On February 9, 2022, a 20-year-old youth, identified as Pranayaranjan Kanhar, was killed when he accidently stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), reportedly planted by Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres at Kiamunda village under Phiringia Police Station limits in the Kandhamal District. On February 8, 2022, Maoists set ablaze two construction vehicles near the Kiamunda village in Kandhamal […]

For India, 2021 was a year of trauma and portent. Alongside the continuing COVID-19 crisis — despite an ostensibly successful vaccination drive — the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) anti-democratic tendencies intensified. A year-long protest by farmers eventually resulted in the government withdrawing a landmark bill to liberalise agricultural trade. State elections heralded the strength of regional parties. Yet despite […]

As the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan grows increasingly dire, Pakistan has informed India that it will allow the transportation of wheat and life-saving medicines from India to Afghanistan through its territory, on the condition that only Afghan trucks are used to carry it. The Taliban regime has praised Pakistan for the move, but will it arrest the decline in India’s […]

Is India Bangladesh’s true friend and well wisher? It is a question of the century. How India and Bangladesh can become a real friend in South Asia? India and Bangladesh can show the world how neighbouring countries can become all-weather friends. Bangladesh-India bilateral relations are a role model in the world in terms of relations among neighboring countries. They are […]

India is naturally concerned at the situation in Afghanistan, says the minister of state for external affairs. He called the situation in Afghanistan a matter of concern for all neighbours, including India and the Central Asian countries. Speaking in Parliament on Friday, V Muraleedharan said this while answering a query about the maiden India-Central Asia Summit hosted by New Delhi […]

In late January, the IMF released its update on the outlook for the world economy. It downgraded its estimate for global growth in 2022 to 4.4 per cent from 4.9 per cent last October. Against this background, India was a striking outlier. It was not just the country with the highest anticipated growth in 2022, 9.0 per cent for India’s […]

India has been a valuable partner of Afghanistan and its people over the decades, says an Afghan diplomat. Ambassador Farid Mamundzay hailed Indo-Afghan friendship while addressing an event in New Delhi on Wednesday. Supported by the India-Afghanistan Foundation, the Gandhi-Bacha Khan week is currently being celebrated. ANI news agency quoted the envoy as commending robust people-to-people contacts between the two […]

On January 5, 2022, a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre was killed in an encounter that took place between the Security Forces (SFs) and Maoists in the Pachrukhia Hill area under the Madanpur Block of Aurangabad District. Superintendent of Police (SP) Kantesh Kumar Mishra disclosed that the Maoists triggered an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and opened fire, targeting SFs […]

Walking down the corridors of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) library in the 1980s, one could barely escape meeting scholars with intellectual acumen moving around. As a novice in foreign affairs, I too had unintended encounters with many of them. The Sapru House (ICWA building) in New Delhi was already known as an international affairs public sphere, with […]

China’s use of economic coercion, grey zone operations in the East and South China Seas, and threats to reunify Taiwan by force are part of a growing plethora of concerns that are linked to Japan, Australia and other like-minded countries adopting defence postures to what China itself has admitted is an explicit effort by China “to shape an ideological environment […]