Saturday, March 11, 2017

COLUMN

COLUMN

For Modi, A Tip On Aiming For The Nobel Prize


While the country is obsessing over tomorrow's (11th March) election outcome in UP and four other states, I have been away in distant Colombia discovering that there is perhaps no other country in the world as relevant to our major internal... More

Eco Gamechanger


Founded in 1955 by Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Great Britain and Iran, the Baghdad Pact was a pro-Western defensive organisation meant primarily to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union in the Middle East. The US which had husbanded the creation of... More

SOUTHERN EYE: Modi’s move backfires in Assam


(Exclusive): Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to grant citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh even those came after 1971 has backfired in Assam. The amendment to the Citizenship Bill introduced by India's ruling BJP aims at granting citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh, Pakistan... More

Myanmar’s Ports to Link SE Asia, South Asia and the Middle...


(Exclusive): China and Thailand have long yearned to find faster and more efficient access to the markets of South East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and even as far as Europe. Over the last decade feasibility studies and the construction... More

Statistics is growth: let’s eat statistics


The Central Statistics Organisation (CSO) is an honourable institution. Dr Pronab Sen, the former chief statistician, and Dr T C A Anant, the current chief statistician, are honourable men. Ordinarily, one should have faith in them. I do. However, what should one... More

The Iran-India bromance lacks ‘enough’ strategic flavor


(Exclusive): Over the past few months, particularly in the post-sanctions era, Iran has emerged as one of the biggest suppliers of oil to India, behind only Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Selling about 19.8 million tonne crude oil to India in the... More

India’s High Stakes in Kazakhstan’s Leadership Transition


(Exclusive):In September 2016, India’s long-standing effort to deepen its strategic relations with Kazakhstan experienced an important breakthrough with an Indian-Kazakhstan joint military exercise conducted on Kazakh soil. The energy-rich regional giant is the key to India’s flagging “Connect Central Asia” policy... More

SOUTHERN EYE: Payback Time For India


(Exclusive): The Mughals and the British realized it would never be easy to manage Bengalis – much as the Afghans. Fiercely independent, argumentative, proud of their own language and culture, and combative if not warlike, the Bengalis challenged the might of... More

National Flag Versus False-Flags


A bomb blast in May 2002 targetting the French naval technicians in a bus outside the Sheraton and Pearl Continental Hotels in Karachi where New Zealand’s cricket team was staying caused the Kiwis to terminate their tour. Five years later Benazir... More

Myanmar’s Neighbours And The Peace Process


(Exclusive): China, India and Thailand are all carefully watching Myanmar’s stalled peace process. All these neighbours understand that only a truly genuine peace settlement will guarantee reconciliation, stability and development in the border areas adjacent to these countries. Beijing and Bangkok... More

Russian involvement giving Afghan conflict a new twist


 (Exclusive): With Russia repeatedly hosting conferences on Afghanistan and with the US, under the Trump administration, signaling its intentions to increase the current level of troops in Afghanistan, dynamics of conflict are changing and are likely to leave a strong impact... More

Mehbooba Is Kashmir’s Big Disappointment


The snows are melting. Spring is in the air. But Kashmir's Winter of Discontent is far from over. As for the union  and state governments, they seem to have rejoiced at the Valley being covered "in forgetful snow". (T.S. Eliot, The... More

Operation “Raadul-Fasaad”: The Decisive Battle


Chairing a high-level security meeting in Lahore on Wednesday (22 February) attended by all the Corps Commanders in the Punjab, the COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa announced the launching of Raadul-Fasaad (elimination of violence). Focused in the Punjab this offensive by... More

SOUTHERN EYE: If SAARC has not, will BBIN and BIMSTEC work...


(Exclusive): The boycott of the SAARC Summit at Islamabad last year and hosting of the BRICS-BIMSTEC summit in Goa drove home the failure of regional cooperation in South Asia. India orchestrated the boycott after repeated terror attacks in Kashmir , Bangladesh... More

Myanmar Opts An Asian Pivot


(Exclusive):  Myanmar -- beset with a myriad of internal problems, including a host of border security issues and tensions between the military top brass and the civilian government – is molding an Asia-first foreign policy. In some ways it is reminiscent... More

Speak in our own voice


In mid-January, a week before he resigned as U.S. Ambassador to India, Richard Verma held an unusual dinner at his residence, inviting the Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju as well as the Sikyong, or Leader of the Tibetan ‘Government... More

Pakistan’s terror conundrum: What’s going wrong?


 At least five major terror attacks have taken place in Pakistan in past few days, leaving over one hundred dead and over three hundred injured, provoking Pakistan yet again into military action in FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) against militants who,... More

India’s Trump card


Donald Trump took oath as the 45th US president on January 20, 2017 after defeating Hillary Clinton by quite a thin margin. Trump received attention during his election campaign when he started to reveal his shocking policies. From his announcement to build... More

Coordination Not Confrontation


Promising whatever assistance is required by the civilian govt wherever it is needed in the best national interest, the COAS Gen Javed Qamar Bajwa has supported the govt’s efforts to “mainstream” the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Emphasizing operating within the... More

SOUTHERN EYE:Time to rework Sino-Indian relations


(Exclusive) There can be no ‘Asian Century’ unless China and India patch up differences, harmonise their geo-political and geo-economic visions and come up with a new idiom of diplomacy that junks Western concepts of containment, balance of power and global domination.... More

Who killed Ko Ni? Assassination leaves Myanmar on the verge...


(Exclusive):Many analysts and foreign businessmen fear that recent events in Myanmar have pushed the country to the verge of implosion.The assassination of the prominent Muslim lawyer, KoNi at the Yangon airport has sent shivers through the international residents, who fear further... More

COLUMNS

While the country is obsessing over tomorrow's (11th March) election outcome in UP... More

Founded in 1955 by Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, Great Britain and Iran, the Baghdad... More

(Exclusive): Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to grant citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh... More

(Exclusive): China and Thailand have long yearned to find faster and more efficient... More

EDITOR'S CHOICE

In November 2015, the PM set up a six-member Fata reforms Committee “to... More

AFTER the cataclysmic events of September 2001, a war was declared on ‘terrorism’.... More

This week’s gathering of the Indian Ocean leaders in Jakarta has drawn a... More

Afghans often proudly refer to their country as “the graveyard of empires”. Today,... More

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READERS' VIEWS

This week people in Myanmar were forced to confront the kind of country... More

Myanmar is currently in the throes of a massive humanitarian crisis. Thousands of... More