China has been a great economic story the past few years, but a diplomatic and political disaster. Between roughly 2006 and 2010 it successfully picked a fight, sometimes almost literally, with virtually every one of its neighbours. Read more

I have been a long-standing critic of the Indian penchant for buying and hoarding gold. Read more

The Hindustan Times is about halfway through a series on India and its neighbours. The links for the first three articles are below. Two more are on the way. For various reasons, mostly illogical, the series eventually chose Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Bhutan, the Maldives and Afghanistan were given a miss. China is much bigger an issue than just a neighbour. Read more

Global Health Strategies, an NGO that works with the Gates Foundation and other groups, recently released a report on the so-called BRICS countries and global public health. Their main point was that the BRICS countries had an increasingly and largely invisible role in world health, especially among the poorest of the poor. Read more

Frits Staal, a Dutch Indologist and Sanskrit scholar, died on February. I read one of his latest books on the Vedas last year. It was a wonderful read, especially in describing the Athirathram, an ancient Vedic ritual that included a construction of a fire altar shaped like a bird.

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There is a curious divide between the popular Indian view of the relationship between New Delhi and Tehran — and how it is perceived within official circles in New Delhi. Read more

The Maldivian political crisis is a suitable reminder of how difficult it is to run a sphere of influence. This archipelago nation should be a snap for New Delhi. Read more

I’m coming to the view that the best way to judge a nation’s response to the new Arab political order is whether it preferred the status quo or not. The status quoits nations are not ideologically similar. Iran and Israel, India and Saudi Arabia – on this they are all on the same side. Read more

It’s become a tradition for Japanese Prime Minister’s to squeeze in their summit visit to India just before year’s end and just before official Tokyo shuts down. It is not that New Delhi requires it, but the Japanese seem determined to show how importantly they take this relationship. Read more

Food inflation has been the scourge of the Indian government for the past half-decade. The government is crowing a bit this month because, at long last, it has brought the rate of growth of inflation down by one per cent. Mind you, prices are still rising. They are just rising a bit slower than before. Cold comfort. Read more