A stack of one thousand rupee notes. Courtesy: 123RF
9 November 2016

How ‘hawala’ impacts national security

On November 8, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to India, the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, he specifically referred to the use of Hawala and fake Indian currency notes for terrorist financing. The hawala system to move funds globally for terrorist financing is huge, secretive, and layered—and a challenge for national security agencies.

calais jungle Courtesy: Getty
2 November 2016

Europe: lost in the Calais jungle

The French city, bordering the English Channel, is a symbol of the tension between Paris and London and the crisis in Europe as a whole. The dismantling of one refugee outfit here just made an already thorny issue pricklier.

510896-16pti-pti10162016000263a Courtesy: MEA India / Flickr
27 October 2016

BRICS/BIMSTEC: activity or achievement?

Perhaps South Block did not gain as much as it had hoped to: there was a gulf in member states’ perceptions. One takeaway, therefore, for policy makers was that while noise has its uses, it is now time for some quiet diplomacy

A streetscape postcard of the Dockyard road that shows the circular structure of Bombay's ice-house, constructed in 1843 from a public subscription of Rs 10,000. Ice was imported into Bombay from New England (U.S.A.), and the voyage in the age of sail took roughly four months.
Image courtesy: Eminence Designs Pvt Ltd. Bombay The Cities Within (1995) Courtesy: Eminence Designs Pvt Ltd.
27 October 2016

Breaking the ice: U.S. trade with Bombay

The trade between Bombay and America’s north eastern ports 200 years ago was unique as it coexisted with the period’s territorial colonial monopolies. This article retraces those routes to riches in light of the Indo-U.S. Strategic Partnership.

BRICS_Infographic_Header Courtesy: Gateway House
26 October 2016

Intra-BRICS Trade: an illustrative guide

This infographic seeks to trace the evolution of BRICS from O’Neill’s original vision to its current form, while illustrating how intra-BRICS trade has evolved over the past 15 years.

half lion Courtesy: Penguin Books Limited
21 October 2016

Understanding P.V. Narasimha Rao

An earnestly, but objectively written, biography of the late prime minister gives credit where it has been denied: PVN was the principal architect of the economic reforms that put the country on a destiny-changing path of growth, while being up against a restless party, hostile Parliament, and an apathetic public.

3.1. Cotton bales lying at Bombay terminus  Photo Dr. Jehangir S. Sorabjee - Copy Courtesy: Dr. Jehangir Sorabjee
20 October 2016

Bombay and the founding of Shanghai

The recent inauguration of the New Development Bank in Shanghai has made that city a focal point of international financial transactions between the five BRICS countries. This occasions revisiting some of the ways in which Bombay has been historically linked to it

BIMSTEC Courtesy: Google Earth
20 October 2016

BRICS/BIMSTEC’s maritime portents

The recent BRICS summit and BIMSTEC outreach highlighted some laudable maritime endeavours linking geographically distant, emerging economies within the grouping. The BIMSTEC platform is also crucial to India's efforts to create a peaceful Bay of Bengal community through economic and cultural linkages.