Last week’s visit to New Delhi by the U.S. national security advisor offered a preview of some of the deliverables that will come out of President’s Obama upcoming visit but also illuminated areas of discord that could forcefully intrude upon the proceedings.
As India and China battle it out in the Indian Ocean, human rights takes a back seat in South Asia.
Two events occurring within hours of each other earlier this week illustrate India’s potential for great power status as well as the vast distance the country still has to travel to fulfill its global ambitions.
The Indian Rupee now has its unique symbol – a confluence of the Roman ‘R’ and Indian (Devanagari script) ‘Ra’. The symbol was finalized yesterday by an Union Cabinet Committee. Uday Kumar, the designer of the symbol explains the symbol, “My design is based on the Tricolour with two lines at the top and white […]
The street protests in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) are de javu for many locals. It is claimed that a new generation of youth in the state are turning to confrontational tactics as the state continues to define security in strictly militaristic terms. For the Indian side peace in J&K implies ensuring that separatists and militants […]
India faces daunting challenges in overcoming its infrastructure deficit.
Over the last couple of months, news has been in pouring in about ‘honor killings’ in the northern States of Punjab and Haryana. Numerous couples have been killed mostly by family members on the orders of the ‘khap panchyats’ because they eloped, married outside their caste or within the same ‘gotra’. The problem is not […]
Tensions have mounted in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) during the past month. The people’s protests became unmanageable for the state government and the Army was called in to flag march in the state on July 7th. The recent round of anti-India protests were triggered by the killing of 15 people by […]
The Indian government’s decision to raise fuel prices last month resulted in some opposition-led large scale protests on Monday.
Amid all the doom and gloom that the media and some of the major environmental groups promulgated before, during and after Copenhagen last December, some voices pointed out that there were important breakthroughs. One important group, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), noted that “… for the first time, all major economies, including China, India, […]
The growing prominence of Indian-Americans has been an important but under-noticed factor in bilateral relations.
Someone recently asked me if the Naxalites could be considered a threat to India’s nuclear arsenal. My answer was a potential threat, but a highly remote one. The Naxalite problem in India has grown exponentially over the last few years, and they have become one of India’s biggest security risks. The recent attacks on security […]
In a move that signals a huge departure from standard practice, the Indian government announced plans to move closer to market-driven fuel prices.
Matt Waldman in a recently published Paper, “The Sun is in the Sky: the Relationship between Pakistan’s ISI and Afghan Insurgents” explores the extent of the ISI’s links and support to the problem of Afghan insurgency. Though Matt accepts that several endogenous factors are responsible for the emergence and sustenance of the Taliban, his interviews with […]