As is customary, official circles in India have hailed External Affairs S M Krishna's four-day visit to Sri Lanka from January 16th to 19th 2012 as 'successful.' Whether or not it was indeed 'successful' demands an examination of what transpired duri....
Is the current institutional conflict in Pakistan an indication that it is increasingly becoming a dysfunctional state, or is it a sign that the political system is now becoming more democratic? The Zardari government is at loggerheads with the judic....
The Government of India has announced that it had decided to provide 4.5 percent reservations for Muslims, to form part of the 27 percent reservation quota for other backward classes. Salman Kurshid, the Law Minister, has stated that this reservatio....
Dr. Bibek Debroy, an eminent economist and member of VIF’s (Vivekananda International Foundation) Executive Council, delivered a perceptive talk, titled ‘India-Slowing Down an Under Heated Economy’ on December 30th, 2011 as part of the Foundati....
(A report of Joint Working Group of Vivekananda International Foundation and RUSI, the UK) The experts from the two think tanks met in New Delhi and London during October and November 2011 to deliberate on peace and stability in Afghanistan....
On Jan 12, 2012, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) held a round table discussion on the issues of governance. The discussion was held against the backdrop of an ongoing VIF project, Vision India 2025. A panel of eminent experts, includin....
The crassly cynical political developments in Pakistan, epitomized by the Memogate scandal, befit a banana republic. The Army is accusing the Head of State of acting against national security by seeking to conspire with the US to curb its power. In a....
China has been regularly coming out with white papers in many areas of its endeavour including defence and space activities. Promoting transparency is claimed to be one of the main goals of such an exercise. But largely such papers hide more and reve....
In India at least since the British came to rule us it is the State which took upon itself the responsibility for providing health care. In 1925 in the undivided province of the Punjab Sir Fazl-i-Husain scheme for health care was initiated. The broa....