Why, what and what next India’s problems are scaling faster than the attempted solutions. In every country there is a governance gap—between the economy and its governance—but in our country, the problem is severe, acute and worsening. From telecommunications to finance, from education to agriculture, every sector of the economy needs both specialist domain expertise ...
My talk at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi Earlier this month, I presented my analysis of Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenal at CLAWS. A summary of the talk and discussion is up at their website. Excerpt: Pakistan is worried for its nuclear safety and the US view on its nuclear programme. The ...
Which outdated laws should we get rid of, and why? The recent surge of opinions on whether India—a liberal, democratic republic—ought to retain the colonial-era crime of sedition on its rule books is a good opportunity to discuss the general topic. Which of those laws, or crimes under the Indian Penal Code, according to you, ...
Suspected British jihadi must have used a Gujarati Hindu name to avoid suspicion Soon after the British authorities released the names of nine suspected terrorists yesterday, most Indian media reports rushed to tell us [1 2 3 4] without a hint of doubt or uncertainty, that one of them was “of Indian-origin.” Given that there ...
My talk at MEA’s International Conference on Public Diplomacy 2010 Last week I spoke at a conference in New Delhi on how the proliferation of social networks is creating new imagined communities—that I call Netions—and how they are profoundly changing international politics. Video recordings of all the sessions are available at the conference website. Tweet ...
2005 was a different place The Acorn, like many other blogs, routinely calls out those who were wrong. Time to direct the criticism at oneself: this blog got it wrong—in 2005—when I thought that China would see it as in its best interests to stop antagonising India. Here’s a post that I wrote on the ...
December 19th, 2010 — Bangalore The Takshashila Roundtable conclave programme aims to create a shared understanding of India’s national interests that can serve as the intellectual bases for public policy. The programme will bring high-quality, cutting-edge discussions on strategic affairs, national security and governance to cities and towns across India, creating a platform for dynamic ...
Strategic Assessment: A+ Unlike the current US military leadership, the American embassy in New Delhi comes out to be very astute on the bogey of “Cold Start”. In a February 2010 assessment, Ambassador Timothy Roemer, concludes: We think that the November 2008 Pakistan-linked terror attack in Mumbai and its immediate aftermath provide insight into Indian ...
A costly show of brightness The line-up of columnists at Yahoo! India have a special on 2010 Year in Review. In my view, the most important geopolitical development of the year was the shattering of the myth of China’s “peaceful rise”. Here’s my piece: Factional power struggles within the Politburo, bureaucratic turf fights among various ...