India’s Defence Offset Policy Although India has established a formal mechanism for implementation of the defence offset policy, the structure and procedures lack the thrust to fulfil the objective of energizing the Indian defence industry. Besides, the policy is not supported by the existing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and licensing policies. While evidence suggests that domestic industry can absorb offsets, what India needs is an effective body to handle offsets, liberal FDI and licensing policies, and a better banking provision. Laxman Kumar Behera | March 2009 | Strategic Analysis
Budgeting for Indian Defence: Issues of Contemporary Relevance by V. N. Srinivas Laxman Kumar Behera | March 2009 | Strategic Analysis
Problem-Solving and Bargaining in International Negotiations by Lynn M. Wagner Medha Bisht | March 2009 | Strategic Analysis
Violence in Pakistan: Trend Analysis January 2009 The first month of the new calendar year saw a reversal of the trend of declining casualties witnessed during the last three months, whilst the incidents of violence continued to rise constantly maintaining the trend of last three months. The withdrawal of ceasefire announced by the Baloch nationalist groups in September 2008, saw a sudden spurt in casualties in Balochistan. During the month the incidents of violence increased to 430 from 388 in December 2008. T. Khurshchev Singh , Alok Bansal | February 28, 2009 | IDSA Comments
India’s Confrontation with Terror: Need for Bold Initiatives Since 2001, Islamic terrorists have struck India with frightening frequency and ferocity. The most disturbing aspect of these attacks is that they have spread into the hinterland from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) which was the main focus of the terrorists in the late 80s and the following decade. Thomas Mathew | February 25, 2009 | Policy Brief
Iran Enters the Space Arena One year ago, in February 2008, Iran launched a sounding rocket into outer space to mark the opening of its first space centre. This rocket essentially belonged to the ‘category’ of instrument-carrying crafts. Such crafts are designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during their sub-orbital flight. Within a year, on 3 February 2009, Iran successfully launched its first domestically manufactured satellite "Omid" (Hope), which was carried into space by the home-built Safir-2 space rocket. Ajey Lele | February 20, 2009 | IDSA Comments
Maoists’ Attacks on Infrastructure Rebels of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) have been repeatedly targeting infrastructure, which are soft targets. The targets of their attacks include telecommunication towers, Railways and power transmission centres and lines, to name a few. P. V. Ramana | February 20, 2009 | IDSA Comments
