Over the past six months, there has been much of focus in the international media on the territorial disputes between China and its neighbors in the East and South China seas. However, China has territorial disputes along most of its borders. Although the United States has injected itself into the former, the dispute between China and […]
Regardless of the immediate outcome of December’s review process, governments in South Asia are behaving as if a visibly reduced U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in the coming year is a foregone conclusion. This perception, which will only be reinforced if the Democratic Party suffers major setbacks next month, will color not only how New Delhi approaches Mr. Obama’s state visit but how it weighs the prospects for U.S.-India relations.
Defending the official policies (or the lack of it) while interacting with an audience in the U.S. can be challenging for a Minister of the Indian Government. Kapil Sibal, India’s Minister of Human Resource Development and Education, needs to be given credit for putting up a great show as a representative of the Government of […]
By Shrabani Basu In the summer of 1887 as Queen Victoria approached the Golden Jubilee of her reign, she was overcome with feelings of loneliness. She had never stopped mourning for her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who had died in 1861, and had chosen to wear widow’s black all her life. As she looked ahead […]
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahbad High Court delivered its verdict on the contentious Ayodhya Entitlement dispute on September 30. It was a rare occasion when the issues of divinity and faith were awaiting clarification by a judicial body. Most Indians were more anxious about the fallout of the judgement rather than the actual verdict. […]
There is no dearth of reports, articles and analysis on India’s preparation or the lack of it for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010. Apart from the Indian news channels inviting ‘experts’ of all hues to comment on what went wrong and the national mission to discover where the ‘buck stops’, criticism in the international media […]
Even for a country like India, long inured to the fiascos created by its bungling and corrupt politicians, the adjectives accompanying the Commonwealth Games (CWG) seem like a new low.
Amidst all the embarrassment of the Commonwealth Games preparations in Delhi, a report by the National Intelligence Council and EU’s Institute for Security Studies placing India as the third most powerful country has brought in a much need boost to the spirits. The report, Global Governance 2025, puts India in the third position with eight […]
Foreign Policy Association has seemed to transform into Afghanistan Association as our website has recently produced a myriad of fascinating pieces on the Central Asian state. Here are three really worth checking out! On FPA’s website’s main page, the Viewpoint series features an article by Mehdi Noorbaksh titled ‘Irreparable Mistake to Leave Afghanistan‘. Noorbaksh makes […]
Former foreign secretary of India, Shyam Saran has an excellent piece in Business Standard where he argues that staying back in Afghanistan and strengthening its presence there is the right strategy for India. He examines the ‘exit strategy’ from Afghanistan for the U.S. put forth by Henry Kissinger at a recent conference in Geneva. According […]
India’s Home Minister P. Chidambaram during a speech at the conference of State police chiefs and Inspector-Generals of police cautioned against the emerging phenomenon of ‘saffron terror’. The Home Minister’s comments have proved controversial with the Opposition Party, Bharatiya Janata Dal (BJP) demanding an apology. Semantics apart, Home Minister Chidambaram’s comment was not frivolous. [Photo: […]
The world is watching in shock as Pakistan grapples with one of the worst floods in history. This week the UN estimated that the floods in southern Pakistan have displaced about a million people in a matter of two days. The massive floods began almost a month ago and have since displaced about 20 million […]
Two new reports – by Morgan Stanley and the Asian Development Bank – offer optimistic, albeit caveat-filled, appraisals of India’s long-term economic outlook. But whether the country can fulfill its potential is still an open question.
Following reports that the editor of Indian magazine Naveena Netrikkan has been arrested and tortured, press freedom organizations are calling for his release. Mr. A.S. Mani was reportedly arrested, imprisoned and tortured after reporting on police corruption in the Indian state of Chennai, in Tamil Nadu. Reporters Without Borders issued the transcript of an interview […]
The recent approval by the Government of India for caste based census has aroused concerns among political parties as well as social scientists and ethnographers. For the self-proclaimed ‘modernists’ such regressive measures are likely to heighten caste consciousness among Indians. While the pragmatists argue that data on caste can help the government to better target […]