Comment & Briefs

The election commission has started making necessary preparations and the political parties are already out on the hustings. But the road to elections is not without hitches.

China maintains a twin track relationship with most countries. While its political differences are handled diplomatically it has continued to engage such nations economically.

The four upayas are not well studied by scholars and are often used in a casual manner, particularly misquoting Kautilya. It is important to locate the text of traditional indigenous knowledge in their correct context.

The temporary abeyance of ‘services’ as a valid means of discharging the offset obligation could prove to be exasperating for the foreign vendors and the prospective IOPs.

Just as Mao had made the historic declaration that the Chinese people have ‘stood up,’ Xi now wants the world to acknowledge that China as a great power has ‘arrived.’

Any cyber architecture can be viewed as a doubled edged sword – either ignore it and be exposed or use it to one’s advantage. Cyber espionage is here to stay.

The Cyprus crisis has highlighted the existing geopolitical fissures between Russia and the European Union and raised the proverbial ‘east vs. west’ conundrum. President’s Putin’s Eurasian Economic Union project and Russia’s growing engagement with countries of Asia indicate the turning of wheels.

The assertions of the new Pakistan government of Nawaz Sharif to de-radicalise the society by engaging the Radical Islamists (RIs) in a dialogue and accommodation with them in reality means, to many observers, a meek surrender to Islamic radicalism of Deobandi variety.

After years of political and economic isolation, Myanmar is opening up to investment particularly in the energy sector. There are however, accompanying uncertainties and risks.

The presidential elections come at a time when Iran is reeling under the pressure of sanctions and having been isolated in the region with the rise of Sunni Islamism.