News
Bridging the Gulf
India’s ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are set to get a major boost with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, visiting New Delhi as the chief guest at the Republic Day parade.
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Indo-Pak Ties Likely to Remain Fraught in 2017
2017 marks the 70th year of Independence and the ‘Great Divide’ between India and Pakistan. The 69th year – 2016 – saw a steep deterioration in the already not so normal state of relations between the two countries and it is highly unlikely that the 70th year will see some sort of breakthrough in their adversarial relations. At best what might happen is what has happened innumerable times in the past – one or two steps forward, one or two steps back.
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Democracy, diversity, development: Was 2016 dominated by their dark sides?
2016 was witness to dramatic political changes. Everything that seemed improbable, even unthinkable somehow found new ways of manifesting itself, and that too repeatedly.
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A red herring: Is Modi looking to create a New Indian?
Purity versus pollution have been part of the Indian way of life for millennia, manifested most perniciously in our caste system, which divides people between the highest, who are ritually the purest, and the lowest who are the most polluted. Ritual purity is the feature of many religions, but nowhere has it had the malign impact that it has in India.
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Of Good and Bad Populists that Shape Nation’s Politics
A new wave of populism appears to be sweeping across Europe; western and eastern. Populist leaders have sprouted all over, gaining (or having gained) public support. A new narrative, an alternative brand of politics is being shaped. The trend is evident all over — from the United States of America to Britain to France, and even in Greece, Finland, Hungary and Poland. Most of it is Right-wing; some Left-driven. Donald Trump’s election as the next President of the US; the Brexit referendum in Britain; the rise of Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France; the increasing consolidation of Greece’s Syrzia party — these should all be seen in the larger context of a redefining of the political mood in Europe.
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Why Trump’s protectionist ideas may not work
The father of economics, Adam Smith, believed in free trade and advocated it in the 18thcentury England. Most American presidents in the past believed and practiced it too. Trump is planning to reverse it for the ‘good of American people’ because as he said in his election campaign he wants jobs to come back to the US by blackballing Chinese imports.
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Loose Cannons, Generals and US Foreign Policy in the Trump Era
President Elect Donald Trump has a few weeks more to remain in the ‘loose cannon’ mode before he is fully accountable for what he utters. For over a year he has been trumpeting his wares, his mind and his ideas on a nation which is seriously in a state of regression. The entire Trump phenomenon arose out of a sense of insecurity brought on by the failure of post-cold war international configurations that the US sought to create.
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All eyes on Trump’s America
Halifax, a major port in the east coast of Canada, has hosted an annual security forum for the past nine years. This year, the event was held a week after the US Presidential elections that delivered a stunning verdict in favour of Donald Trump.
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Lessons from De-monetisation - the Bureaucracy Needs a Shake-Up
More than hoarders of black money, the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi’s announcement on November 8 to demonetize high value currency to strike at the root of illicit wealth appears to have stunned his political opponents. Coming within weeks of the surgical strike against Pakistan, through which he signaled his ability to take decisive action, the blow that he struck against hoarders of black money a fortnight ago has put him way ahead of the competition.
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Troubled partnership
The Goa summit of BRICS came to an end with a joint declaration that was as anodyne as such documents tend to be. Although India made it a point to focus on terrorism and managed to underscore “the need for close coordination on tracking sources of terrorist financing and target the hardware of terrorism, including weapons’ supplies, ammunition, equipment and training”, it could not convince China to change its stance on the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief, Masood Azhar.
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