2019_5_img23_May_2019_PTI5_23_ Courtesy: India Today
21 May 2019

Elections 2019: Making India Middle Class

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The Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been returned to power for another five years, till 2024. In the run-up to the national elections, the author travelled to Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, two of India’s most important states, to gauge the mood of the electorate, and to assess the economic and political conditions on the ground since the last election in 2014. She found a new generation with big dreams, and a population whose basic needs were being met. Economic citizenry has trumped identity politics. Modi is the leitmotif for this India, and they look to him to lead them into a middle class future.

The Human Tide_Front Courtesy: John Murray
9 May 2019

The Human Tide: How Population Shaped the Modern World

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Demography has an important role in economic and political history, it has an impact on political thinking and changing populations influence the balance of power between different countries. The book is especially good at British, British colonial and European demographic history, but its weakness is its Euro-centrism

Maldives-618x412 Courtesy: Dying Regime / Flickr
25 April 2019

A power change in Maldives

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Maldives’ new president, Ibrahim Solih, has had two election wins in a span of six months – his own in September 2018 and his Maldivian Democratic Party’s landslide victory in the Majlis elections about three weeks ago. An analysis of what this win says about democratic politics in Maldives, improved relations with India and the complex equation it shares with China

19THPULWAMA Courtesy: The Hindu
28 March 2019

Can India sanction Pakistan post-Pulwama?

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India has used military and diplomatic offensives against Pakistan as a response to the February 14 terrorist attack in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir. There are two more options available - legal, through sanctions, and economic - to curb Pakistan's dangerous adventurism. Gateway House explores both in the infographic below

591ba7996bbfe0287b0c8a5c01dc4a1defb31b68 Courtesy: AFP Photo/AREF KARIMI
28 March 2019

Afghanistan: Development against the odds

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The people of Afghanistan, torn by war, ethnic strife and geoeconomic contestation for their country’s rich natural resources, have paid by forsaking the assurances of daily life. But President Ashraf Ghani has shown them that normalcy can return and it is possible to hold regular elections. The author, a guest of the President and First Lady, travelled through the country in October 2018 to record her impressions of a resilient people who have reason to hope for a different future 

960x0 Courtesy: Forbes
14 March 2019

India’s evolving Fintech laws

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Fintech refers to a service or product which cuts across technology and finance. Covering everything from blockchain/cryptocurrency and Artificial Intelligence to data and the Internet-of-Things, it is becoming integral to India’s development agenda. This table sets out the various constituents of fintech and the regulations governing them

iran-702x336 Courtesy: Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu Agency
14 March 2019

Iran @ 40: tensions underlie stability

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The Islamic Republic of Iran, which turns 40 in April 2019, has come a long way from the Persia of the past. Some changes in the last four decades have been beneficial, and while people do support the regime, they are disaffected with its handling of the economy and foreign affairs

ClimateEngineering_GH_CIGI_Cover Courtesy: Gateway House & CIGI
28 February 2019

Making Terrestrial Geoengineering Technologies Viable: An Opportunity for India-Canada Climate Leadership

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The use of terrestrial geoengineering techniques, such as carbon capture, is necessary to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius, as per the Paris Agreement’s targets. Terrestrial geoengineering is different from atmospheric climate engineering: the latter does not remove the very source of the increased greenhouse effect, which are anthropogenic greenhouse gases. India and Canada must collaborate on carbon capture and propose multilateral regulations for unethical atmospheric climate engineering