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The conflict over Kashmir has led to three wars and countless skirmishes between India and Pakistan. As tensions are building up again in the region, outside powers cooperate to prevent the worst. Washington’s and Beijing’s influence over the decision-making process of the two nuclear weapons-armed states may be gradually waning.

As the ratio of nonperforming assets in India’s banking sector rises, there have been loud calls for reform. The condition of loan portfolios at state-controlled banks is now so parlous that it is choking off the availability of new credit and forcing the government into ever more ambitious recapitalization schemes.

India seeks to make its own weapons. If the West wants to end India’s dependence on Russian arms, it will have to help New Delhi in these efforts.

Faced with China’s emerging hegemony in Asia, India is defending its power status. New Delhi’s strategy is to invest in defense, align its policies with the United States and expand its regional alliances. However, India is increasingly concerned about containment by China.

India will rely on targeted supply-side spending to help resurrect the country’s Covid-battered growth. Narendra Modi’s government also hopes to implement structural reforms – but those will only work if India’s economic recovery is as strong as expected.

Ahead of the 2019 parliamentary elections, Prime Minister of India Modi has put aside his earlier economic reforms and talks mostly about social welfare. While the leader focuses on small-town voters, his government has put foreign policy initiatives on hold.

India is forging profitable new partnerships with Sunni Arab states as its economic profile grows and its ties with the U.S. and Israel strengthen. The changes are causing tension with its old ally Iran, which New Delhi still needs to keep Pakistan in check. This balancing act could leave India vulnerable to the Middle East’s notorious instability.

In early 2021, India was hailed as a hero for its successful vaccine diplomacy. When a second Covid wave hit, the country stopped sending vaccines abroad. If it does not get back on track by the end of this year, Beijing could take advantage.

The latest round of fighting on the India-Pakistan border reveals a changed mood in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to order an airstrike deep inside Pakistan is evidence of a more muscular policy taking shape in India. If Mr. Modi is reelected, India will likely be brandishing a bigger stick at its Western neighbor.

India is happy that the United States has recommitted to fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. Keeping them out of power will limit the influence of India’s longtime rival, Pakistan. But the U.S. commitment is tenuous, and President Donald Trump is a known skeptic of the war.

India has recently elevated its relationships with the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Iran, increasing its influence in the Middle East. But New Delhi has always preferred keeping the explosive region at arm’s length by dealing with only a few bilateral relationships.

By hosting key international events this year, New Delhi hopes to reshape the world order in its favor.

As India and China continue to build infrastructure and expand their military forces along the disputed borders in the Himalayas, the hotspots are becoming hotter and the clashes more violent. The Asian giants’ old conflict has entered a new phase.

With a new import ban on 101 kinds of weapons, Narendra Modi is continuing his quest to expand the domestic arms industry in India. The lack of arms manufacturing has been a concern since the 1960s. Despite criticisms, the latest efforts are bearing some fruit.

India’s food output has nearly quadrupled over the past 50 years, but farm households – more than half the country’s population – are in some ways worse off. Rural distress is weighing on the country’s politics and eroding the government’s political base.

Tensions have run high in South Asia, where the interests of China, India, and Pakistan clash. Lately, Beijing and Islamabad have stepped up cooperation, while India and the U.S. have grown closer. The region faces many unsettled conflicts. Nuclear deterrence is stabilizing the situation – but as pressure grows, its efficacy may weaken.

The Indian government has announced a new production-linked incentive scheme that could turn the country into a phone making hub. Apple and Samsung will now relocate part of their supply chains – a big step for India’s technology sector.

vated many of its relationships with countries in the Middle East to “strategic partnerships.” But how much substance is there to that moniker? Energy is the driving force behind the phenomenon: Indian demand for fossil fuels is rising sharply, while Middle Eastern countries want to shore up their positions in a crucial market.

Though the U.S. and Europe are pushing for sanctions against the military junta in Myanmar, India sees things differently. With regional partners, New Delhi is working on a deal behind the scenes – but the road toward true democracy for Myanmar will be long and arduous.

China and India are beefing up their military capabilities again. The two Asian giants are confronting each other in traditional hotspots and in the Indian Ocean. War is still not in the cards, but the growing tensions between India and China adds to the region’s volatility.

India imports oil from Iran and buys arms from Russia while trying to mend fences with Beijing. All this seems anathema to American policy, and now President Donald Trump has turned down an invitation to visit India in January. But reports that the relationship between the U.S. and India is on the rocks are premature.

New Delhi had an ambitious budget plan for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Now that Covid hit, the government has a third of the Indian economy under lockdown and strives to preserve development momentum.

For decades, India’s policy on the contested state of Jammu and Kashmir has been relatively stable, allowing autonomy in the region and seeking an agreement with Islamabad. However, relations with Sunni Kashmiris have increasingly frayed, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has begun to shift its policy radically.

With China and Russia tightening their alliance, India is reacting by improving its ties with the United States, Europe and other Asian nations.

Narendra Modi wants to make profound reforms to the economy, ideology, and welfare of India. The reforms have met stiff resistance so far. Add to this the rising importance of Hindu nationalists, and 2020 looks set to be his most tough year.

Government subsidies and inadequate investment have led to low agricultural productivity, often leaving India with harvests that can do little more than meet domestic food demand.

The government of India has implemented a protectionist policy on trade, taking measures to boost domestic manufacturing. Yet exports have failed to increase, in part because of red tape and poor logistics.

Japan and India are fast enhancing their partnership. Both countries want to counteract China’s rise, especially in the Indian Ocean. The countries have strengthened economic and military ties, and together could challenge China at the sea. As Beijing attempts to project its power ever further, the Indo-Japanese partnership will only grow.

Until recently, Taiwan barely appeared on India’s geopolitical radar. Yet the subcontinent has become a beneficiary of the island’s trade. If a cross-strait conflict over Taiwan were to erupt, would India get involved?

The mountainous border between India, China, and Pakistan is a dangerously underestimated trouble spot that could wreak havoc between Asia’s two emerging superpowers.

As the U.S.-China trade dispute drags on, Washington is gearing up to turn the screws on another trade partner: India. Though the countries are allies, U.S. officials chafe at India’s protectionist policies.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, India is leveraging its status as the world leader in pharmaceutical manufacturing. However, if other countries make good on their plans to enhance their production capabilities, India’s exports could suffer in the longer run.

The recent skirmishes along the Indo-Chinese borders are part of a larger regional conflict. Since China aims to acquire hegemony over many geostrategic points in the Himalayas – including access to several major waterways – military escalation is fated.

In late April, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi held an “informal summit” during which they reached a tacit understanding to turn down the heat on their countries’ relationship. But without any concrete steps taken to solve the Asian giants’ big disagreements, renewed confrontation is only a matter of time.

Several large global technology firms have pumped billions of dollars of investments into India’s digital economy sector. The development reflects a trend toward “super apps” being created, helped along by favorable government policies.

New Delhi has used economic levers to bring regional partners closer, taking advantage of a passive China.

The rise of China and changes in the U.S. policy have presented huge challenges for Europe and India. Their interests align with issues such as international trade and climate change. In the face of Brexit, India seeks partnership with other EU countries.

India has long warned of the strategic dangers posed by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Today, many countries are voicing suspicions about the BRI’s potential effects. The project also faces difficulties due to financial problems within China. Beijing seems to be recasting the BRI as a more open project.

Once chronically short of dollars and pounds, India today has the fourth-largest foreign exchange reserves in the world. New Delhi’s challenge is modernizing its reserve management and leveraging this bounty to further the country’s international ambitions. 

Indian Prime Minister currently enjoys high levels of trust among world leaders. He wants to make the most of this advantageous situation by simultaneously engaging with the U.S., China, and other strategic geopolitical partners, in addition to fostering better relations with smaller South Asian neighbors.

India expected a gradual departure of the US military from Afghanistan, and the rapid exit initially appeared like a serious setback. But the Taliban regime’s isolation on the world stage and its economic woes have made it less likely that they will pose a serious threat to India.

The relationship with the U.S. is a crucial part of foreign policy of India. With the election of Donald Trump as president, New Delhi was unsure what to expect. So far, it has leveraged its strategic importance and the leaders’ friendship to its benefit. The question now is what changes the 2020 election could bring.

One of the techniques devised for managing China’s ascent and its destabilizing impact is the concept of a “free and open Indo-Pacific.” This idea, embraced by the governments of Japan, India and the United States, includes military, economic, political, legal and diplomatic dimensions.

Tensions are rising in relations between the U.S. and China, especially after the recent APEC summit. However, the heightened rhetoric used there could give both countries a chance to climb down and come to a deal. Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will have a perfect opportunity to do so during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

The Modi government in India entered the last year of its term with mixed economic results. The prime minister has moderated inflation and carried out important reforms, but growth remains slow, and many are pessimistic about their financial situation.

With the United States mostly overlooking India’s neutrality in Russia’s war on Ukraine, the prospects are encouraging for closer Washington-New Delhi ties.

Since the 1990s, India has been strengthening its role in the Western Pacific. While it will continue to use its relationships with the United States, Japan, Singapore and Australia to strengthen its position, India must also be careful not to earn Beijing’s ire.

With the right statesmanship, a multipolar world can find its balance.

While multibillion-dollar loans have stabilized the nation from the depths of its crisis, a lack of reforms and further economic hardship could send protesters back to the streets.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unexpectedly repealed three landmark agricultural reform bills after a year of protests by grain farmers, but once key elections are over, he could make another attempt at reform.