India
India’s takeover of the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm will help build energy interdependence with Sri Lanka
India has recently moved to take effective control over the giant oil tank farm in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. This marks a key step in integrating Sri Lanka into India’s national…
India's turbulent history newly revealed
Review: Crosswinds, by Vijay Gokhale (Penguin Random House India, 2024) and To Raise a Fallen People, by Rahul Sagar (Columbia University Press, 2022).
India’s role on…
Don’t play it by ear: Audio deepfakes in a year of global elections
Artificial intelligence company OpenAI recently introduced Voice Engine, a natural-sounding speech generator that uses text and a 15-second audio sample to create an “emotive and…
India: What a Modi win means for relations with Malaysia
With India going to the polls in April, the buzz is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to win a third term. The question that remains is how decisive the victory will be…
Mapping the oceans is the new front in the battle for influence in the Indian Ocean
Hydrography, the mapping of bodies of water and surrounding coastal details, is the new front in the battle for influence in the Indian Ocean. There is growing competition among…
Opium and the colonial narco-state
Book review: Smoke and ashes: Opium’s hidden histories by Amitav Ghosh (Murray, 2024)
Switching for a while from fiction to fact, Amitav Ghosh has written an account of …
A big leap in the credibility of India’s nuclear weapons capability
India’s successful test of its Agni-V land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV) last week represents a…
Reverse colonialism? India and Britain’s free trade agreements
As elections loom, India is in free trade agreement mode. Hot on the heels of announcing the signing of a “landmark” deal with a group of non-EU European countries, India has also…
Great power ambitions: India’s aim at the UN Security Council
India has, time and again, been questioned by Europe on its commitment to buying Russian oil despite the sanctions on Moscow, against the backdrop of the ongoing armed conflict…
Democracy is struggling in South Asia
Democracy in South Asia is experiencing a troubling decline. Indicators point towards a consistent backsliding. Recent unfair elections held in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Maldives…