The landslide victory of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the provincial elections in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has set new records. The BJP broke the opposition Congress’ record of winning 149 seats in 1985 with its tally of 156 in the 182-member state assembly, cornering 52.50 percent of the total votes polled. It […]

As the world observed International Anti-Corruption Day on 9th December, it is a good time to do a stocktaking of India’s efforts in tackling the most entrenched and widely visible phenomenon that devalues governance and erodes the average citizen’s trusts in the state. According to Transparency International (TI), India ranks very high (85 out of 180 countries) in the Asian region. […]

On the return flight from Bali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suitcase contained a special object: the gavel of the G20 President. Set to stay in India for a year, it is the symbol of honour that comes with presiding over the world’s premier forum for global economic cooperation. But it also signifies responsibility and proffers an unprecedented opportunity for India’s […]

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is confronted with an increasing demand to join the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It was adopted in January 2021 by 122 members of the UN General Assembly—a clear majority—and has entered into force after its ratification by 50 member-States of the UN. The number of signatories has since risen to 91. […]

On the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with his other engagements that attracted a lot of attention, met his Italian counterpart, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, for a bilateral discussion. As India took the helm of the group of the world’s most advanced economies for 2023, the Modi-Meloni meeting sealed a continuity of engagement […]

India’s grand old party, the Indian National Congress (INC), has elected a new president. This should not be big news, but it is the first contested election in two decades and only the sixth in INC history. It is also the first time since 1998 that someone not named Gandhi has held the post. But the prospects of this exercise in party democracy reviving the […]

Concerns are looming over the rising recession in the USA and its ripple effects on India. Surging inflation in the USA, leading to successive hikes in interest rates, crippled by the Russia-Ukraine war with no end in sight, disruption in supply chain owing to USA-China trade conflict, is causing jitters in India over its trade and investment relations with the USA. […]

The fourth round of the Moscow format meeting on Afghanistan gets underway on Wednesday in Russia, where India, Russia and Iran are expected to hold a separate meeting on the sideline of the consultations. According to Indian media reports, the special envoys for these three countries will focus on shared concerns their respective countries have. Special Afghan envoys from China, […]

India’s ties with Russia have been attracting a lot of global attention ever since the war in Ukraine commenced earlier this year. First, there was a lot of grumbling in the western capitals about New Delhi’s reluctance to openly condemn Russia’s invasion and questioning of India’s reliability as a potential partner. Gradually, after India’s pushback there emerged a better comprehension […]

While presenting the Budget for 2022-2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman declared that India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will issue a digital rupee, or a central bank digital currency (CBDC), in early 2023. The CBDC has finally come to India with the start of the pilot phase of the digital rupee rollout from 1 November 2022. The […]