Pintrest Courtesy: Pinterest
14 August 2017

The demographics of modern India

Modern India stands tall on August 15, 2017: over the past year, it has been seen as the fastest growing major country, macroeconomic stability has been re-established, and the GST implemented. Why, then, are so many stressing that India desperately needs reforms to its labour laws to keep the momentum going?

BRICS_leaders_meet_on_the_sidelines_of_2016_G20_Summit_in_China (1) Courtesy: Narendra Modi/ Flickr
12 August 2017

BRICS Summit under Doklam shadow

BRICS, which has always been committed to enhancing solidarity, is now entering its second decade – even as tensions between its two most consequential members remain unresolved and member states and other emerging markets are set to serve as “the main engine” of global growth

Argentina Courtesy: Pixabay
10 August 2017

Argentina: in the ascendant

Once a laggard, Argentina is now a rising star in South America. Its economy is recovering, GDP growth is stable and financial reforms have taken hold. In 2018, it will host the presidency of the G20, its first step onto the global stage after over a decade in isolation. With Argentina’s G20 agenda fully aligned with India’s priorities, how can India gain?

malabar-2 Courtesy: PTI
3 August 2017

Malabar 2017’s geostrategic dimensions

The historical evolution of the Malabar Exercise and the currently fraught relations between the participating countries and China created a much sharper context for the event, with the Chinese evincing a heightened interest in it

India Vietnam relations Courtesy: Narendra Modi Official/ Flickr
24 July 2017

India, Vietnam tied by strategic trust

Vietnam has the highest level of bilateral relationship—or ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’—with three countries: China, Russia and India. It envisages a much more active role in the region for India, but many factors mar such a development currently

india-china-pti-story_647_070317030105 Courtesy: India Today
21 July 2017

Doklam: India-China cold front to continue

The origin of current India-China hostilities in Bhutan harks back to a colonial era agreement framed in 1890 between the British and the Qing empire on issues related to Tibet and Sikkim. The present standoff is an occasion to revisit many aspects of a relationship that has shown perennial strain

16CHINATRUMP-facebookJumbo Courtesy: New York Times
13 July 2017

2016, the hinge year

Three epoch-making events in 2016 are continuing to have global repercussions. They were: Brexit, China’s rubbishing of the July verdict of the Permanent Court of Arbitration after it rejected its claims on disputed islands in the South China Sea, and Trump’s election. This article, the prologue to a book-in-progress, The Hinge Year – Geopolitical Dislocations and Dispersals, outlines how these events intersect with transformed geoeconomic realities

ADB gandhinagar Courtesy: Prokerala
11 July 2017

Three trends to India’s Africa approach

India seems to have departed from catch-all, overarching initiatives in Africa to rather more nuanced ways of making its contribution felt, such as helping fashion G20’s ‘Compact with Africa’. Many countries are also keen to avail of Indian companies’ knowledge and experience of investing in Africa and the presence of the large diaspora—and such trilateral cooperation is to be welcomed

34752548343_5a294a2417_k Courtesy: MEA India
28 June 2017

Modi-Trump: starting strong

The India-U.S. strategic partnership endures even in the current state of flux, with the joint statement that President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued holding the seeds of greater cooperation. The statement is sharper on Pakistan and China and softer on contentious bilateral issues