Voters are gearing up to exercise their franchise and elect new leaders within the next 12 months in all but one (Sri Lanka) of the SAARC nations. India needs to better understand the likely scenarios and challenges and chart a course on how best to deal with the changes, says Nilova Roy Chaudhury
The removal of the terrorist state tag from official Pakistani entities and allowing Islamabad a free run in negotiations on Afghanistan's future has strained India-US relations, says Nilova Roy Chaudhury
As India faces increasing dissonance and even hostility from its neighbours, there is increasing recognition that only government efforts are far from adequate. Assertive people-to-people contacts are essential to supplement and even supplant government efforts to normalise some inter-state relations, says Nilova Roy Chaudhury.
Cricket has been subsumed by the hyperbole surrounding the political summit. Whatever the result, one prime minister will be disappointed, and add to the emotional quotient of the contest, where victory and defeat will not be just a result but also a matter of national pride, says Nilova Roy Chaudhury.
India is looking towards "unlocking processes" and exploring "doables" to revive the stalled dialogue with Pakistan, officials said on Friday, as Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao prepares to meet her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir next week in Thimpu.
It is time India valued this relationship and paid more attention to the Land of the Thunder Dragon, says Nilova Roy Chaudhury.
As the Indian government basked in the afterglow of the visit, with even the principal opposition party, the BJP, praising the US President, it categorical states that there would be no quid pro quo from New Delhi in terms of a positional shift on issues like Iran or democracy in Myanmar, writes Nilova Roy Chaudhury
India, among the few countries to actively engage with the closed military regime that governs Myanmar, will not join the chorus of western voices condemning or criticising the just concluded 'polling' process in that country, in which the main opposition National League for Democracy led by Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was barred from contesting.
Nilova Roy Chaudhury on what Independence Day means to her.
The launch of the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership on Tuesday is significant because the two countries have traditionally been wary of opening up their markets and services to each other.
The US administration had informed the Indian government before it finalized a deal with David Coleman Headley to change his plea to guilty, sources said.
The choice of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak this year clearly indicates that New Delhi wants to raise the level of its political relationship with Seoul to a higher level to match its burgeoning economic ties with South Korea.
What this means is that India's choices will be limited to some French and Russian companies, when it comes to seeking nuclear power reactors, because even major American companies like GE and Westinghouse, which manufacture atomic reactors and have expertise in this area, have tie-ups with Japanese companies like Toshiba, which will not sell such equipment to India. Without Japan's nod, India's choices remain almost as limited as they were before the Indo-US civil deal.
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