India’s states play an outsized role in public spending accounting for nearly +/- 60% of total government expenditure. However, their fiscal health varies greatly across pan India. As someone closely observing both macroeconomic trends and grassroots governance models, I notice a growing divide between states that follow prudent fiscal practices and those still trapped in populist spending cycles.
When democracies embrace the traits of war economies and view peace as a sign of weakness, we need to question not about those who benefit from war, but rather about those who continue to engage in it. Not only does it include safety, but it also includes power, contracts, careers, and control.
The age of overt, high-visibility strikes is diminishing in returns. Covert operations, cyber infiltration, and disrupting terror logistics silently deliver greater impact at a lower political cost. India needs to establish a dedicated Psychological and Information Warfare Command, rather than relying solely on MEA press briefings or tweets from leaders.
BRICS has the potential—and perhaps the will. Ahead of COP30, it should convene a high-level “Redefining Climate Summit” with other like-minded nations invited to the BRICS table. Let the world know: BRICS can indeed build the force to break the climate blockade. The clock is not ticking anymore. It’s screaming.
An alternate strategy for overcoming the North-South divide and altering power dynamics is South-South collaboration. South-South collaboration disproves the idea that knowledge and progress only travel from North to South, giving developing nations the chance to establish their autonomy and create their own narratives.
According to a UN report, three months after the quake in Nepal at least 245 children had been preyed upon by traffickers and that was just the “tip of a growing iceberg”
A trilateral energy sales and purchase agreement between Bangladesh, Nepal, and India are required for any Dhaka-Kathmandu power transaction to be implemented because Bangladesh and Nepal do not have a direct land link.
Pakistan’s nuclear tests of 28 May 1998 not only demonstrated the resolve of the Pakistani nation to safeguard the country's territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty but also the desire to preserve strategic balance in South Asia.
India should make concerted efforts to corner a bigger role in the governance of global multilateral bodies and should get involved in resolving global conflicts and issues. It should take its success to the world, contributing to capacity building wherever required, especially in Africa.
Bhutan is regarded as ‘the kingdom of happiness’ and also has the reputation of being the first to become the one and only carbon-negative country in the world. The international community sees Bhutan as a peaceful and traditional country, and that has helped its policymakers formulate a foreign policy that maintains its unique status in the world order.
The danger is that the cracks in the Constitution are widening. The need of the hour is to find the true meaning of religion. A divisive agenda no matter how strong, will end up dividing the nation and enhancing a culture of division.
Since Pakistan’s birth over 75 years ago, it is the ‘establishment’ that has largely determined who gets political power and when to take it away. Out-of-favour politicians get disqualified from political office, imprisoned, or exiled. Some have been killed.
The research strengths of Australian universities in areas such as cyber security, quantum computing, space technology, robotics and AI, critical technologies, public health, water, waste utilization, teacher training, low-cost housing, and solar power, to name a few, are all initiatives and aspirations that PM Modi has identified for India and which Australian universities are well-placed to collaborate on.
From the secular Bharat Jodo Yatra to the Karnataka elections, Indian civil society groups have played an important role. One does look forward to civil society groups committed to the rights of weaker sections of society playing a similar role in forthcoming elections to ensure that the country comes back to the path and idea of India envisaged by the freedom movement and the Constitution of India.
The warning is not only coming with unusual certainty but there is a clearer message that the world is failing in its pursuit to meet the Paris Climate Agreement.
Cyclone Mocha only reminds us of the urgency of India-Bangladesh-Myanmar-Thailand-China-Sri Lanka cyclone management cooperation. As a start, Myanmar-Bangladesh-India trilateral cooperation is a must in this regard.
After Karnataka, however, the BJP may be wary of going down that path when the world will be watching Modi’s forthcoming steps in the run-up to the 2024 general election
The lesson one can draw from 25 years of nuclear South Asia is that nuclear weapons are guarantors of stability at the highest or strategic levels, but they are certainly not the panacea to the security challenges faced by a nation, especially at the sub-conventional level. The case of the India-Pakistan conflict validates this point
Herein lies the paradox of Karnataka. The rest of educated India and the world knows the state mostly through the stories of its tech leaders and the vibrancy of Bengaluru, which has sometimes been voted as the top city to work for many and certainly for IT professionals. On the other hand, the state of Karnataka has become a tinderbox of communal strife.
