Uttam Kumar Sinha

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s opinion piece ‘India, Nepal must build a regional energy network’ has been published in Hindustan Times on 05 September 2026. The critical question is how to transform India-Nepal interdependence into greater economic value and resilience, writes Dr Sinha. Read Complete Article [+] Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way reflect the views of MP-IDSA or the Government of India

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha's views on Teesta and Ganga were published in NDTV’s news report ‘Teesta And Ganga: How The Two Rivers Are Key To India-Bangladesh Ties’ on 20 May 2026. Read Complete Article [+]

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s article ‘The Brahmaputra Paradigm: balancing Hegemony and Himalayan Fragility’ was published in India's World, Vol. 2 (5), May 2026. Flowing across borders and fault lines, the Brahmaputra is fast becoming a site of strategic contestation. China’s planned super dam in Tibet promises clean energy, but raises deeper questions about control, risk, and downstream vulnerability. As infrastructure reshapes both hydrology and geopolitics, one question lingers: Is this development, or dominance by design?, writes Dr Sinha. Read Complete Article [+] Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way reflect the views of MP-IDSA or the Government of India.

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha's opinion piece on National Technology Day, ‘Pokhran II: When India claimed Its strategic voice’, has been published in ‘The Pioneer’, on 11 May 2026. The defining technologies of the twenty-first century such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and space systems may seem far removed from nuclear weapons, but the underlying logic remains unchanged, says Dr Sinha. Read Complete Article [+] Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way reflect the views of MP-IDSA or the Government of India.

On September 19, 1960, in Karachi, the bustling port city and economic hub of Pakistan, two political leaders and a distinguished international banker convened to sign a document that would define the political and hydrological landscape of the Indian subcontinent. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s Prime Minister; Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s military ruler; and William Illif, Vice President of the World Bank, affixed their signatures to what became the Indus Waters Treaty. The World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) was no mere bystander; it was the architect behind the scenes, lending its institutional weight to broker a deal that neither nation could have achieved alone.

• Uttam Kumar Sinha |
• September-October 2025 |
• Strategic Analysis

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s opinion piece 'Containment today; regime change tomorrow? Lessons from history' has been published in ‘The Pioneer’ on 02 March 2026. As US-Israel recalibrates its Iran policy in the wake of air strikes, it would do well to heed the hard lessons of the past century. History does not guarantee that regime change will fail. But it strongly suggests that the costs, intended and unintended, are almost always higher than initially assumed, writes Dr Sinha. Read Complete Article [+] Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way reflect the views of MP-IDSA or the Government of India.

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s Op-ed 'Pak Indus playbook at UN. India's moment to respond' was published in ‘The Pioneer’ on 19 February 2026. Nearly three quarters of a century after Zafrullah first raised water in the Security Council, and after Bhutto cast it as aggression, Pakistan is repeating the same script in updated language. India now needs a diplomatic script of its own, one that recognises this continuity and answers it with clarity, context, and confidence, says Dr Sinha. Read Complete Article [+] Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way reflect the views of MP-IDSA or the Government of India.

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s article ‘At the UN, India must remain firm and unsentimental about the Indus Waters Treaty’ has been published ‘The Indian Express’ on 17 February 2026. For more than a decade, Pakistan has systematically used the treaty’s dispute resolution mechanisms not as instruments of clarification, but as tools of obstruction, writes Dr Sinha. Read Complete Article [+]

Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s opinion piece ‘Atal Bihari Vajpayee at 101: The making of a Parliamentarian’ was published in ‘The Pioneer’ on 25 December 2025.

Revisiting Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s early parliamentary years offers instructive insights. Long before he became a consensual prime minister, he was shaped by debate, dissent, and dialogue. At a time when Parliament often appears diminished, his example affirms an enduring truth. Democracy is strengthened not by power alone, but by persuasion exercised through words, writes Dr Sinha.

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Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Dr Uttam Sinha’s Op-ed 'Between Washington and Moscow, India chooses itself' has been published in ‘The Pioneer’ on 04 December 2025. The India-Russia strategic partnership signals something larger than the renewal of an old friendship; it tells the world that New Delhi will shape its foreign policy by its own interests, not by inherited loyalties, ideological nostalgia or external pressure, says Dr Sinha. Read Complete Article [+] Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way reflect the views of MP-IDSA or the Government of India.