Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is scheduled to inaugurate the new avatar of the ancient Nalanda University on September 19. The opening is a significant event as the international university is India's attempt at projecting its soft power. However, much more needs to be done to make it an international center in the true sense of the word
Courtesy: U.S. Staff Sergeant Aaron Allmon
Obama’s strategy to target the IS in Syria within the framework of a U.S.-led international coalition has met with a tepid response. There are reports that the U.S may offer India a non-NATO ally status during Modi’s upcoming visit in a bid to seek greater support – a gesture that India will do well to disregard.
Courtesy:
By using information and communication technology innovatively, Singapore has overcome the challenges of limited size and resources. There are many lessons here for India which is collaborating with Singapore on the Smart Cities project – especially when it comes to affordable housing and transport planning.
Courtesy: pmindia.gov.in
Narendra Modi, promising governance reform and policy overhaul swept into power with a strong majority. The first three months of Modi as prime minister has seen him being pro-active, as well as creative, in handling India's foreign policy interests. Gateway House analyses the new government’s actions and puts forward recommendations for the days ahead
Courtesy: wikimedia\commons
Textbooks in India and Pakistan offer vastly differing views of events related to the freedom struggle. The History Project is an attempts to introduce students from both sides to an alternative and more balanced account of a shared past
Courtesy: arabia.msn.com
The right to be heard and to dissent is crucial in a democracy but they come with responsibilities. The current anti-government protests are being mobilised by partisan-players with a political stake and could jeopardise Pakistan’s hard-won democracy
Courtesy: Owlpacino
Although the histories, levels of economic development, and critical issues of India and the U.S. are different, the confrontational party politics in their political systems pose similar challenges. Both countries can learn from the experience of federalism of the other to take their national agendas forward
Courtesy: Wikimedia
The birth of Telangana was a fall-out of the politics of opportunism practiced by both regional and national parties. The idea of federalism in India has to be conscious of these fault lines as they do not bode well for aspirations of cooperative federalism
Courtesy: Wikipedia
India’s federalism sees territory as fixed space through which power is distributed. We must instead imagine a federalism of time, a non-linear layering that reverses the heliocentrism of the State. It will give us models of disorder to create a diversity-sensitive system, and a new prism to re-imagine India’s future
Courtesy: wikimedia\commons
Brazil follows a more decentralised form of federalism and gives special importance to the municipalities. Porto Alegre’s successful 'participatory budgeting' is a role model for the world. India can learn from both the positive and negative aspects of the Brazilian system