comes from Time magazine, whose Asian edition this week has a
We’ll soon find out whether Prime Minister Singh can salvage something positive from his final two years in office
A previous post focused on the recent political crisis in Pakistan that resulted in Prime Minister Gilani’s removal and in the process further destabilizing the civilian government as well as complicating …
Fatou Bensouda, newly sworn in as prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is getting a lot of advice.
Much of it is well-meaning. As the first African and the first woman to hold the post, Bensouda has rightly inspired much good feeling. For those who disagreed with her predecessor, one of …
Biogas saves Kenyan school money, conserves nature
A school in the rural Rift Valley of central Kenya is a model for successful small-scale response to climate change, according to this article. The school cooks with biogas produced from latrines, eliminating fuel and sanitation costs while reducing harmful carbon …
The time has come to question why the country needs tactical nuclear forces
Marking the anniversary of Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear tests, Nawaz Sharif on Monday boasted of the key role he played as prime minister in bringing about this achievement. Sharif, who now heads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, …
“Starvation is a brutal but little-discussed reality in India” is the summary offered to describe the impetus behind the six-part series from The Wall Street Journal’s India Real Time blog, called “Starving in India.” The series, based on research conducted by journalist Ashwin Parulkar and a colleague from the Centre …
Sometimes it’s hard to know what to make of the country
Even casual observers of India quickly realize it is a jumble of self-contradictions that often defy simple explanation. The latest evidence for this proposition comes in the form of two new opinion polls that present contrary …
A broad ambivalence about economic reform prevails in New Delhi
My previous post dealt with the mounting criticism of New Delhi’s economic management. Not too long ago, India was feted as the “New China” and a driving force in the BRICS …
Like after a good first date, expectations can get a little out of hand when it comes burgeoning alliances between states. In the late 90′s relations between the US and India began to thaw (agreed to date), through the 2000s, as the two sides’ interests began …
Criticism about New Delhi’s economic management reaches a crescendo
Although he claims to have been misquoted, Kaushik Basu, the chief economic adviser at the Indian finance ministry, has only confirmed what has been readily apparent for quite some time. In Washington last week for the annual spring meeting of …
In New York this week the United Nations is hosting the Commission on Population and Development, an annual weeklong conference. In the face of the planet’s ever-booming population growth, and the fact that 90 percent of the world’s 1.8 billion youth live in developing countries, this year’s focus is on …
I wrote yesterday about the ridiculous inconsistency of the Administration’s response first, to the DPRK’s failed launch and second, to the non-response to the Indian Agni V launch shortly thereafter.
Well, it seems I’m not alone. Enter Walter Pincus, Columnist for the Washington Post. Writing yesterday in a piece …
