India and Bangladesh foreign secretary meeting

India's strategic conundrums and the future of Indo-Bangladesh relations

India’s neighbourhood policy can be tweaked by making conditional every foreign aid, technical assistance, bilateral cooperation and multilateral facilitation. Bangladesh is the largest beneficiary of Indian grants and assistance under the Neighbourhood First Policy. Attaching conditionalities—akin to the Chinese BRI loans— can act as a deterrent to any anti-India adventurism

India a transactional democracy, government beholden to its people

The debate around freebies and promises in a democracy often centers on balancing short-term relief with long-term solutions to societal problems. Often, in these giveaways, economic prudence is a casualty in favour of transactional political advantage.

India Inc. needs to give better compensation to its blue-collar workers

The share of workers in industry has stagnated for far too long. And so have wages. As per a report of WorkIndia, more than 57 percent of blue-collar jobs in India pay less than 20,000 rupees a month.  That is probably justified because of low average productivity.

Forty years after Bhopal gas disaster: Court ruling reveals 'sorry state of affairs'

A strong India is not only about protecting the borders but equally about systems and processes that do not allow companies, particularly giants from foreign shores, to get away with anything less than standards that some of these companies are required to follow in their home countries. Even if the clean up happens, at long last, the other lesson for holding companies to account is yet to be learned.

More on Perspective

Gandhi remains as relevant today as in his time

Thus the mantra of development should be spirituality with high technology. Both these things allow us to reduce our greed for resources and live in harmony with nature – something that Gandhi preached intuitively all his life.

A paean to Mahatma Gandhi and his inclusive philosophy

But for Gandhi, India's political destiny would have been vastly different and her moral stature vastly inferior.

The long road to the ‘Right to Health’ in India

Clearer commitments and standards on access and quality, making oversight and redressal mechanisms more participatory, and allocating adequate financial resources alone would make the right to healthcare to all citizens a reality. 

How India won the race to Siachen

The book is a must-read for all policymakers, diplomats, academics and civil and military personnel who have an interest in Siachen.

India needs to be more open to free trade

In a world slowing down due to a recession, even if our share of trade goes up from 3 to 4 per cent, that would be a huge boost for the Indian economy. And that is eminently feasible only if we are less afraid of open and free trade.

Recalling a 'black chapter' in Punjab's history: Flawed decision-making that proved costly for India

The book, in many ways, is the last word on the tragic and defining years of Punjab’s turmoil that took a large number of lives.

Unique military-industry cooperation boosting Indian Navy’s warship production

There are currently 41 ships and submarines under construction, 39 are being built in Indian shipyards, while in-principle approval is there from the Defence Ministry for 47 ships to be built in India.

Is war an inevitability? How prepared should India be?

The author’s prognosis of a major contestation in the not-so-distant future is situated in the South China Sea. The compelling logic portends China’s proclivity to fight one or possibly two major wars before 2035, either with Taiwan or India before the major US-China war.

Can a 'self-reliant' India edge out Vietnam as an alternative to China for supply chain manufacturing?

Riding the global strategic shift in manufacturing, India is on the cusp of attractive large-scale domestic and foreign investors by incentivizing supply chain manufacturing

A blueprint for a developed India

It would be appropriate to design a comprehensive plan for India to create 10,000 unicorns in the next 25 years and with a few hundred becoming decacorns - enterprises with a valuation of over $10 billion. These enterprises alone could add over $12 trillion to India’s GDP.

South Asian solidarity and support for flood-devastated Pakistan: Calling South Asian nations to come together for flood relief and rehabilitation in the neighbourhood

It is important to note that India has sufficient food stocks to be able to help the affected people in flood-ridden Pakistan. There is an urgent need to ease border restrictions at least to the levels of 2009 to provide easy access to food and relief materials

Checking anti-India activity in Assam and Northeast India

While the Assam government must sustain its present moves against radicalisation, New Delhi must be firm in ensuring that insidious attempts/activities by anti-Indian elements/groups are neutralised effectively in the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir and some other states

The world's fifth largest economy: A reality check

So, the assessment for the fifth largest economy is that this is a slowing phase, as growth drivers need to pick up along with investor sentiment

Developing unity in diversity: A prescription to unite India culturally

Efforts should be made to translate the literary heritage of each state and union territory into each of the national languages of India. This will create a whole new education, employment and business ecosystem in the publishing and media industries, sensitising each Indian to the national and civilisational heritage they inherited and building a sense of unity and common purpose.

Sealing the Ozone Hole: Lessons from the Montreal Protocol

The progress of the Montreal Protocol till now is, however, not without hiccups and bumps