Articles

February 22, 2020

India’s Defence Production: Decades of Lost Opportunities (Part–2)

This part of the article looks at the current arms import-export scenario in India to identify the major thrust areas. It also sheds light on the initiatives taken by the Government of India to create a conducive environment for defence […]
February 18, 2020

AAP’s victory makes a case for a strong city-state in India

The resounding victory of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi polls has engendered various debates among political circles as well as the citizenry. While the opposition parties have to learn a lot from the way the Arvind Kejriwal-led […]
February 15, 2020

India needs a relook at the restrictive regulatory environment for education

Last week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an allocation of Rs 99,300 crore for the education sector in her presentation of the Union Budget for the upcoming financial year 2020-2021 – a 5% increase from the last financial year. Of […]
February 14, 2020

Can Good Governance Fetch better Ranking for Erode City?

The article discusses different factors that have led to the poor performance ranking of Erode City at the national level on different parameters assessed over the past years and puts forward a few suggestions for improvement. Poor Ranking of Erode […]
February 14, 2020

Is the bullet train a priority?

The bullet trains and the high-speed trains are in the news for the last few weeks. After taking charge as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray announced that the bullet train project worth Rs 1 lakh-crore investment, connecting Ahmedabad […]
February 12, 2020

A balanced budget that spins on KIIFB axis

Preparing a budget that caters to the interests of all sections of people at the time of economic slowdown is difficult, especially when there is fiscal stress on the state’s economy. As one can find neither cooperative federalism nor federalism […]
February 12, 2020

India’s Defence Production: Decades of Lost Opportunities (Part – 1)

This part of the article, written by Cdr Jaikrishnan Nair, looks at various challenges faced by the defence manufacturing sector in India and the lost opportunities during the past few decades. Introduction Defence production in India has been sub-optimal for […]
February 11, 2020

European Parliament Resolution on Citizenship (Amendment) Act

The article looks at the events that led to the European Parliament deferring a vote on the resolution critical of India’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). It also discusses how India’s political and diplomatic interventions in various European capitals managed to […]
February 10, 2020

India’s plan to develop smart cities in PPP mode needs more clarity

In the recent Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government is proposing to develop five new smart cities in collaboration with states in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. But, there is a question mark on the ‘public’ involvement […]
February 10, 2020

US–Iran Conflict: A ‘Pandora’s Box’

With the assassination of Iran’s top military general by the Americans, the possibility of escalation in Iran-US tensions looms large. The uncertainty over how things will turn around has led to apprehensions of possible involvement of Israel, Saudi Arabia and […]
February 3, 2020

Repair at the cost of India’s fiscal health?

Budget 2020, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, attempted to set an optimistic tone for reversing the economic slowdown. It offered something for everyone. However, the Budget had misaligned economic priorities where supply-side was yet again given a push. The […]
February 3, 2020

Budget 2020 ticked infra boxes, but missed some too

Neethu Nair and Aiswarya Krishnan The Union finance minister in her Budget speech reiterated the government’s commitment to Rs 103 lakh-crore of investment for the infrastructure sector, as underlined in the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Earlier, the Economic Survey 2019-20 […]
January 31, 2020

Govt must not lower its guard on infrastructure

Infrastructure development has been a major focus of the incumbent government. This sentiment was reflected in the Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in July 2019 when she announced investment worth Rs 100 lakh-crore for the sector for five […]
January 30, 2020

A Three-Way Struggle for the Capital

Can the Congress party revive its lost fortunes in the upcoming Delhi Assembly election? Or is the fight just between the AAP and BJP ? The article sheds light on the various possibilities and strategies adopted by the political parties […]
January 29, 2020

Afghan Peace Process Conundrum PART-II

Following the US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, a window of opportunity appears to have opened for a myriad of state actors to intervene in the Afghan Peace Process in the past several months. This […]