'Chinese dominance reduces India's influence in South and Southeast Asia and erodes its status globally.' 'For a country striving to create a multipolar Asia, it would be a serious setback,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Ambitious diplomats continue to be attracted to politics but do they make good politicians, asks Jyoti Malhotra
What Rajya Sabha can do for the states, no other House can do, the Prime Minister said.
The PM added that developing the infrastructure in the north-east region is being given top priority by the government.
'Lingering border disputes and fierce geostrategic competition in South Asia between China and India are likely to temper any cooperation Beijing might hope to achieve with New Delhi in the SCO,' says P K Vasudeva.
'Fighting Meira Kumar is not a daunting task at all. I hope to give her a very tough fight... Bihar is one state where my Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has challenged Narendra Modi's candidature. As a challenge he should have contested from Bihar and proved Nitish Kumar wrong,' says Dr K P Ramaiah, an IAS officer till a few months ago, now fighting his first election from Sasaram, Bihar.
Modi's tweets talk about the celebration of democracy and also puts emphasis on the education of girls, says Mayank Mishra
'The Modi government thinks that once the CAA protests are over, they will bring in the NPR that will help to get the NRC.'
'While the meeting on December 6th was perfectly legal, was it ethical?' asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'Prime Minister Modi is from Gujarat and so does not understand the importance of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to Punjabis,' says the British MP fighting for an apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
'Would you as the PM go through all the elaborate trouble of an interview, face all the tough questions from dogged journalists, who know what they are talking about, and yet end up with a result where more people are talking about the journalist than you?' 'It begs the question: Why go with an amateur when you can draft a professional?' 'Hence, I suspect, an adman.' 'In other words, let's cut to the chase: Thanda matlab Coca Cola!' notes Udit Misra.
'Crafting a coherent, transparent and consistent policy vis-a-vis our neighbours, leave alone the rest of the world, is unlikely to be high on the priority list of the new Indian government, which will be sworn in before June,' says Ramananda Sengupta.
'The Indian Army served with honour and distinction in France and Flanders, East Africa, Gallipoli, Aden, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Transcaspia, Persia and even China.' 'The sacrifice of India's soldiers was consigned to the dustbin of history in the post-colonial world.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that India will contribute an additional battalion of 850 troops for United Nations peacekeeping operations, but also raised concern that troop contributing countries have no role in decision-making.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will focus on extended neighbourhood, particularly the ASEAN and Central Asian regions, says Archis Mohan
Gwadar port India is hardly taking any note of developments in Balochistan. To counter and restrict China influence there, India needs to aggressively move forward on further consolidating its friendly relationship with Iran and Afghanistan, says Abhay Jere.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf speaks to Haji Syed Salman Chisti, Gaddi Nashi, Dargah Ajmer Sharif, the hereditary custodian of the dargah and the 26th generation descendant of Khwaja Garib Nawaz (as the Pir is known) to understand the meaning and significance of the gesture.
'Someone is needed to restore India back to Indians. So you decided you won't vote for Modi. But then, who will you vote for? List your leaders from the north to south and east to west, and ask your heart and mind, will any one of them be able to deliver and bring back India from the darkness it has fallen into?' asks Rajya Sabha MP Tarun Vijay.
Four major political takeaways from Narendra Modi's much-anticipated trip to China
Of the nearly 4.6 crore people living as slaves globally, two-thirds, or 3.04 crore, are in the Asia-Pacific region, with the highest number in India.
'Modi's victory is his own victory. Now what he has done thereafter, it seems to me, leads us to believe that he was a bit too prolific with his promises.' 'One achievement of Modi's I will praise is that he has put the fear of God among his ministers and officials.' 'Indira Gandhi's sentiment of controlling everything, centralising power in to her hands is the quality that persists in Modi' Veteran journalist Inder Malhotra casts his experienced gaze on one year of the Modi Sarkar.
The UPA Government is trying to push through the second wave of airport privatisation before the elections and the controversial elements of this process threaten to harm the sector.
Both have made factory jobs the centre of their economic agendas. Kanika Datta explains the practical limits to their ambitions.
'Despite Modi's high-flown rhetoric about good-neighbourly relationships in South Asia, he lacks a road map how to proceed -- be it with Bangladesh or with Sri Lanka and Pakistan... But a deeper question arises here: Did he duck on his own accord or under the diktat from the RSS, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Obama highlighted that in recent years, the US has put in place intensive screening and security checks to take in refugees as well as ensure the nation's security.
Nearly two million people die from mosquito-borne diseases every year. What are we doing about it?
The Centre should focus on achieving peace either through long-term ceasefire agreements or sustained military operations. Military operations which are just intermittent responses to particular incidents won't lead anywhere, says Devanik Saha.
Two years of Modi's foreign policy can be best remembered for its flip-flops on Pakistan and the PM's blockbuster speeches to delirious non-resident communities and the grand receptions he has received.
Mudslinging and verbal attacks will definitely surge once the poll dates are announced, but as with any state, there are some crucial issues which will play a significant role in influencing voters in Assam too, says Devanik Saha.
The success story of Adani's Mundra Port in Gujarat, in terms of efficiency, technology and management, should be replicated at Vizhinjam to ensure that this ambitious project does not fail, say Shehzad Poonawalla and Riya Sinha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's success at courting Indians abroad have been as much a result of his old contacts as efforts by a dedicated arm of the BJP abroad. Archis Mohan reports
How much money the Modi government has already spent and is going to spend on all those foreign trips, muses Sunita Iyer
Assembly elections in Assam used to be a quiet affair and people outside the state would take little interest in the outcome. This time, even in faraway Delhi, people are keeping tabs on political developments in Assam.
A profile of Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot.
Indians must remember that Pakistanis hate losing to India, at war or in cricket, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'In her insecurity, she destroyed the institutions of democracy.' 'She packed Parliament with her supporters with loyalty being more important than ability; she superseded judges; she corrupted the civil service.' 'She knew how to use people against each other and was quite a master of that.' 'She would do this with calculated skill and in the bargain cause enmity between brothers, split up families.'
Imagine being a part of a country, but being discriminated against by the majority community and atrocities being committed against you by the state. This is the deplorable conditions that the Rohingyas of Myanmar live in where they are cut off from their livelihoods and sources of income, unable to access markets, hospitals and schools, and have little or no access to relief aid. In order to understand the situation and the genesis of the tragedy unfolding, Rediff.com's Archana Masih speaks to Ambassador Vijay Nambiar, the United Nations' Chef de Cabinet (Chief of Staff), who had served a long stint with the UN in New York on the issue.
'The intrusion in Chumar, during and beyond the Chinese president's visit, is unprecedented and has qualitatively changed the tone of the India-China relationship,' says Jayadeva Ranade, a member of the National Security Advisory Board.
'A new doctrine now needs to be evolved for a new situation, and the army will do it.' 'You won't see more Kashmiris driven in front of army columns.' 'Nor will the army massacre hundreds, Dyer style,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The perception that 'winnability' is based on gender is very strong, even though, if you break up the electoral success rate by sexes, the women who do win elections are proportionally far more successful than the men who win, given the huge number of men they have to beat.
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