In December four expert group discussions and one conference on Taiwan were organized by the Vivekananda International Foundation through webinar on events and topics extending from India’s neighbourhood to West Asia to China. Each of the members of the expert groups brought rich flavor and knowledge on the topic through their varied professional backgrounds (military, diplomacy and academia). This issue contains reports of the West Asia, Pakistan, Indo-Pacific, China Expert Groups and Taiwan Conference report. In addition one article authored by Dr.

In November six expert group discussions were organized by the Vivekananda International Foundation through webinar on events and topics extending from India’s neighbourhood to West Asia to USA. Each of the members of the expert groups brought rich flavour and knowledge on the topic through their varied professional backgrounds (military, diplomacy and academia). This issue contains reports of the U.S, Pakistan, West Asia, and China Expert Groups. In addition two more country specific topics relating to Nepal and Myanmar in India’s neighborhood were discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been described to be the greatest challenge for the world since the Great Depression and the Second World War. No country and its people had anticipated that they would have to deal with a crisis of such a large scale. The coronavirus, which first originated in the city of Wuhan, capital of China’s Hubei province, in December last year has now spread to almost every part of the planet and at the time of writing has infected more than forty million people worldwide and killed more than one million people.

Several reports—news media and research, has highlighted the Chinese government’s engagement in data collection at a massive scale across multiple domains, for various purposes—including enhancing State security/surveillance. For a better and in-depth understanding of the China’s tech-enhanced data collection—domestically and internationally; on 16 October 2020, the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a virtual discussion with Professor Christopher Balding—an Associate Professor at the Fulbright University Vietnam.