The Old Stadium (Courtesy: Shashi Prabhu) Courtesy: Shashi Prabhu
5 June 2025

Wankhede Stadium scores a half century

BY

The Mumbai Cricket Association’s Wankhede Stadium celebrates its golden anniversary this year. On 23 January 1975, the new stadium hosted its first Test Match – India versus the West Indies. Ever since, Wankhede has had an impressive run rate in hosting first-class test matches and its shorter 20-over variants. Long forgotten, but worth recalling, are the struggles to build the stadium - the result of an ego clash between two Mumbai titans, a legendary cricketer and a state minister.

Website articles (18) Courtesy: Reuters photo
28 May 2025

Strategy meets statecraft: Trump in Riyadh

BY

Presidential visits abroad are high-level instruments of statecraft and, more often than not, signals of geopolitical priorities. The recent visit of U.S. President Donald Trump to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, exemplified this, indicating the administration's policy orientation.

Myanmar article Courtesy: X /@antonioguterres
28 May 2025

Quid pro quo for Myanmar’s humanitarian corridor

BY

A proposed humanitarian corridor from Bangladesh to Myanmar’s suffering Rakhine state is the need of the hour. But Chief Advisor Yunus has linked it with repatriation of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mixing up unrelated issues. This is a classic ploy to distract the public from his own shortcomings, and his single-minded focus to extend and legitimise his regime.

podcast MK Courtesy: Abhijit Chavda Podcast
27 May 2025

Emerging Middle Powers beyond U.S. and China

BY

The rules-based world, perceived to be functional till last year, seems broken, giving way to an increasingly multipolar order. Manjeet Kripalani, Executive Director, Gateway House discusses in the Abhijit Chavda podcast, how emerging middle powers like India, Brazil, and Indonesia to name a few, have the heft to rewrite the rules of global trade and reform, away from U.S. and China.

India Today (1) Courtesy: India Today
26 May 2025

India’s evolving defence doctrine

BY

The Pahalgam attack has changed India’s strategic calculus. With Operation Sindoor, the country is moving towards a more assertive posture, consolidating its strategy around an evolving doctrine of Proactive Deterrence underpinned by Calibrated Coercive Capability. A strategic practitioner’s viewpoint is below.

Website articles (19) Courtesy: Reuters
22 May 2025

India-UK FTA: Four benefits for India

BY

The India-UK Free Trade Agreement comes amidst increasing economic uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariff policies. The FTA has revitalised previously lethargic discussions for India to conclude FTAs between like-minded countries. An India-EU FTA, along with the India-UK FTA, may reform global rule-making on international trade and perhaps even revive the WTO.

Website articles (17) Courtesy: Nayanima Basu
19 May 2025

India’s three-pronged war strategy

BY

Operation Sindoor has established a “new normal” in India-Pakistan relations. It has also given the world a glimpse into the Narendra Modi government’s future strategy in countering terrorism supported by the Pakistani Army and ISI, and how New Delhi will manage the Kashmir dispute.

The New Indian Express Courtesy: The New Indian Express
19 May 2025

Post-Pahalgam diplomacy

BY

Studying the reaction of key stakeholders to the India-Pakistan conflict, and how India’s diplomatic machine coped with it, is revealing. Some of the major powers like the U.S., raised the temperature, China expectedly stood by Pakistan while Russia once again proved a dependable friend. Unsurprisingly, South Asia had a consistently neutral stance toward the conflict.

Website articles (10) Courtesy: Gateway House
15 May 2025

The New Geopolitics and South Asia’s Trade Architecture – What Next?

BY

Geopolitics is increasingly intertwined with the economic destiny of South Asia. Even before the U.S. tariffs were rolled out, growing polycrises had hit the global economy, which has been struggling since the pandemic. South Asia seems a relatively bright spark of regional trade and growth. This paper analyses South Asia’s trade architecture in the backdrop of a sluggish world economy in the 2020s, and makes recommendations for closer regional economic integration.