Two day SAARC Summit to begin on April 28 in Bhutan. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s (SAARC) 16th Summit will be held in Thimphu, Bhutan on April 28-29. The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Conservation of Environment and Climate.’ Leaders from the eight member countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, […]
The meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit last week, seems to have produced positive results for India. The US ambassador to India, Tim Roemer will be travelling to Afghanistan to view first-hand the “critical” work being done there by India. He told the Times News Network, “India’s […]
The Nuclear Security Summit has opened on a positive note. Ukraine has volunteered to get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The bold and applaudable decision by Ukraine is sure to help global non-proliferation efforts and bring optimism into the Summit. However, it is sad that Pakistan was given the opportunity to be the lead speaker and demand a nuclear deal from the […]
On April 6, in the Mukrana forests of Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district in India, 72 members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and one member of the District police force were killed in a gruesome attack by the Naxalites. In addition to the number of causalities, the planning and precision of the Naxal operation stunned the […]
By Sarah Rose Ch. 4: Shanghai to Hangzhou, September 1848 Robert Fortune was patient as the coolie attended to his new coif. A small blue and white tea bowl sat nearby on a dusty crate, and swirling its sediment of leaves, Fortune spilled the cooling liquid out onto the dirty deck. Floors were the place […]
A recent piece in the Wall Street Journal argues that from the US point of view, improved Indo-Pak relations are the key to progress in Afghanistan. The Obama administration had therefore issued a secret directive to work towards easing tensions between the two hostile neighbors. That would, in effect, help the administration secure Pakistani cooperation in Afghanistan. While the Obama administration may have […]
The US isn’t the only target of Chinese hackers that-of-course-aren’t-government-sponsored-though-the-PLA-does-fund-hacking-research-in-their-school groups. That other rising Asian great power – the one that fought a couple of wars with China and is harboring their archnemisis – got pwned in a bad way. The NY Times has a story on it that makes for interesting reading. At the […]
A good report, from the Current Science Journal, passed over my desk this week. From 2009, the paper looks at the issue of climate change from a developing country perspective and provides a climate strategy suited to their unique priorities. The authors are in favor of opportunities that benefit both the environment and the economy […]
“About a hundred years ago a great son of India, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, urged the Imperial Legislative Assembly to confer on the Indian people the Right to Education. About ninety years later the Constitution of India was amended to enshrine the Right to Education as a fundamental right. Today, our Government comes before you to […]
How much and what is the Indian youth reading? For answering this question the National Book Trust (NBT) in India undertook a readership survey among the youth of the country. The survey was conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research in 2009. According to Bipin Chandra, Chairman of NBT, “We often say that youngsters […]
“There really are only two choices confronting the international community – to invest and endure, or to improve conditions to a point that we can exit.” This is how India, in words of Shashi Tharoor, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, expects the international community to deal with the challenges in Afghanistan. These expectations […]
President Asif Ali Zardari, in a meeting with Director of US National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, urged US to assist Pakistan in its own civilian nuclear technology deal to help overcome its dire energy needs. President had suggested that this kind of deal will not only bridge the trust deficit between the two countries, but […]
In a move that will likely need to be repeated in coming years, the Supreme Court of India ordered a controversial resort in the Andaman Islands to close down pending further deliberations of the Court on the possible effect the resort will have on the endangered Jarawa tribe. The decision came just weeks after the […]
In what could potentially be a significant step towards women’s empowerment in India, the Rajya Sabha* yesterday passed the ‘Women’s Reservation Bill’ with 186 votes. Also known as the Constitution (108th) Amendment Bill 2008, it seeks to reserve 33% of the seats in the national and state legislatures for women. The Manmohan Singh government had hoped to have it passed on March 8, International Women’s […]
