Courtesy: Sameer Patil
On a week-long October visit to Jammu and Kashmir, the author found both clarity and complexity among the citizens about their new status, and that the practicalities of daily life are more compelling than ideology
Courtesy: @narendramodi/twitter
Dr Condoleezza Rice and Dr Henry Kissinger, speakers at the annual meeting of the U.S-India Strategic Partnership Forum, in Delhi in October 2019, kept the audience riveted. The topics covered included China as competitor, the earlier disharmony in India-U.S. relations, and tips from a veteran on the art of negotiation
Courtesy: Government Law College, Mumbai
The world has changed – and so has India in the last 70 years since independence. Its foreign policy has evolved from non-alignment to multipolarity and to proactive participation in various multilateral organisations. Building on the work of its predecessors, the Modi government’s diplomacy articulates India’s interests more forthrightly and pursues them more energetically
Courtesy: MEA/Flickr
Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India earlier this month, resulting in seven new agreements, showed the strength of the mutual relationship. But both governments need to address some rankling issues: the sharing of the Teesta waters, the Rohingya problem and repatriation of the illegal people from Assam
Courtesy: Shutterstock
Decarbonising the transportation sector is an environmental priority globally, and hydrogen, the cleanest and most plentiful of fuels, is central to achieving this goal. If hydrogen mobility is actively pursued, India’s large reserves of gas hydrates and shale gas can be tapped for commercial use. Such a shift in choice of fuel will also ensure India’s energy security
The second informal summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping in Mamallapuram on October 11 is likely to be more a holding operation than an occasion for increasing convergence of perspectives on regional and global issues. Neelam Deo, Director of Gateway House, answers a few questions on the eve of the Chinese president’s visit
Courtesy: Shutterstock
The United Nations’ Paris Agreement of 2015 had nations committing to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to slow the rise in global temperatures. But terrestrial geoengineering – or the use of “carbon capture” technologies and developing carbon sinks to remove gases already in the atmosphere – and atmospheric climate engineering are technologies which also seek to slow global warming
Courtesy: MEA/Flickr
Prime Minister Modi’s tour of the U.S. last month was centred around the UN General Assembly’s 74th session and discussions on environmental challenges, but questions regarding the Indian government’s action in Kashmir persisted
Courtesy: Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University
The immediate panic in the aftermath of the missile attack on Saudi Aramco’s facility at Abqaiq underlines the still-critical role of the Kingdom to the world economy. The subsequent recovery of oil production – with no disruption – showed that Saudi Arabia is a reliable partner/guarantor of energy supplies. Our Energy and Environment fellow Amit Bhandari was in Riyadh recently for a conference, and describes a post-Abqaiq Saudi Arabia
Courtesy: TICAD7/Flickr
The Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development was a departure from earlier editions of it. Japan, which is changing tack as a competitor to China in Africa, held back from publicising the number of heads of state present to prevent any comparisons with other such forums and made no further commitments on Overseas Development Assistance. The accent, instead, was on increasing Japanese private sector engagement
