Development, The Wealth of The Nation and Equity

There are certain stark realities of India which must form the background against which this paper is written. The first is that in the year 2010-11 as against a GDP growth rate of about 8 percent the growth of employment was 0.3 percent, that is, l....

Electronic Voting – Election Commission Must Do A Rethink

The Election Commission may have won the legal battle vis-à-vis the efficacy of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in view of the recent judgement of the Delhi High Court1, but it has a lot of work to do if it wishes to remove the prevaili....

Working in Real Time

Will the long-awaited National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which will come into existence on March 1, make a difference? Most commentators feel it won’t. They say it is nothing more than affixing a fanciful American label that had fascinated h....

Interaction with Mr. Ribal Al-Assad on ‘Syria and the Arab Spring’

At an interaction with eminent strategic experts held at VIF on Feb 08, 2011, Mr. Ribal al Assad, Chairman of the Organization for Democracy and Freedom in Syria, based in London, and son of the former Syrian leader Rifat al Assad, presently campaign....

An Indian Cyber Security Mechanism: Need of the Hour

Along with outer space, cyber space is slowly but surely emerging as a new frontier of the war. While in a space war, the adversary’s movement can be, to a large extent predicted, with a fairly good degree of certainty and counter measures deploy....

Political Crisis in Maldives and Options for India

In a surprising turn of events, even for many of Maldivians, Mohamad Nasheed, the first democratically-elected head of the state of Maldives, resigned on 07 February 2012 in the wake of anti-government protests and police mutiny. Although Mohamad Wah....

Analysing the Attempted Military Coup in Bangladesh

The civil-military relations in Bangladesh have always been unstable, in a country that has been marred by numerous military coups in the past. The Bangladeshi army has been known for factionalism and politicization of its forces. The recent revelati....

Spot The Difference - Is the Turkish Model a Way out for Pakistan?

To start believing that democracy is taking root in Pakistan because the political confrontation between Prime Minister Gilani and General Kayani has not resulted in a military coup would be premature. There have been moments in Pakistan’s politica....

Interaction on 'Taiwan - Post Election Scenario'

H.E. Mr. Wenchyi Ong, Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre, New Delhi, held an informal interaction on Feb 07, 2012 with a panel of eminent strategic experts at VIF. The interaction was primarily focused on the post election scenario i....

India’s Defence Production and Research – Need for Transformational up-gradation

Early January 2012, the US Defence Department came out with its Strategic Guidance Document, nineteen years after the last was brought out in 1993. Spelling out American “Priorities for 21st Century Defence,” this document delineates the future a....

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