A new United Nations report warns that the potential benefits to developing countries of digital technologies are likely to be lost to a small number of successful first movers who have established digital monopolies.

Almost a year ago, the Indian government announced its plan to deport “all illegal immigrants” including approximately 40,000 Rohingya refugees estimated to be living across India. In August 2017 in a letter sent to each of the state governments, India's Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order to “identify and deport all illegal immigrants”, including Rohingya refugees. The home ministry as well as leaders of the ruling BJP insisted that there were links between illegal migrants and threat to national security as they were perceived to be more vulnerable to potential recruitment by terrorist organisations.

How did a group of a few, small countries of Western Europe come to dominate the world for nearly 300 years? As a recent history book noted (Why Did Europe Conquer the World?, Philip Hoffman), a thousand years ago these countries were “poor, violent, politically chaotic ... hopelessly backward …

At the risk of outing myself as a Zionist agent, I have to confess that one of my favourite words is “chutzpah”. It's a Yiddish word—a language that was used by Jewish communities in central Europe. As with most such words, something is always lost in translation, but it roughly translates as “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts', presumption plus arrogance.”

The announcement of poll schedules for legislative assemblies in the five states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Telangana has plunged India headlong into the season of polls, the biggest festival of democracy.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey, despite being on opposite sides of Middle Eastern divides, are cooperating in Syria to enable youth and women to acquire skills that would either allow them to compete in the job market or turn them into entrepreneurs.

The world economy remains tepid and unstable a decade after the 2008 financial crisis, while growing trade conflicts are symptoms of deeper economic malaise, according to a new United Nations publication.

“The state, it is me” (l'état, c'est moi), Louis XIV famously said, though it's likely an apocryphal account—a metaphor for the megalomaniac rule of the French monarch. And here lies the fundamental defect of strongmen, for they conflate the state with their own very being.

Migration has become a focus of debate in recent years. From United States President Donald Trump's vehemently anti-migrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric to Denmark's new “ghetto laws”, the language has become increasingly heated.

China's White Paper on the China-US trade friction makes a reasoned argument based on the mutual interests of China and the US as well as the global community.

Three recent developments lay bare the fragility of Middle Eastern alliances and a rebalancing of their priorities: the Russian-Turkish compromise on an assault on the rebel-held Syrian region of Idlib, the fate of troubled Abu Dhabi airline Etihad, and battles over reconstruction of Syria.

It was a drama-filled 24 hours involving India and Pakistan between the afternoon of September 20 and September 21.

An attack on a military parade in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz is likely to prompt Iranian retaliation against opposition groups at home and abroad.

Hard power or the coercive use of force has emerged as the most preferred tool in combatting terrorism in the post-9/11 era.

The 4th Bimstec summit is being held in Kathmandu after a lapse of four years. The last summit was held in Naypyidaw, Myanmar in 2014. For the Bimstec that celebrated 20 years in 2017, four summits in 20 years is not certainly a time for celebration and does not add to the credibility of the organisation that has the potential to transform the eastern South Asia.

It's not a trade war, stupid! In today's world where everything hinges on technology, competition and conflict between states is really about who gets to Industry 4.0 faster than the others.

An offer by a Saudi-backed bank to lend financially strapped Pakistan USD 4 billion is likely intended to bolster Saudi influence when former international cricket player Imran Khan is sworn in as the South Asian country's next prime minister.

India's foreign and security policy imperatives are underpinned by the desire to achieve sustained and inclusive economic growth. The focus is on creating an enabling environment for national growth and development by maintaining peace and stability...

Saudi conduct of its ill-fated war in Yemen coupled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's alignment with the Trump administration and Israel,

Shakespeare had once observed, through his character Marcellus addressing Horatio in the drama Hamlet, that there was something rotten in the State of Denmark.