News
Friends with Benefits
The back-to-back visits of the president of France, Francois Hollande, and the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, last month have put the spotlight on India’s relationship with Europe. Some belittle the importance of this relationship as Europe is seen as economically crisis-ridden, lacking in dynamism, to be declining militarily and too prone to act as a super NGO in propagating its values.
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Giving Delhi Some Parisian Delight
France was first to offer a strategic dialogue after our 1998 nuclear tests, forswear sanctions and announce a “business as usual” policy towards India. This remarkably pragmatic position, surpassing the acute international anxieties of the moment, demonstrated its longer term strategic view of India’s role in the world. It is this solid investment in a strategic relationship with India that gives particular value to president Hollande’s visit that begins today.
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Friendly Handshake
Looking ahead, what could President Barack Obama’s second term mean for relations between India and the United States of America? Will the relationship stay more or less at the level that it has already reached or will it see a surge in the years ahead? Can it begin to wane?
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Be to Pakistan as its Posture Warrants
Our international relations experts are divided on how to deal with Pakistan, with a section always advocating moderation in reaction to Pakistani provocations and others favouring more robust responses to Pakistani belligerence.This lack of consensus makes our Pakistan policy look vacillating and irresolute.
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Foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail unlikely to benefit small farmers
The way people were buying gold and silver this Diwali (on Dhanteras) did not indicate a serious economic downturn in India. Sometimes one wonders whether the gloomy statistics about the Indian economy have anything to do with the reality. Planes are going full to places and people are shopping and eating out in all big city malls and restaurants in large numbers. No one, taking a short trip to India from abroad, would think that the Indian economy is anything but robust and healthy.
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Arms and The Country
European nations compete for defence ties with India. When listing India’s defence partners Europe is mentioned, but it would be more accurate to speak of individual European countries as partners. Europe is unified economically but not in the defence domain. Unlike on economic issues, on defence issues India deals with individual capitals and not Brussels.
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Long-term predictions
Economic forecasting is hard. However the last OECD report is based on solid arguments.It highlights that the balance of economic power will shift dramatically over the next 50 years.
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India and China: important but fragile relations
No doubt that the bilateral trade between India and China develops at top speed since 1954 when both governments endorsed for the first time a trade agreement.
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Germany is not the only one to blame
Germany: Europe’s predator, or, at best, exploiter – these are some of the least derogatory adjectives that we have been hearing throughout countries in the European Union and beyond for a while now.
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The paralysing molecules of generic drugs
For years, generic drugs have been poisoning and even paralysing negotiations on free trade between India and, to name a few, the European Union as well as Switzerland.
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