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No Progress in China-India Military Talks (Rajeswari (Raji) Pillai Rajagopalan, ORF)

India and China held a 14th round of military talks earlier this week to resolve the border confrontation between the two countries that began in mid-2020. The corps commander-level talks were held at the Chushul-Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates the armies of the two […]

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Despite complex global power equations, India and Russia will maintain good ties in 2022 (Nandan Unnikrishnan, ORF)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India has bridged some recent policy gaps between Moscow and New Delhi, but structural problems will continue to bedevil the relationship demanding a very calibrated approach to bilateral ties from both countries. Despite complex global power equations, India and Russia will maintain good ties in 2022 | ORF (orfonline.org)

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Indian cities—Stunted by partial democratisation (Sanjeev Ahluwalia, ORF)

What gets measured, performs better. That could be one reason why municipal  finance in India has seen a secular decline in the share of its own revenues to total receipts from 63 percent in 2002–03 to 53 percent in 2007–08 and further to 43 percent by 2017–18. The resultant gap between need and resources is met by Union […]

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CAATSA, Russia’s S-400s, and the challenge for India’s defence indigenisation (Kartik Bommakanti, ORF)

The possibility of American sanctions in the form of the Counter America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) loom large over India’s decision to purchase the S-400 Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM) Triumf from the Russian Federation. There have been several analyses in both New Delhi and Washington D.C. about the potential rupture the India-Russia S-400 deal is […]

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The “democracy” debate in China (Antara Ghosal Singh, ORF)

The US President Joe Biden’s Democracy Summit held on 9th–10th December triggered an intense debate on democracy in China. China’s State Council Information Office released the “Democracy in China” white paper on 4 December, followed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs releasing the white paper “The State of Democracy in the United States” on 5 […]

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India’s 2022: Capacity utilisation and economic revival (Debosmita Sarkar, Soumya Bhowmick, ORF)

The Indian economy has traditionally been considered a supply-constrained one. However, ever since the reforms of 1991, reports suggest that the Indian economy has transitioned from a supply-constrained economy to a demand-constrained one—which essentially means remedial measures should be focused on policies aimed at demand factors, rather than supply-side interventions only. The current economic contraction should not […]

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Grid scale battery energy storage systems: Will they meet expectations? (Lydia Powell, Akhilesh Sati, Vinod Kumar Tomar, ORF)

Grid connected battery energy storage system (BESS) is a technology option that can accommodate high share of renewable energy and contribute to grid stability. India’s proposed target of 500 GW (gigawatts) of renewable energy (RE) capacity by 2030 requires that intermittent solar is paired with BESS to supply power day and night and through summer, winter and monsoon. Grid […]

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Vying for influence over Kabul (Kabir Taneja, ORF)

On December 19, Pakistan hosted a special session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address the crisis in Afghanistan. The Taliban, which took over Kabul in August after a 20-year-long war with the U.S., also attended. Saudi Arabia added weight to Pakistan’s call for the meeting. The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is peaking […]

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Prioritising Indian connectivity: ‘Mission Purvodaya’ and Nepal in perspective (Sohini Nayak, ORF)

India is concentrating more on connectivity projects to strengthen the India-Nepal relations and to cater to its security needs in the Northeast Prioritising Indian connectivity: ‘Mission Purvodaya’ and Nepal in perspective | ORF (orfonline.org)

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Reading between the lines of President Kovind’s visit to Bangladesh (Sohini Bose, ORF)

The recent presidential visit to Bangladesh showcases the robust India-Bangladesh relations despite minor hiccups over the last couple of months. Reading between the lines of President Kovind’s visit to Bangladesh | ORF (orfonline.org)

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India and Central Asia need more coherence on Afghanistan (Ayjaz Wani, ORF)

The third India-Central Asia Dialogue, held in India on 19 December, coincided with the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) hosted by Pakistan. However, in a show of increased coherence with India on regional challenges, the Foreign Ministers of the five Central Asian countries skipped the 17th Session of […]

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Colombo Port City project: Controversial since its inception (Vinitha Revi, ORF)

At first envisioned during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency (2005-15), the Colombo Port City (CPC) project was announced on Xi Jinping’s visit to Sri Lanka in 2014. The CPC is one of China’s flagship projects and a major component of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Spanning 269 hectares of reclaimed land from the sea, the project […]