The Lowy Institute of Australia has come out with a poll on Indian views of the world that deserves commendation. For one thing, no one in India bothers to carry out such detailed surveys. It is doubly commendable because it includes both rural and urban populations and asked questions in vernacular languages as well. Read more

The invention of an inexpensive rotavirus vaccine may prove a greater contribution to food security than the Food Security Bill. Read more

One of the more curious global developments today is the closing, if you wish, of the British mind to immigration. Anti-immigration is now part of the policy platform of all the major political parties, though arguably strongest with the Conservatives. Britain is experiencing economic difficulties but is probably better off than many Western economies. And it isn’t race: brown and black migration peaked in then 1970s and 1980s. Read more

The former Indian foreign secretary, Shyam Saran, gave a revealing speech on India’s nuclear deterrent on April 24th. The speech was titled, somewhat vaguely, “Is India’s Nuclear Deterrent Credible?” Read more

Strobe Talbott, journalist, author of books and former deputy secretary of state, came to India last month having accomplished, as he said, “a dream going back 11 years.” That was when he joined as president of the Brookings Institute and concluded that after being around 85 years the venerable institution, probably the largest policy institute – think tank as the popular vernacular would have it – in the world. Read more

I used to roll my eyes whenever I boarded Air India One and had to fly with the Indian prime minister to some corner of the world. The 747 is about 15 years old and feels it. Whenever I’ve attended a Group of 20 summit or some similar global powwow Air India has always stood out – for its shabbiness. Read more

Among the more poorly thought out foreign policy initiatives of the Indian government, one of the mitigated disasters has been the proposed BRICS bank. The New Delhi foreign policy establishment has taken to blaming the Indian finance ministry for the idea, but the external affairs ministry had to have gone along with the idea. Read more

The Catholic Church and the Chinese government, within a 24 hour space, both finalized their leaders. The church chose and anointed Pope Francis. The party completed its leadership succession by appointing Xi Jinping as president of China, the third and last position he needed to become the new ruler of the Middle Kingdom. Read more

There’s been a large amount of commentary on the huge surge in Indian gold imports, the damage it is doing to the current account deficit, with much weighing of the pros and cons of the government’s feeble attempts to stem the yellow tide. Read more

India’s finance minister P Chidambaram has succeeded in controlling the country’s fiscal deficit and averting a sequence of the following events: a credit rating downgrade, a fall in the rupee and an outflow of capital. Read more