Page 34 - Observer Research News Today

Cryptocurrency Bill: Killing The Messenger? The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill of 2021 is slated to be introduced in the budget session of the Parliament Wednesday February 17, 2021 7:38 PM, Srinath Sridharan and Shashidhar KJ, IANS The Indian government is planning to ban all operations of cryptocurrencies in the country, except for a state-backed digital currency. The ban will be operationalised with a new law coming to effect. The Cryptocurrency and Regulati...

4404 In race: We are now at an inflection point in a contest that will shape the nature of the emerging world order. Reuters Manoj Joshi Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation Slowly and systematically, the Biden administration is giving shape to its China policy. Unlike the haphazard, though sometimes effective, Trump policy, the new administration is going about it methodically, setting up study groups, task forces and consultative processes to ensure it gets it right. It has al...

When the United Kingdom (UK) releases the highly anticipated integrated review of its foreign, defence, security and development policy in March, it will mark the first formal iteration of the UK’s Indo-Pacific strategy. This brief explores the dynamics that are driving the UK’s tilt to the Indo-Pacific. It identifies three key drivers that are prompting the shift: a reappraisal of China, the economic fallout of Brexit, and the UK’s close ties with the US. It explores the emerging trends ...

Behind Pakistan’s talks offer to India lies a Khan-Bajwa plan This is an old ploy that the Pakistanis have tried ever since 9/11, first with the Bush administration, then with Obama and now with Biden. Sushant Sareen 11 February, 2021 9:33 am IST Text Size: A+ February 2021 started off with a somewhat unnecessary, if also short-lived, flutter over the possibility of some forward movement in the bitter and frozen bilateral relationship between India and Pa...

Twitter India, South Asia public policy head Mahima Kaul resigns The resignation comes at a time when Twitter has been facing backlash from the Indian government for violating Indian law. Source: Reuters Twitters India public policy head Mahima Kaul has resigned citing personal reasons, according to a senior executive of the social media firm. Kaul had joined Twitter in 2015 from the think tank, Observer Research Foundation. As Public policy Director for India and South Asia, her job entailed ...

The Trump administration helped shift the American paradigm on China from one of engagement to strategic competition, but its handling of China was fitful and erratic. The new Biden administration, ma

Budget 2021: Fine print shows little real increase in health allocation despite Covid-19 The government has combined many existing heads such as water and sanitation under the 2021-’22 health budget. Representational image. | Arun Sankar/AFP Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new healthcare scheme – the Pradhan Mantri Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana – with a Rs 64,180-crore outlay. The Centre’s allocation to the health ministry for 2020-’21 was Rs 67...

The intersecting impacts of COVID-19 and climate change are compounding the vulnerabilities of coastal communities.  This paper examines the disastrous effects of cyclone Amphan in the Bengal delta region of the Indian Sundarbans amidst a countrywide lockdown triggered by the pandemic, and their cascading consequences for a rural community inhabiting this climate hotspot. It highlights the livelihood crisis experienced by internal rural-urban migrant workers who returned to their villages in t...

Angola is rich in natural wealth, with massive petroleum and diamond deposits across its territory. Most of its people, however, continue to live in poverty. Since its independence in 1975, Angola has had a tumultuous journey: from being a war zone, to becoming a poster child for Chinese engagement in the continent, and since 2015, declining to its current state where the challenges are so massive—negative growth rates, high external debt, rising poverty and inequality, and lack of basic heal...

January 25, 2021 Weeks after India’s External Affairs Minister visited Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gave the green light to the India-backed port project in Colombo. The project, earlier put on hold following protests by workers’ unions, is approved at a time when the island nation is seeking a $2-billion financial lifeline from New Delhi. Reports suggest that the Rajapaksa government has been seeking a $1 billion currency swap and $1 billion debt moratorium from India to save it...