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Shanghai COVID-19 outbreak – Failure of Zero-COVID strategy and effect on China’s economy
Asia, Featured

Shanghai COVID-19 outbreak – Failure of Zero-COVID strategy and effect on China’s economy

Shanghai has been plunged into an extended lockdown and some residents face some more days of isolation in their homes as China's strict Zero-COVID policy threatens the country's economy. Shanghai has put all its 26 million residents under lockdown in China's biggest citywide imposition of the restrictions since the pandemic began as authorities admitted the difficulty in containing the fast-spreading Omicron variant. Currently, Shanghai's epidemic prevention and control is at the most difficult and most critical stage, said Wu Qianyu, an official at the municipal health commission. Most of the medical staff have arrived in Shanghai by military planes and trains to help with the mass nucleic acid testing while others will help ease the burden on staff at makeshift hospitals. China dis...
Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka: Reasons and lessons from the Island nation
Analysis, Asia, Featured

Economic Crisis in Sri Lanka: Reasons and lessons from the Island nation

Sri Lanka's  $81 billion economy struggled to manage its external debt, which had grown in part due to loans from China to fund ambitious infrastructure projects.Family control in government is not liked by the opposition and the people. They blame their dynasty for the crisis and mismanagement.From 2020 onwards with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic tourists stopped arriving in Lanka. As Lanka's economy depended on Tourists, terror and Covid 19 gave a big jolt to the economy with no foreign tourists.Sri Lanka had to release its foreign exchange reserves to pay off government debt, shrinking its reserves from $6.9 billion in 2018 to $2.2 billion this year.Sri Lanka is seeking financial support from the IMF and turning to regional powers that may be able to help. The world g...
Political Psychology of International Relations
Analysis, Featured

Political Psychology of International Relations

In international relations, three cognitive psychological concepts are used to understand and decode the behavioral aspects of political leadership across the world: Confirmation Bias, Fundamental attribution error and Prospect theory.Critical thinking and decision making approach applied to political psychology allows us to carefully deconstruct a situation, reveal its hidden issues such as bias and manipulation and make the best decision from the available choices.The critical thinking approach would not eradicate difficult decisions in national or international politics. But it can help the decision makers to increase the number of positive choices we make.Tools of psychology might not be able to resolve the complexities involved in international and national politics, but it provi...
SW Briefs | India & Russia currency swap – Importance and Impact
Asia, Featured

SW Briefs | India & Russia currency swap – Importance and Impact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MtCYKY0lW0 India and Russia will have currency swaps in place to finance trade in rupee and ruble payments. The arrangement would allow India and Russia to carry out financial operations bypassing the US dollars. Russia is effectively blocked from using US currency due to Western sanctions over the conflict with Ukraine. Indian government is reportedly working on a proposal to allow upto five nationalized Indian banks to be engaged in deals with Russia. Such an arrangement would let Indian exporters continue doing business with Russia despite sanctions and ban on international payment mechanisms such as SWIFT. The activation of the Russia-India swap line is important for both the countries as trade between them is growing across sectors. India e...
Achievements of foreign policy the basis for progress and development at home – Dr S Jaishankar
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Achievements of foreign policy the basis for progress and development at home – Dr S Jaishankar

The achievements of foreign policy in stabilizing the neighbourhood are very much the basis for progress and development at home, Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar has said. He was addressing the St. Stephen’s- MRF Distinguished Alumni Lecture in New Delhi. Talking on what a ‘good’ foreign policy means to the average person, Dr Jaishankar said a good foreign policy must work for all.  Foreign policy being the link to the outside, it should enable us to draw what we seek. This could be in terms of technology or capital, best practices, or even work opportunities, he said. Highlighting the importance of foreign policy in practice, he quoted the recent example from Ukraine where more than 20,000 Indian students had to be repatriated when war broke out. "This is when th...
Pakistan Resolution Day – Tracing the genesis of Communal Antagonism
Analysis, Asia, Featured

Pakistan Resolution Day – Tracing the genesis of Communal Antagonism

The People of India at large, in their collective conscience, have forgotten the history and significant events that unfolded in the making of the modern Indian Republic. They have forgotten the communal travesties caused by the partition, unleashed by the forces fighting for the establishment of an Islamic state. The CAA legislation is a delayed justice to a historical genocide that broke the cultural and civilizational unity of Bharat and amputated it into an acronym called Pakistan. Their Ghazwa-e-hind doctrine and the deep state have a sole purpose, which is to destroy India!!  and thereby the venerable Sanatana Dharma civilization in total. If one needs to understand this destructive Pakistani-Islamist phenomenon, knowing the broad outline of the origins of two-nation theory...
India and Australia to deepen Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
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India and Australia to deepen Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

In a joint statement issued after the 2nd India Australia Virtual Summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrisonon, the two leaders agreed to deepen Comprehensive Strategic Partnership covering various aspects. Both sides also agreed to establish annual summits between the Prime Ministers under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, thus adding a special dimension to the bilateral relationship. Earlier, both the leaders expressed satisfaction at the progress made under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership established during the 1st Virtual Summit in June 2020. Prime Minister Modi expressed his satisfaction at the enhanced scope of the relationship which now covers diverse areas such as trade and investments, defence and securi...
Russia-Ukraine war as it transpires – Who supports who?
Featured, World

Russia-Ukraine war as it transpires – Who supports who?

The Russian and Ukrainian war that is ongoing has its origin in the tussle over the status of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, internationally recognised as a part of Ukraine. The tussle that began in February 2014, culminated in the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, soon after the Russian president Vladimir Putin announced what he called a "special military operation" in the country of 40 millions. Russia has been bombarding a number of cities in Ukraine, for over three weeks now and the Russian troops have reportedly destroyed 3,687 units of Ukrainian military infrastructure so far. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has been widely condemned internationally. The path to the war was laid when Russia commenced a major build-up near its border with Ukraine be...
The Omnipotent force behind USA’s National Security and Foreign Policy – American Military Industrial Complex (AMIC)
Analysis, Featured, North America

The Omnipotent force behind USA’s National Security and Foreign Policy – American Military Industrial Complex (AMIC)

The American Military Industrial Complex (AMIC) is a perceived informal alliance between a portion of the nation’s scientific and technological community, its defence establishment and certain sectors of the country’s military base. In 2021 the defence Budget of the US has gone up to $778 Billion, which means the United States spends more on defence than the next 11 countries combined amongst the highest defence spenders of the world.The political arrangement of the AMIC is very different from the way the competitive markets work, as it has important consequences on the country’s national security and foreign policy decision making. This fundamental lack of basic accounting processes and controls, means that the Pentagon is unable to keep track of its financial resources and expenditu...
New President in South Korea: Its reflection on the World and India
Analysis, Asia, Featured

New President in South Korea: Its reflection on the World and India

During his campaign, President-Elect Yoon Suk-yeol had called for “pursuing additional anti-missile system deployment,” and “doing away with South Korea’s submissive diplomacy toward China.”South Korea’s approach to Quad has been similar to its approach to the free-and-open Indo-Pacific narrative work with partners practically while avoiding open endorsement of their regional strategies.Seoul is looking to diversify its economic and strategic partnerships in the region by strengthening ties with India under South Korea’s New Southern Policy (NSP). A democratic South Korea likes India due to its democratic nature, freedom of press, religion, dissent and more. Yoon Suk-yeol, the candidate for the People Power Party, has been elected South Korea’s next president in the Presidential El...