Articles

June 20, 2022

Outsourcing of security in the Solomon Islands: A historical  perspective

Among the many geopolitical issues that were transformed or exacerbated in different parts of the world by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing uncertainty, the current events in the South Pacific merits mention. Crises of multiple dimensions have been brewing […]
May 27, 2022

Manila’s Foreign Policy Commitments in the South China Sea Under the New President-elect

The recent Presidential elections in the Philippines presented an interesting case for evaluating the geopolitics prospects in Southeast Asia and beyond. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. won a landslide victory, the kind that his father Ferdinand Marcos Sr. had achieved decades […]
May 11, 2022

Do governance dashboards actually provide any insights?

Dashboards need to carefully select key indicators and ensure that the quality of the data used is high. Otherwise, they will remain as a visualisation exercise and not be able to provide insights expected from them The recent controversy about […]
May 11, 2022

ASEAN leaders are all set for Summit in the US

In a few days from now, President Biden will host the ASEAN leaders in Washington for the ASEAN-US Summit to celebrate 45 years of their ties. The rescheduled Summit (earlier planned for March 28 and 29) is a significant demonstration […]
April 18, 2022

An Indo-Pacific Game of Balance: Convergence of Indo-US Strategic Interests in Countering China

The fourth 2+2 Dialogue Summit, a cornerstone in Indo-US bilateral cooperation, ended in Washington last week, discussing deeper security and defence cooperation, especially in the Indo-Pacific (IP), a point of convergence in interests of the two countries. Indo-Pacific as a […]
April 9, 2022

Indo- Australia Relations: Navigating the Ukraine Crisis as a Foreign Policy Strategy

India-Australia relations accelerated to multisectoral engagements in the recent years with a focus to cement cooperation through tangible commitments. This partnership is crucial in the regional security and stability architecture of the Indo-Pacific as well as to counter China’s overtures […]
March 30, 2022

Why the State Government Needs to Demonopolise Alcohol Retail in Kerala?

The Kerala government has often emphasised its preference and commitment to empower women. The state has been at the forefront of various struggles against socio-cultural and patriarchal bonds that inhibit women’s freedom. Budgetary commitments to strengthen these struggles is a […]
March 27, 2022

Kerala Budget 2022: Missing Links in Building Knowledge-Economy

With the slew of initiatives under the Knowledge Economy Mission, the State through its recent Budget 2022-23, firmly established its aim in transitioning to a knowledge economy – an economy that creates, consumes and disseminates knowledge to enhance growth and […]
March 26, 2022

Prohibition | Bihar’s alcohol ban is not working. It’s time a better policy was in place

Consumption of liquor, even in small quantities, may have dire health consequences but prohibition has never been an effective strategy to reduce consumption. Historically, prohibition has never worked, and was often found to have created negative externalities which in turn […]
March 24, 2022

Kerala Budget 2022: State Big on Being a Provider than a Facilitator

Kerala has consistently topped the charts with a near hundred percent literacy rate among all Indian States. Even with this favourable statistic, the standards of teaching, quality of education, absence of academy-industry-linkages, etc. have been concerns to address in the […]
March 24, 2022

Bigger Concerns of Big Government

The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered many economies towards ‘Big Government’, triggering a populist surge with large expenditure and borrowing, coupled with unprecedented power to meet contingencies. With Kerala, this has been a decadal trend regardless of the political parties coming […]
March 22, 2022

What should prevail instead of K-Rail?

The debate on the utility and feasibility of K-Rail continues in Kerala. The arguments range from the environmental to the geographical divide for those who do not favour the proposed project, whereas the supporters of the project pitch for the […]
March 18, 2022

Palliative care for the future

In the middle of the COVID-induced global landscape of death, on 31 January 2022, the ‘Report of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death’ put forth the need for reassessing the future of palliative and end of life care.[1] […]
March 14, 2022

National Maritime Security Coordinator’s tasks are clearly cut out

It took nearly a decade and half for India to appoint a National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC). Vice Admiral Ashok Kumar, formerly the Vice Chief of the Indian Navy, has now formally taken over the newly created position and would […]
March 9, 2022

The Goan brand of precarity – a closer look at unstable constituencies

By: Devahuti Sarkar Goan Legislative Assembly elections have been termed as the “politics of shifting sand” because of its history of numerous defections, changing alliances, and last-minute uncertainties among voters. Despite being a small state with merely 40 constituencies, it […]