Latin America Update, September 2013
In 'Latin America Update' Gateway House lists some of the important events in Latin America over the past month
In 'Latin America Update' Gateway House lists some of the important events in Latin America over the past month
Recently, the Indian Parliament passed two key legislations - the Companies Bill and the Food Security Bill. How will these seemingly unconnected legislations together empower technologies and business models that pose serious challenges to building a market economy that’s in sync with democratic aspirations?
After Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s recent visit to India, cooperation in the energy sector could become the cornerstone of the bilateral relationship. A lot depends on India’s response to the opportunities offered by Iraq, and on how India triangulates its foreign policy with Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia
Indian companies are pursuing defence offsets and commercial aviation products, but bypassing the global space economy. To build on this market requires New Delhi to overhaul its space policy, ISRO to amend its policy on contracts, and Indian industry to share the risk and investment
The economic mismanagement by the ruling UPA in the past few years – by putting politics and polls ahead of economy and prosperity, and slavish obedience to political masters – has created an environment of crisis and desperation in India. Where did the country’s so-called economic ‘dream team’ go wrong?
While the rejection by Odisha’s Gram Sabhas of mining projects in the state indicates the triumph of direct democracy, concerns that international investors will shun India due to the fear of unfavourable conditions are rife. How can we work towards both greater democracy and mining projects necessary for growth?
Liberalism is a politics of hope, mutuality, compromise and reason. If that has been replaced by a politics of fear, egotism, polarisation and unreason, it is India’s elites that are responsible. How can liberalism be made an object of mass politics in India?
The war on terror and the global financial crisis have tilted the balance of authority on the side of the state, which the liberating forces of cyber space have only partially counteracted. Can the forces of liberalisation prevail over the forces of incipient oppression?
Over the past 30 years, Indian liberals have shed their values of tolerance, reason and dialogue. The rise of fundamentalism, strident socio-political discourse, and post-modernist individualism also indicate the decline of the liberal ethos. This is a threat to India’s vibrant philosophical liberal tradition
The reforms of the early 1990s did not bring economic freedom to a majority of the population. That explains a large proportion of the economic and social ills that affect India today. Why is economic life in India of the ‘Taliban type’? Why is illiberal thought still our guiding principle?