There was a time when France mattered a hell of a lot to India. It was the dissident member of the Western world that India could count on to resist the imposition of sanctions (after nuclear tests) and cast the odd veto (when Kashmir would come up). Read more

India is a state-nation rather than a nation-state. Discuss.

Which is what Professor Ashutosh Varshney did during a discussion organized by the Asia Society Mumbai on Thursday, with me as a moderator. Read more

Vladimir Putin made the annual Russian president’s visit to India and it was with difficulty that the local media roused itself to pay any attention. Read more

New Delhi is hosting a summit to mark the 20th anniversary of relations between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Though financial constraints led to the summit’s budget being slashed, nine heads of government still made it to Delhi. Read more

Aung San Suu Kyi made a triumphant return to India, the land of a chunk of her childhood and at one point an intellectual source for the Burmese nationalist movement that her father spearheaded. Read more

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2013 report is depressing reading. India has not risen in the global rankings, remaining the 132nd most difficult place to do business. It is a small miracle it has not fallen since in the 10 indices that determine ranking, it improved in only two of them, fell in six and stayed the same in two. Read more

There is no shortage of ferment in India’s relations with Sri Lanka. Some of it is manufactured, some of it is genuine and some of it is India’s fault. But compared to the mess it was during the civil war, bilateral relations at the government level are arguably the best they have been since independence. Read more

The Indian National Security Advisor, Shiv Shankar Menon, made a few brief remarks about India’s nuclear weapons programme at the Indian Council for World Affairs on 21 August. Read more

India could still win one more medal in wrestling, but its present four medal tally still only puts the country at 47th place in the medal rally. Read more

Afghanistan is going to make a comeback in the international political arena. It shouldn’t be, going by what everyone seems to believe. The United States is pulling out of Afghanistan. The Taliban and Hamid Karzai will duke it out, but ultimately the rest of the world will just yawn. Afghans killing Afghans. The oldest story in Southwest Asia. Read more