Focus 59 – Uzbekistan: India’s Strategic Gateway to Central Asia
Abstract
India and Uzbekistan possess a shared history since ancient times, when trade and commerce between the two nations flourished through the Silk Route. Considering the current situation and future probabilities there has been a lot of political, economic, and cultural exchanges between the two countries. This bilateral partnership, expressed...
WORKING PAPER 20 – An Ethnographic Insight on Border-Markets: Reflections from the Indo-Bhutan Border
(This is the revised version republished on 2 July 2020)
Abstract
Border spaces evolve as critical points of intersection between distinct economies and cultures. Local border markets, both within and across border spaces, often stand out in comparison to other local market structures as fascinating areas of ethnographic study. This...
COMMENT 189 – The Perils of Being a Migrant During the Pandemic – Caveats...
The unfortunate scenes of daily wagers walking for around 100 kms a day along with their belongings often questions ‘the privileged concept of social status’. Before the lockdown in March 2020 by the Government of India, these migrants were suspended in mid-air - with no jobs and no means...
Focus 58 – Crawling Back to Normalcy: The Super Cyclonic Storm ‘Amphan’ Brings West...
Abstract
The onset of the super cyclonic storm Amphan in West Bengal, India, was a package of petrifying winds, consistent rainfall, collapsing trees, overflowing sewages, shattered glass windows, blown off roofs and many other things to recall and revisit. The Super Cyclonic Storm ‘Amphan’ was a powerful and deadly tropical...
WORKING PAPER 19 – The NSRI and the BRI: the Future of Central Asia
Abstract
Maintaining peace and peaceful co-existence is one of the major goals of integration. It is rightly believed that a peaceful international society can emerge by working together in workshops and market places rather than by signing pacts in chancelleries. The United States of America and its Western allies...
COMMENT 188 – The Bridges We Have Already Built: European Connections with South Asia
The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is, as per its official description, an ‘intergovernmental process established in 1996 to foster dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe’. Besides its political meetings – the biennial ASEM Summit, the ASEM Foreign Minister’s Meeting and the Senior Official’s meeting –, ASEM promotes a Cultural...
Focus 57 – Coping up with the Corona Crisis: India Inc shows the way...
Abstract:
The start of 2020 has been rough and despicable for individuals, corporates, governments, and nations at large. Being forced in one’s abodes, juggling between work and household chores, with restricted movement in public spaces and essential commodities delivered through e-commerce platforms – this has become a way of...
FOCUS 56 – The interpretation of religious texts and historical narratives around Hindu-Muslim conflict...
Abstract
The nationalist ambitions of individual leaders during the independence struggle, and the subsequent ethnic violence during partition, did not deter India from making itself a constitutionally safe haven for religious minorities. However, the system or its political parties are not without electoral entrenchment in religion, bolstering its agenda of...
COMMENT 187 – Social media in Pakistan and GSP+ compliance under stress
In the shadow of the corona virus pandemic and hardly noticed by international observers, the government of Pakistan is attempting to establish a sweeping state-oversight over the social media sector (CPJ, 2020, February 13). In order to do so, Islamabad envisaged a set of new regulations called the ‘Citizens...
COMMENT 186 – China’s capture of Pakistan’s media sector and the complicity of the...
Pakistan’s media sector faces multiple threats from numerous actors - from the military and intelligence agencies, higher judiciary, religious fanatics and militants, as well as from the government. However, it is important to stress that the freedom of press and the quality of journalistic practice are not only challenged...