Analysis

This Newsletter explores ongoing issues and perspectives from India’s neighbouring countries, including – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan. In Brief – Vaccine updates, Sri Lanka’s #MeToo Storm, China-Nepal Rail link, Bangladesh among India’s top five exports, UN call for arms embargo against Myanmar, U.S support for...

What is the best way to fight a pandemic in an era of intense globalization? The answer, clearly, is for humanity to throw its combined resources against its common adversary. Since no one is safe until everyone is safe, the longer it takes for the world’s population to acquire immunity...

 This Newsletter explores ongoing issues and perspectives from India’s neighbourhood countries, including – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Maldives and Afghanistan.  Vaccination updates, Bangladesh leads GDP growth, The Colombo Port City project, Security dilemma in Myanmar, Peace for Afghanistan?   The Raging Pandemic  Has India turned its back on its...

Download the Policy Advisory Executive Summary To prudently resume social and economic activity in accordance with outbreak risks, healthcare capacity, and vaccination progress, we recommend that State governments: Designate Gram Panchayats/Wards or groups of Gram Panchayats/Wards as Public Health Management Units (PHMUs) and apply restrictions at this level. Follow an...

The Covid-19 pandemic has given us several painful images in the last two years. During the first wave, the image that stayed with us was of migrant workers walking inhuman distances in the wake of an arbitrary national lockdown. During the second wave, the enduring image has been that of...

On 11 September 2001, the US suffered four coordinated terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives, injured over 25,000 people and caused at least $10 billion in property damage. Within hours, the US National Security Agency had intercepted phone calls that led them to suspect Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda of...

Just over a hundred years ago, the Spanish Flu pandemic devastated many parts of the world. An estimated 100 million people died; India accounted for 15-18 million of them. It was the second wave that was deadly. So far, the official death toll in India due to Covid-19 is over...

Medical interns and postgraduates have traditionally occupied the lowest rungs in the hierarchy of training. From an academic standpoint, this seems fair and in congruence with any professional training pathway. Unfortunately, decades of exploitation of this structure have resulted in a system that is indifferent at best and malignant at...

Let’s say a Mr Melon Rusk, one of the world’s richest billionaires, approaches the Indian government and makes an offer to deliver 2 billion doses of a covid vaccine within 2 months for ₹2 trillion. At ₹1,000 per dose, Mr Rusk’s price is at least three times that of domestic...

The Union government has received a lot of flak over its management of the pandemic response, and deservedly so. But I want to look at three incorrect — or at least problematic — frames being used to blame the government’s pandemic response, inadequate and confused as it already is. The...