… strong legal measures, including a law on radicalization and terror funding are the need of the hour to clearly state that attempts to challenge India’s unity and integrity will be firmly dealt with ... red-lines need to be drawn for the media, intellectuals, political, social and civil rights activists, advocacy groups and academics ...
On 30 September 2022, VIF organized the release and discussion on Snakes in the Ganga: Breaking India 2.0, a book authored by Shri. Rajiv Malhotra and Shri. Vijaya Viswanathan. Apart from the authors, the panel consisted of Lt. Gen. Ravi Sawhney, Chair of the session and Shri. Kanwal Sibal, Former Ambassador and Former Secretary, GOI. The occasion was also graced by Shri. Arif Mohammad Khan, Hon’ble Governor of Kerala as the Chief Guest.
Ranjit Singh was the most adventurous, audacious, and sagacious ruler of the Indian subcontinent since Chandragupta Maurya. Like the Kohinoor he wore, he was a gem among rulers. He rose like a bright and brief firmament when India became a part of the global colonial geopolitics. He abolished the death sentence and created a new empire based on principles of statecraft. In the 1770s, the Punjab was sixty-eight pieces of a wild and prosperous land inhabited by a brutal and querulous people making a living by plunder even as invasion after invasion from the north-west frontier trampled it.
....he established the ‘Provisional Government of India’ (Hakumat-e-Mokhtari-i-Hind) in Bagh-e-Babur in Kabul on December 1, 1915 … Pratap became the President for Life or until the Government was handed over to Congress … Maulana Barkatullah Khan as the Prime Minister and Obeidullah Sindhi as the Home Minister, Champak Raman Pillai as the Foreign Minister and Maulana Bashir as the War Minister …
On the 11th of October 2021, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) as part of its Vimarsh Dialogue series organised a presentation by Shri Jayant Misra, IRS (Retd) and former Chairman of the Settlement Commission, on India’s Drug Challenge. Dr Arvind Gupta, Director VIF, welcomed the speaker and delivered his opening remarks. The Director mentioned a recent report by the National Drugs Dependence Treatment Centre at AIIMS, in which the study showed that 2.8% of India's population are frequent cannabis users, and one crore of the population are sedative users.
… time and national resources deployed for mentoring and guiding the present generation of youth through the revamped NCC’s stables will definitely start yielding much larger outcomes …
The book traces the history of Indus basin from Alexander’s campaign to Muhammad bin Qasim crossing the Indus River and laying the foundation of Muslim rule in India. It follows up providing the Mughal rulers perspective on hydrology and water use, and the British ‘Great Game’ on the Indus basin up to the partition of Indian subcontinent in 1947 and finally the signing of Indus Waters Treaty in 1960.
Neither development without self-pride nor self-pride without development are desirable. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat or a self-reliant India on 12 May 2020 goes beyond mere economic self-reliance.
On 20th August 2021, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organized a talk by Shri V. Srinivas, Additional Secretary to Government of India, the DAPRG and Director General, National Centre for Good Governance on Administrative Reforms: Challenges and Opportunities. Dr Arvind Gupta, Director VIF, welcomed Shri V. Srinivas and delivered his opening remarks. He stressed on the need for administrative reforms, their implementation and the requirement of a new governance module in India. He also recalled Sardar Patel’s efforts that laid the foundation of robust governance.
In the recent past, several reports have come out questioning the functioning of the Indian democracy. Responding to these reports, the Indian Foreign Ministry said that India had “robust institutions and well established democratic practices” and did not “need sermons especially from those who cannot get their basics right.” Ministry further stated that the political judgments of the report were “inaccurate and distorted”. These attempts of tarnishing India’s reputation as an emerging world leader are nothing but propaganda.