A stack of one thousand rupee notes. Courtesy: 123RF
9 November 2016

How ‘hawala’ impacts national security

On November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to India, the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, he specifically referred to the use of Hawala and fake Indian currency notes for terrorist financing. The hawala system to move funds globally for terrorist financing is huge, secretive, and layered—and a challenge for national security agencies.

Barack-Obama-Nawaz-Sharif Courtesy: Wikipedia
10 October 2016

U.S.-Pakistan: still cosy after Uri

There has been a strengthening in the India-U.S. bilateral, which reached new heights with the signing of the LEMOA agreement in August, 2016. However, this strengthened bilateral has not resulted in a strong response to Pakistan by the U.S. Government.

gwadar cpec Courtesy: AP
6 October 2016

Balochistan: all sides may lose

India’s new focus on Balochistan has more to do with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) than with Kashmir. China understands that CPEC may not be achievable. But there are real dangers in reviving Pakistani fears of secessionism and in broadening the field of Indo-Pakistani conflict beyond the confines of Kashmir.

russia pak military exercises Courtesy: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
29 September 2016

Russia’s zero sum games in Asia

Russia's decision to go ahead with joint military exercises with Pakistan is the latest move in Putin's flexible and pragmatic Asian foreign policy playbook. However, whether it will be worth having provoked Indian ire remains to be seen.

india baloch Courtesy: The Wire
15 September 2016

Balochistan: India’s trump card?

Prime Minister Modi’s reference to Balochistan in his Independence Day speech, which coincided with the Kashmir unrest, sparked speculations of this being smartly retaliatory. But the province’s geo-strategic complexities mean that New Delhi will have to play the ‘human rights’ card carefully.

IMG_20160811_160515-01 Courtesy: A Salute to the Sword Arm
11 August 2016

Partition 1947: the navy we didn’t see

15 August 1947 saw the division of more than a country. There were other spoils that were split: the Royal Indian Navy was one of them. This included not just a division of assets, but also of staff, whom the British Royal Navy had trained. This led to a piquant situation

1 Courtesy: Sameer Patil
22 June 2016

Challenges in protecting the border

A recent seminar on ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ (CVE) offered a platform for law enforcement agencies to understand technological, social media and other propaganda strategies used by cross-border terrorist groups. The seminar’s location in Sri Ganganagar, the northern-most town of Rajasthan, served as a gentle reminder of challenges specific to security agencies on the India-Pakistan border.