Artificial Intelligence is a transformative technology offering developmental opportunities for marginalised communities across developing and emerging countries. However, the costs of AI access through private platforms are becoming exclusionary, negating these opportunities. It is critical to make the advantages of AI available to all. The G20 nations can invest in open source technology and create an AI Stack similar to the India Stack, for public benefit.

In his new book, former Indian Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to China, Vijay Gokhale analyzes how newly independent India navigated Anglo-American competition and the Cold War ideologies of China in the 1940s and 1950s. The author focuses on key events from the recognition of the Peoples’ Republic of China to the two Taiwan Straits crises. His insights of the period resonate with today's U.S.-China rivalry, and highlights India's evolving role in the Indo-Pacific.

As India begins membership talks with the International Energy Agency, Senior Fellow for Energy, Investment, and Connectivity at Gateway House, Amit Bhandari joins us to talk about how we got here, what’s in it for both parties, and how the agency will adapt to the increasing strategic autonomy of India and countries like it.

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is currently visiting Japan for the 16th India-Japan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue. The bilateral, which began 130 years ago with Bombay’s cotton trade, has deepened into a Special Strategic and Global Partnership in defence, digital technologies, semiconductor supply chains, clean energy, trade and connectivity. The following book excerpt traces the origin of India-Japan trade ties.

Russia took charge of BRICS in January 2024 at a point of inflection in geopolitics and expanding influence for the bloc. As chair, Moscow aims to bolster cooperation along the lines of the BRICS’ three pillars to shift power away from the West and explore ways to engage potential members. Though China seems onboard, for India, neither of these pursuits must proceed too aggressively.

The imposition of sanctions, continuing wars and the rise of new geopolitical blocs seeking to move away from western economic dependence, have prompted talk of ‘de-dollarisation,’ switching from the U.S. dollar as a currency of trade and reserves. Surjit Bhalla, well-known economist and India’s former representative at the International Monetary Fund, discusses the logic behind de-dollarisation and the key indicators of its sustainability or demise.

On 22 February, Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies delivered the keynote address to participants at the national seminar on “BRICS as a Global Alternative—Prospects and Concern for India.” He argued that an examination of BRICS and the geopolitical context in which it is functioning provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the India's perspective of this important organisation.

The transition from least developed country (LDC) to developing country marks a major milestone for the world’s most vulnerable and structurally disadvantaged countries. The recent graduation of Bhutan into the 'developing' realm reflects the trend of accelerating development among least developed countries. Fifteen more LDCs are due to move up in the coming years, a clear improvement from the past.

Just as September 11, 2001 unfolded a new chapter of the world order, as December 17, 2010 awakened the "Arab Spring," so October 7, 2023, has become a date that has unforgettably changed the Middle East's foreign policy and geopolitical dynamics. The existential paradigm of Israel and Palestine has adopted a war axis without turning back but has necessitated reevaluating diplomacy and recalibrating priorities.

The ongoing WTO 13th Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi is a critical one. Apart from reform of the existing system, negotiations on e-commerce and digital trade should be finalized, as it represents the human capital of growing digital services economies in developing and developed countries. Cooperation will demonstrate that members can produce results and chart a constructive path for the WTO system.