Comment & Briefs

While decades of counterinsurgency operations and peace processes have taken the sting out of the region’s major insurgencies, collaboration between groups continues to pose security challenges, particularly in the exploitable border areas adjacent to the upper Sagaing Region of Northwest Myanmar.

While the willingness of the Maduro regime to silence the opposition is cause for concern, far more worrying is the prospect of the new Constituent Assembly rewriting the Constitution to eliminate the last vestiges of democratic checks and balances.

It will take some time before the PLA can claim to be a modern military, at par with Western armies, capable of undertaking extended global missions. But the PLA is poised for a “Giant Leap”, and that is bound to dramatically change the ‘balance of power’ dynamics.

This special feature explores the mechanics and attributes which have led to the steep rise in the popularity of cryptocurrencies, delves into the risks they pose to the user and the state, and evaluates the opportunities, risks and policy options for India.

Foreign collaborations optimised for profit, risk-sharing and a common goal of achieving technological superiority could well enable India to break into the global market in select areas.

Achieving the intended outcomes of the 13th five-year defence plan is critically dependent on the ability of the Ministry of Finance to increase the defence budget by at least 100 per cent from next year onward.

Maximum autonomy may be accorded in ethnic, cultural and developmental realms to autonomous councils for all Naga areas in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and even Assam, through suitable amendment to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

While the GCC crisis seems to be de-escalating, there is no end in sight as yet.

The moot point is whether member countries are clear about the EU’s economic dysfunctions and the degree of economic unification they desire for surmounting them.

Israel’s Labour party has been going through turmoil since losing monopoly over power in 1977 and is unable to regain its erstwhile pre-eminence and even relevance.