WORLD
What can the world do with Hamas?
Both EU and Arab League members want to exclude it from administering Gaza if a truce with Israel is reached. Hamas however, remains an ingrained factor in the Palestinian question. Palestinians would turn to Hamas because of feeble Fatah. Hamas may not score over Israel, but it remains a dominant player within Palestine
BOOKS
Book Review: Friends | A realist view of India’s place in the global order
In an admirable academic manner, Chaulia looks at the many definitions and many examples of “middle power”, he rightly concludes that India does not fit into the slot of middle power, that is being a camp follower of the United States like Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea.
BUSINESS
Protests in Ladakh – The opening of a Pandora’s Box?
Centre’s commitment to restore statehood to Jammu & Kashmir has left Ladakh out in the cold. The demand for statehood for Ladakh and inclusion in the Sixth Schedule calls for a political review of the situation in Ladakh, and in Jammu and Kashmir, which can help towards making the necessary course correction
BUSINESS
Lessons from the Maldivian miscue for the island nation and India
Maldives is learning the hard way that geography matters more than the tilt of a government. The Modi and Muizzu governments must conduct relations based on this geographical proximity and not let the ministers’ blunders and the social media campaign against Maldives drive a wedge between the two countries
BUSINESS
Qatar commutes ex-Naval officers' death sentence, India’s blooming ties with Arab nations hailed
The Indian government played its cards well. It maintained a low profile and did the behind-the-doors background work of negotiation and persuasion, and without giving the impression of exerting pressure
BUSINESS
Geopolitics: Turbulence & uncertainty of 2023 will spill over into 2024
The world’s fatigue with wars isn’t bringing an end to the Ukraine or Gaza war. As 2023 winds its way to an end, much rests on global economic recovery and growth in 2024, the outcome of the US presidential elections, and the next stage of AI progress after the rapid strides of generative AI this year
TRENDS
Right-Wing Shift: Don’t be in a hurry to declare the dark ages
Right-wing leaders have won popular mandate through a recognised electoral process, and represent public opinion. They cannot be dismissed as political demons. But what’s missing is an honest dialogue between the silent majority and justifiably vocal minorities and recognition by right-wing leaders and their supporters that the economic and climate crises need global more than national responses
WORLD
Taliban Redux? The Americans may one day have to negotiate with Hamas too
Both Hamas and Israel are playing a high stakes power game and are sacrificing civilians. Hamas wants to be the negotiator with Israel like the PLO was in the 1990s and Israel wants to prevent that possibility through its ongoing ground invasion. Hamas is reminiscent of the Taliban, which had political roots and legitimacy of a limited kind, and the Americans may have to negotiate with Hamas
WORLD
America and Biden in a bind over war in Gaza
An Israel seething with anger and Arab unrest at the Palestine plight left Joe Biden no leeway to bridge both sides. Mooting a political dialogue between Israel and the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Authority is a more effective way of edging out Hamas but Biden cannot push either Israel or Arabs beyond a point because America isn’t the superpower that it was
BUSINESS
Israel can overcome Hamas, but what about Palestinians?
Stringent restrictions in Gaza and West Bank are pushing the Palestinians into the arms of militant groups like Hamas – a vicious cycle – something that is not factored in Western assessments of the situation in Palestine. The threat to Israel is not any more from the Arab neighbourhood, and not even from Iran. It is from the hapless Palestinians themselves
BUSINESS
India, China vie for Global South leadership
The large group of 130 developing economies speak in many voices, and it is unlikely to acquiesce to the leadership of either India or China. Both India and China stand outside of the Global South in terms of the state of the economy and other geopolitical parameters
BUSINESS
G20 Summit: How the Ukraine issue changed colour from Bali to Delhi
Recognition that G20 wasn’t the right forum to address the Ukraine issue, India’s forceful insistence on a joint statement and related diplomacy, and finally the strategic dilemmas that G7, Russia and China found themselves in helped make the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration possible
BUSINESS
Is the US strategy of spreading its armaments manufacturing facilities among its allies wise?
What would happen if the US’s allies stop heeding its diktats on who should and shouldn’t be supplied weapons? In a world witnessing the US toehold slipping and its political uncertainties deepening, the trust-based strategic global supply chain of US armaments may also get undermined at some point
POLITICS
A euphoric Independence Day speech by PM Modi
In a speech peppered with positive thinking, PM Modi delved into his government’s achievements and India’s place in the world and in this moment in history. His confidence in getting re-elected was evident. The difficulties were projected as challenges to be overcome or were brushed aside
BUSINESS
In India-UAE currency deal, a bid to change terms of global trade
India and UAE using their own local currencies – rupee and dirham – to pay for imports and exports is a bold shift away from the dollar. Dirham’s strength and Indian economy’s size allows both currencies to proceed on equal terms. Such isolated shifts won’t worry the US, but not so if the club of countries using their local currencies to trade were to grow
BUSINESS
Near the middle in competitiveness for 25 years, this is where India must focus
For 25 years India has been hovering near the middle ranks in the World Competitiveness Rankings. This would suggest that despite governments coming and going, India is only able to keep pace with its peers and not better its economic performance to a higher sphere, especially in the eyes of company executives closely watching the country
BUSINESS
Taiwan Strait: The new hotspot of shifting American strategic goalposts
With the Ukraine conflict becoming a war of attrition, the US has been quick to shift its attention to the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific where the weightier challenge of countering Chinese influence in the region beckons. But despite all the aggressive optics, all sides are clear they do not want any sort of military hostilities, given the economic stakes
BUSINESS
Palestine: The Nakba or The Catastrophe that Palestinians have mourned for 75 years is a morality tale of history and nationalism
There is dour realisation today among Palestinians that the UN Partition Plan proposing two states of Palestine and Israel which was rejected was a better deal than what they are left with now. The hard truth from history is that there is no mercy for those whose homeland or nationalism projects failed
BUSINESS
America’s new moves on the West Asian checkerboard are complicated by geopolitical realities
The West Asia rail link being pitched by the United States faces a challenging road ahead. The desperate attempt to counter Chinese influence in the region will remain a limited project unless more Arab nations can be roped in
BUSINESS
One Biden-Trump duel was bad enough, but America may settle for this encore again
Democratic Party bosses prefer Joe Biden’s appeal to the silent middle-of-the-road majority rather than radical posturing, which reverse-polarises conservative voters towards Donald Trump. But a polity starved for choice and again settling for two men in their early 80s and late 70s is quite a democratic paradox
BUSINESS
The divides between G20 and G7 make consensus on a global economic agenda near impossible
The G7 propped up by the US is a Cold War relic pushing the political and economic priorities of the developed, industrialised countries, often diverging from the larger, and more diverse, G20’s agenda. So on poverty alleviation, cryptocurrency, climate change, debt restructuring, etc there’s not much progress
BUSINESS
Saudi-Iran pact: China takes a bow as mediator but the Riyadh-Tehran rivalry will persist
Irrespective of how the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran plays out amid their intense rivalry in West Asia, China’s role in mediating the secret talks lifts its international standing several notches higher
BUSINESS
Why Vivek Ramaswamy and not Shashi Tharoor? Indians with political talent stand to win abroad than at home
What is it about the US and the UK that emboldens persons of Indian origins who are rank minorities in those countries to aspire for top political posts? The answer: These are open societies that recognise talent
