Courtesy: News Click
The Indian elections 2019, being conducted over seven phases, reaffirm all the values electoral democracy stands for, but this time, it has also become a referendum on Prime Minister Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party which had won a clear majority in 2014. Outcomes are therefore unpredictable
Courtesy: Free Press Journal
Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s coronation on May 1, marking the dawn of the Reiwa Era, is a milestone also for the Indian merchant diaspora, which began arriving during the reign of the Meiji Emperor in the 1870s. The strength of the India-Japan bilateral relationship lies in the 150-year-old narratives of these family-run firms and the success of many Indo-Japanese collaborations
Egypt, which is the 2019 chair of the African Union, is critically positioned to exert a geostrategic influence across Africa. In a conversation with Gateway House, Egyptian ambassador to India, Dr Heba Salaheldin Elmarassi, spoke on a wide range of issues that link India and Egypt, including trade, investment and security, North Africa’s political turbulence and the expanding Chinese footprint in the continent
Courtesy: Dying Regime / Flickr
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
Courtesy: PTI
The growing use of technology in the election process has made cyber security a crucial issue. Instances of the spread of fake news, manipulation of voter behaviour and hacking show how digital technology can be misused. These issues need to be addressed in the long term
Courtesy: Oxford University Press
This account of India’s foreign policy under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi is an accomplished body of research into a period, usually studied primarily for India’s Non Aligned Movement. The author suggests that Nehru’s larger Asian, more global, view for India has therefore gone unnoticed
Courtesy: Pacom
Canada, which has been slow to respond to a changing trans-Pacific neighbourhood, can join India and the ASEAN member states to embark on a trilateral dialogue on the Indo-Pacific’s importance in terms of political, strategic and other domains. An alignment in outlook can strengthen the security and prosperity of a region, currently mired in U.S.-China rivalries
Courtesy: akross
China’s economy is in trouble, a situation that has been exacerbated by the trade war with the U.S. They can either reduce the debt burden and accept slower growth or boost the already high level of debt, which can end in a slump.
Courtesy: Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu Agency
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
Courtesy: Penguin RandomHouse
This timely book on a controversial subject attempts to sum up the scope and ambitious scale of the BRI. It does not offer judgement nor copious detail, but shows how an infrastructure project now seems to be the basis of a China-centred global economic system
