Heritage on the brand wagon

One of the conclusions drawn from a recent panel discussion, co-hosted by Gateway House and Avid Learning, on how brands are helping promote heritage conservation, moderated by Sifra Lentin, Mumbai History Fellow, was that there is an urgent need to preserve Mumbai’s natural and built heritage to meet the Maharashtra government’s target--the year 2020--for inaugurating the international financial centre at Bandra-Kurla Complex. Here is a summary of the concerns that the panellists raised


BRICS inching towards complementarity

A conference of the BRICS 2017 Think Tank Forum, held in Beijing recently, showed that the grouping had progressed in influencing global governance despite some persistent intra-member differences


Qatar: a Saudi-Iran battlefield?

Saudi Arabia and its allies have broken off diplomatic ties with Qatar, but Iran may be their real target, a possibility reinforced by some recently leaked emails from a UAE diplomat


Evaluating BRICS @ 11: views from Shanghai

Speakers at the ‘1st BRICS Think Tank Forum on Pragmatic Cooperation’, held in Shanghai last month, discussed ways to tackle new challenges as globalisation moves into the next phase where the BRICS countries will take the lead


Ignoring the writing on the wall

An annual important networking occasion for security experts, the GLOBSEC 2017 Bratislava Forum, had surprisingly little representation from major European countries, such as Germany and France. Russia’s misuse of cyberspace was loudly censured, but Chinese activity in the South China Sea, and the recently concluded Belt and Road Forum received little attention


No time to bask in rupee’s strength

A robust currency is welcome, but only if a country’s economic fundamentals bear it out. The numbers offer specious comfort as a strong currency makes imports more attractive. The truth is that India’s economic growth is middling and private capital formation is not visible




Ransomware attack: keeping cyberspace safe

Critical infrastructure–like healthcare or the financial services industry–makes for ransomware’s favourite prey, and nation-states must unite to respond suitably to the anarchy that can be unleashed by another attack, like WannaCry


Iran polls: path cleared for Rouhani?

Iran’s presidential elections have always been unmatched in the unpredictability of their outcome. Will the pro-reform vote be able to hold out against Ebrahim Raisi, the current president’s most serious competitor, with his appeal to the masses and traditional, conformist Iranians?