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Avoid Knee-jerk Reactions to Tackle Inflation
14 MAY 2008
With India's annual inflation rate rising to a near four-year high on a point-to-point basis on the back of rising food prices, the search for policies to combat the price rise poses unusual challenges. The nature and causes of the current spiraling inflation in India has become a subject of intense debate, primarily because of the ostensible role of `imported inflation' in driving the domestic prices north. Issues like poor performance of the Public Distribution System, high and rising levels of oil prices and questionable management of our food economy figure among the reasons. It has also raised doubts among some policy makers about relying on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) as an instrument of measuring the price fluctuations......more
Dmitry Medvedev sworn in as Russia’s new president
Ajish P Joy
14 May 2008
Russia witnessed a unique event in its history on May 7, 2008. Dmitry Medvedev took over from Vladimir Putin as the Russian President at an impressive ceremony held at the Kremlin. Thus, a peaceful power transition occurred in Russia, for the first time, even.....more
What are the problems with India’s N-capability?
Gen V.P. Malik (retd)
12 May 2008
Nearly seven months after I had taken over as Army Chief, Director-General, Military Operations, informed me that although there was no official information, 58 Engineer Regiment supporting the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Pokharan had intensified its activities.....more
Divided Diet and its Impact on Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy
Veena Sharma
9 May 2008
The Japanese Parliament is called the National Diet. Since July 2007, the Japanese politics has been witnessing many ups and downs. A Divided Diet situation in the Parliament is where the ruling coalition (the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the New Komeito) commands a two-third majority.....more
Vol I, Issue 18
SOUTH ASIA WEEKLY
11 May 2008
Amidst, growing concern and apprehension over the failure of political parties to reach an understanding on power-sharing, the first Seven Party Alliance meeting was held last week to evolve consensus and find a way out to the present crisis......more
 International Human Rights Standards: How Does India Measure Up?
Dilip Lahiri
3 May 2008
China’s fulsome praise for India’s human rights record on April 14, 2008 in the first session of the UN Human Rights Council’s new system of Universal Periodic Review (UPR) would have come as a respite for the Indian delegation even as India was being subjected to hard and searching questions on torture in police custody......more
Caspian Pipeline Politics, Energy Reserves and Regional Implications
By P.L. Dash
ORF-Pentagon Press
29 April 2008
The Caspian region is endowed with enormous offshore and onshore hydrocarbon resources, but their access to world markets is limited. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the number of claimants to the Caspian Sea has increased from two to five States. Besides Iran and Russia, who shared the Sea through the erstwhile Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are the three new actors.....more
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