It is commonplace to call Bangalore India's Silicon Valley. Many Indians and non-Indians alike seem to be quite ready to believe that India's software success story is just a variant of American success.
In two remarkable recent speeches in New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon underlined a significant shift in India's official discourse on its neighbors, especially toward Pakistan.
In a speech titled "The Challenges Ahead for India's Foreign Policy" and another which analyzed the enduring conflict with Pakistan, titled "India-Pakistan: Understanding the Conflict Dynamics," Menon identified the construction of a "peaceful and prosperous periphery" as a major national objective.
India's Dalits (the former "untouchables") have risen considerably since Independence.
When President Bush signed the US-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement on December 18, 2006, a new era began in the US relationship with India. It marked the end of a quarter century during which the nuclear proliferation issue dominated the bilateral relationship. Now the two largest democracies in the world can develop a new agenda freed from the burden of the proliferation issue.
India’s lack of capacity to handle rapid urbanization is, arguably, one of its single biggest challenges. Despite much debate over the Delhi Master Plan 2021, there is still relatively little understanding of the dynamics of urbanization. The experience of our mega cities and medium size towns alike suggests that Indian cities are likely to remain besotted by serious problems. Indeed, if anything, the proposed solutions are likely to make our cities worse rather than better. This is because the preconditions for creating vibrant and dynamic cities simply do not exist.
Francine R. Frankel is the Founding Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India. She is Professor Emerita of Political Science and South Asian Regional Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.
Anjana Sinha is a security reform practitioner with over twenty years of field and management experience in India. She entered the federal police force in 1990. Currently, she is Inspector General Communications in Andhra Pradesh, India.
Nicholas Robinson is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi. His writing focuses on the Indian Supreme Court as an institution, Indian constitutional law, corruption in South Asia, and law and development. He has previously been an Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law School and visiting faculty at National Law School, Bangalore, and Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan. Before teaching, he was a judicial clerk for the Indian Supreme Court and a Yale Law School Bernstein Fellow at Human Rights Law Network, New Delhi.
Andrew B. Kennedy is Senior Lecturer in Policy and Governance at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. His research focuses on international politics in Asia, with particular interest in Indian and Chinese foreign policy.
Avijit Ghosh works as a Senior Editor at The Times of India newspaper in New Delhi. Born in Agartala, a quaint town poised on the north-eastern edge of India, he grew up in the rough and intense townships of Bihar. He graduated in history honors from St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi and earned his Masters and M Phil degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The topic of the dissertation was "Gandhi and the Communal Problem: Some Aspects."