shutterstock_1023930217 Courtesy: Shutterstock
22 August 2019

The Telegram phenomenon

The tool used to sustain and coordinate protests is a young, encrypted messaging service called Telegram. Its unique privacy and security features and resistance to the state has made Telegram more popular than its larger rivals, WhatsApp and WeChat. What is this communication phenomenon?

shutterstock_1042736410 Courtesy: Shutterstock
11 July 2019

Chandrayaan-2: presaging private participation

On 15 July, the Indian space programme will achieve a feat with the Chandrayaan-2 mission. Two challenges lie ahead: the speedy construction of Chandrayaan-3 and the development of a public-private ecosystem of space capabilities

Open Embrace Courtesy: Penguin
4 July 2019

Open Embrace: India-U.S. Ties in the Age of Modi and Trump

This book offers a ringside view of evolving Indo-U.S. ties under two conservative leaders, both engaged in mixing nationalism, religion and populism to advance the global capitalist order. The title points to an interesting departure from the more orthodox view of the bilateral relationship, which is usually from the prism of discord or estrangement

9780199489640 Courtesy: Oxford University Press
18 April 2019

When India played peacemaker

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

ibc-center-oil-gaz-4-696x392 Courtesy: ibctrain.com
2 April 2019

India & the influential SCO Energy Club

The main objective of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Energy Club, when Russia formed it, was to market its member states’ substantial oil and natural gas reserves. This map shows some of the important natural gas pipelines, originating from Russia and its neighbouring countries that are not members of the SCO. What can India do to secure supplies from these abundant but currently inaccessible natural gas reserves?

35830490205_81bd5000f7_o Courtesy: MEA/Flickr
6 February 2019

Indian Foreign Policy in 21st Century

The following remarks were given by Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, Gateway House as Distinguished Guest Lecturer at IIM Tiruchirappalli on February 3, 2019

Rediffmail Courtesy: Rediffmail
6 December 2018

Modi a better CM than PM?

Academic and columnist M.D. Nalapat, in this interview with Manjeet Kripalani, speaks of how a tardy bureaucracy has brought about “a too-cautious” policy towards the U.S. and China as opposed to the former Gujarat chief minister’s greater openness in consulting people before handing over policy implementation to the bureaucracy. He also discusses the prime minister’s shrewd approach to South Asia, the dependable warmth of the Japanese and a range of other topics