by Jiyoon Han Confident of its newfound economic prowess and growing military might, an emboldened India is in the throes of voicing a new foreign policy doctrine for the 21st century. As pragmatism overpowers a traditionally quixotic and nationalistic external outlook, the new direction of Indian foreign policy is encouraging and refreshing. Nevertheless, the lingering threat of a flawed and archaic non-alignment policy threatens to squander t...
As President Barack Obama put it in a November 2010 speech, the Constitution of India and the United States Constitution “begin with the same revolutionary words.” Those words, of course, are “We the People.” This may seem to be a coincidence of diction, but the rights and ideals of democracy and personal freedom enshrined in India’s 1949 constitution bear a striking resemblance to those articulated in Philadelphia. India, however, is a lonely...
Last month, India announced a missile test that had capabilities to reach Beijing and Shanghai. The country’s reason for the missile test, according to Indian defense, was to build a credible minimum deterrence with no hostile effects. In likely response, Pakistan conducted the first test of its Shaheen 1-A intermediate-range ballistic missile less than a week after India. And even more recently, Pakistan has planned to test fire a brand new-cap...
Gurcharan Das, author of the recently published book, The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma, is a public figure in India where he writes a weekly column in the Times of India and many other national newspapers. He was the CEO of Procter & Gamble India and studied Philosophy at Harvard College and later attended Harvard Business School. His other acclaimed nonfiction works include India Unbound, which has been made into a...
When India gained its independence, the southern state of Kerala promised to be nothing but a headache for the new nation. Near the bottom in almost every indicator of development—literacy, health, general wellbeing—the state was a basket case. Yet over the span of fifty years everything had turned around, and suddenly officials in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram could boast some of the highest scores in general well-being not just in In...
from Wikimedia Commons The School of International and Public Affairs played host to a well-attended discussion on the ‘Politics of Change in India’ on September 20, 2012 as part of its Program on Indian Economic Policies. The panel discussion comprised of Arun Jaitley, the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament), noted free-trade economist and Columbia professor Jagdish Bhagwati, and opposition M...
...oped countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emission levels by 5.2% from 1990 levels. The protocol, however, was hampered by the fact that climate change had still not been accepted globally and developing countries such as India and China, who were projected to have some of the highest carbon emission levels in the years after the treaty was signed, had no obligations to cut carbon emissions. This privilege was justified, according to the prot...
...he past. Today there are an estimated 27 million slaves globally, more than during the 350 years of the Atlantic slave trade. The stories that modern slaves have lived to tell are harrowing. Rambho Kumar, a 13-year old boy in India, was forced to work 19 hours a day at a carpet loom. When his fingers bled from overwork, his owner would dip them into oil and light a match. At age 23, Beatrice Fernando, a woman from Sri Lanka, accepted a “job” in L...
The South Asian Association (SAA) at SIPA— a group dedicated to promoting, analyzing, and sharing South Asian traditions, culture, and issues—hosted an interactive Q&A session with the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Hardeep Singh Puri, alongside the Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC), Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA), Club Zamana, and the South Asian Law Students Association...
Historically, international legislation on the topic of gender equality has often sparked controversy and critical dismissal. The latest version of the debate on women’s rights has focused on the increasing prevalence of quotas for women leaders in both politics and business. Despite the obvious irony, it comes as no surprise that seven Indian MPs harassed Vice President Hamid Ansari on March 8, International Women’s Day, tearing up and throwing...
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