India’s emphasis on developing railway connections with neighbouring countries is driven by the need to respond to China’s expanding railway infrastructure in the region.
Modi will be in Laos 10-11 October for 21st ASEAN-India summit & 19th East Asia summit. Review of New Delhi’s Act East policy to take place, discussions on Myanmar to take centrestage.
PM Chinh's visit is the first since the 2 countries established a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2016. Trade, defence, and new areas of cooperation are on the agenda.
A globalised India is a project of imagination. It must model itself after 19th century Kolkata, as it seeks to integrate with the economic powerhouses to its East.
Modi govt has announced it will fence India’s border with Myanmar. Experts remain divided over the move, with some saying that it can make a dent in ‘Act East Policy’.
Would it be that by default or design, means a revision of the objectives of the AEP, where the Northeast becomes irrelevant & that maritime cooperation alone is sufficient.
The warship has been a significant pillar in India’s policies at a time when maritime sub-regions in the Pacific have been subject to China’s assertive actions.
India-financed infrastructure projects in Nepal have a greater propensity to get delayed than projects supported by Japan, UK or organisations such as World Bank or ADB.
After dominating India’s crude imports since 2023, Russian supplies slowed amid US sanctions, but a 30-day ‘waiver’ amid West Asia tensions could now push flows back towards 2 mbpd.
Trump has ushered in the age of humiliation. His method is to push around America’s friends rudely and publicly. He knows none of them can afford to fight back.
Just like Tina Das, Hauzel stops just short of the most important thing — the two-way bridge. Yes, Delhi residents need to shed their ignorance. Yes, curricula must include the Northeast. Yes, regional governments have failed their youth spectacularly. All true.
But nobody says what needs to be said plainly: Bharatiyata — genuine shared Indian identity — cannot be policy-decreed or guilt-tripped into existence. It has to be lived, built through ordinary daily familiarity. That requires both sides making the effort.
The structural diagnosis is correct. The Rs 6.50 lakh crore channelled into the Northeast with so little to show in jobs or world-class institutions — that is the real scandal hiding behind Ruby Jain’s ugliness.
But Hauzel, like Das before her, names the wound beautifully and then quietly exits. No tools. No blueprint. Just an eloquent indictment.
The Northeast’s youth deserve more than periodic outrage cycles that fade in a week. They deserve unglamorous, sustained institutional work — better universities at home, real jobs, genuine curriculum reform, and yes, a national conversation that goes both ways.
Name the wound. Then pick up the tools.
Ps: We need problem solvers and solution proponents not agony aunts .
Just like Tina Das, Hauzel stops just short of the most important thing — the two-way bridge. Yes, Delhi residents need to shed their ignorance. Yes, curricula must include the Northeast. Yes, regional governments have failed their youth spectacularly. All true.
But nobody says what needs to be said plainly: Bharatiyata — genuine shared Indian identity — cannot be policy-decreed or guilt-tripped into existence. It has to be lived, built through ordinary daily familiarity. That requires both sides making the effort.
The structural diagnosis is correct. The Rs 6.50 lakh crore channelled into the Northeast with so little to show in jobs or world-class institutions — that is the real scandal hiding behind Ruby Jain’s ugliness.
But Hauzel, like Das before her, names the wound beautifully and then quietly exits. No tools. No blueprint. Just an eloquent indictment.
The Northeast’s youth deserve more than periodic outrage cycles that fade in a week. They deserve unglamorous, sustained institutional work — better universities at home, real jobs, genuine curriculum reform, and yes, a national conversation that goes both ways.
Name the wound. Then pick up the tools.
Ps: We need problem solvers and solution proponents not agony aunts .