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Fortnightly Notes from the South Asian Sub-Continent

Bangladesh: No justice in extrajudicial killing
After a murder accused was killed in an encounter with the police earlier this month, Bangladesh’s apex court made clear that it did not approve of such ‘extrajudicial’ killings. The j....

New Breed of Kashmiri Terrorists

The current phase of militancy in Kashmir has a very strong ideological basis. It is completely different from what it was in the early 1990s. Islamist theology originating from Wahabism and Maududism provides the requisite ideological input to the c....

Pakistan Federal Budget 2019-20 - Unrealistic Ambitions

Pakistan’s Federal Budget was unveiled on June 11, 2019, under the looming shadow of International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditionalities seeking to curb the consistently misused fiscal space as well as the gloomy growth projection of 2.4 percent....

Trump’s visit to the DMZ: More Than Just Photo Optics?

Trump, in his impromptu diplomatic style, surprised the whole world when he tweeted an invitation to Kim to meet him at the Korean De-Militarized Zone (DMZ). The fact that Trump and Kim met on North Korean soil is a historic development. They met at ....

More Needs to be Done to Revitalise Chabahar Project

The latest Govt. of India`s regular budget of 2019-20, has a meagre allocation of Rs. 45 crore for the development and operationalising of Chahbahar Port infrastructure under the Ministry of External Affairs line of credit to finance this programme, ....

ASEAN Adopts Outlook for Indo-Pacific 2019: Balances Aspirations and Affirms Indonesia’s Leadership

ASEAN took a landmark decision to adopt the ASEAN Outlook on Indo-Pacific on June 22, 2019 after more than a year of deliberations. Located centrally, in one of the most dynamic regions of the world today, ASEAN sees Southeast Asia as the conduit and....

An India-US Trade War Now?

The United States, under President Trump, has been at loggerheads with a long list of countries on trade related issues. This includes China, Canada, Mexico and India. The European Union has also suffered. In fact, the Trump administration has used t....

Presidential Elections in Kazakhstan: A Wave of Change or Continuation of Nazarbayev’s Era?

Kazakhstan’s deteriorating socio-economic situation and an increasing gap in living standards have led to the protests and demonstrations. As some reports have suggested, the Soviet era founder President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has resig....

Xi’s visit to North Korea: what did it achieve?

The visit by Xi Jinping to North Korea on June 20-21, 2019 is significant because a Chinese President reached Pyongyang after 14 years. This year also marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the neighbours. Xi made the t....

Changing Paradigm in India-Bhutan Relations

Bhutan is an important neighbour and recently appointed India’s External Minister S. Jaishankar chose to visit Bhutan for two days (7th-8th June) as his maiden bilateral visit. This visit facilitated the tradition of regular visits and exchange of ....

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