Pushpita Das

State governments have to be coaxed and cajoled into actively participating and cooperating with the Centre in the national endeavour to secure India’s coasts.

• Pushpita Das |
• November 26, 2009 |
• IDSA Comments

A number of Chinese border intrusions across the Line of Actual Control have been reported in recent months. One such event near Mount Gya in the Chumar sector of Ladakh saw Chinese troops intruding 1.5 kilometres inside Indian territory and writing “China” on the rocks with red paint. The intrusion was first noticed by an Indian patrol team on July 31, 2009. An earlier incident of Chinese intrusion in this area reportedly took place on June 21st, when two Chinese M1 helicopters violated the Indian airspace and air dropped canned food at Chumar.

• Pushpita Das |
• September 10, 2009 |
• IDSA Comments

Though tensions between India and Nepal over a few disputed pockets along the border have persisted for more than three decades, the first half of 2009 witnessed an increase in the frequency of border disputes. An obvious fallout of the disputes was the drumming up of anti-India feelings in Nepal and tension in bilateral relations.

• Pushpita Das |
• August 31, 2009 |
• IDSA Comments

On January 1, 2009 the National Investigative Agency Bill became a law. It provides for setting up a special agency at the national level “to investigate and prosecute offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India, security of State, friendly relations with foreign States and offences under Acts enacted to implement international treaties, agreements, conventions and resolutions of the United Nations, its agencies and other international organisations and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto”.

• Pushpita Das |
• January 12, 2009 |
• IDSA Comments

The Northeast, strategically important yet economically underdeveloped, has been witnessing spurts of road building activities since independence. The need to establish connection with the rest of India following partition, the Chinese aggression, economic development, and trans-border connectivity are some of the main drivers which have been impelling the central government to construct roads in the region since independence.

• Pushpita Das |
• January 2009 |
• Strategic Analysis

• Namrata Goswami, Pushpita Das |
• 2008 |
• Book

Investigations into the Mumbai attacks have revealed that the terrorists came in from the sea. It has been reported that in the course of their journey from Karachi they had hijacked an Indian trawler named Kuber with a Porbandar registration in the high seas off the Coast of Gujarat. The trawler, fitted with the latest communication and navigation equipment including a Global Positioning system (GPS), Very High Radio Frequency (VHF) sets, etc., was found abandoned nearly four nautical miles off Cuffe Parade in south Mumbai.

• Pushpita Das |
• December 05, 2008 |
• IDSA Comments

The Indo-Nepal border is an open border, which has facilitated close social, cultural, and economic exchanges and led to a special relationship between the two countries. However, in recent times, the increasing misuse of the borders by terrorists, political activists, anti-social elements, etc. has led to the demand for the closure of the border from the Indian side. The paper posits that a closed border is not beneficial for both the countries as the social and political costs involved in such a border are immense.

• Pushpita Das |
• September 2008 |
• Strategic Analysis

• Pushpita Das |
• September 2008 |
• Strategic Analysis

At a time when the India-China border dispute is hogging the limelight and causing unease in the Indian establishment, many festering inter-state border disputes in the Northeast that are sowing seeds of discord seem to elude the attention of policymakers at the Centre. The issue of inter-state border disputes came to the fore recently, when tensions erupted along the Assam-Meghalaya border following the Assam government’s attempt to lay a foundation stone for a primary health sub-centre at Langpih, a border village claimed by both Assam and Meghalaya.

• Pushpita Das |
• June 12, 2008 |
• IDSA Comments