Two decades of international community administered talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijani territory, have failed to reach a resolution. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s petro-dollar aided exponential increase in defence expenditure amid pitched rabble-rousing and frequent sniper skirmishes in the region has led many to fear that the disputed landlocked mountainous enclave in the Greater Caucasus could be one of the most likely sites of Europe’s next war. The sense was reiterated on March 28 by Arayik Haroutiounian, the secessionist … Read the rest

The jury is still out on the cost of providing fast-track residency to affluent foreigners

There are many ways in which modern societies are getting shaped across the world. Australia cast its vote recently in favour of crafting one by handpicking well heeled citizens from other countries.

On May 25, Australia’s Immigration Minister Chris Bowen unveiled a new visa scheme that offers wealthy migrants a fast-track residency provided they invest around $5 million into either government bonds or Australian companies.

In the normal course of the procedure, … Read the rest

DHAKA — Asian funding agencies, The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provided much needed, albeit temporary relief to the government on July 31 choosing not to cancel their loan for the US$2.9 billion Padma bridge project, for another month.

The Padma bridge project has been in peril since the World Bank cut its US$1.2 billion credit line for the 6km-long road-rail bridge over the Padma River on June 30, citing corruption concerns, in particular the government’s failure to investigate claims of high-level fraud … Read the rest

A November 2011 report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a US congressional advisory panel, urged the White House and US Congress to scrutinize China’s military expansion and pushed for a tougher stance against, what it dubbed as, anticompetitive Chinese trade policies.

While China’s military, which benefited from a threefold increase since the 1990s in the military budget to about US$160 billion in 2010, does not pose a threat to the US, it does so to many nations in the region. Apart from building ports … Read the rest

NEW DELHI — Marking a departure from its traditional stand of staying “completely apolitical”, India’s ongoing anti-corruption movement on July 31 appeared to lean towards formation of a political alternative.

Addressing a crowd of thousands at Jantar Mantar Square in New Delhi, Prashant Bhushan, eminent lawyer and a senior member of Team Anna, the group leading the movement under the leadership of veteran social activist Anna Hazare, said, “It is time for an alternative politics to shape up. Power should return to the hands of … Read the rest

Nehru’s chequered legacy is used selectively by no less than his own party, the ruling Indian National Congress (INC).  Putting an abrupt end to his socialist programs with economic liberalisation policies in 1991, the Congress party nonetheless chose to kick-start its political campaign for the recent Uttar Pradesh (UP) state elections, with Nehru as a poster child.

Congress general secretary and the iconic leader’s great grandson Rahul Gandhi started his campaign from Phoolpur in UP, the seat that Nehru … Read the rest

After more than four decades of socialism, India was days away from bankruptcy and forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout. The condition? That India abandon its socialist economic structure and pursue capitalist reforms.

There was little choice. India’s economy was in a shambles, with fiscal deficit at an unsustainable 8.5% of the economy and the current account deficit touching 3.5%. With total external debt at US$72 billion, India had become … Read the rest

I must admit I am terribly scared of leaving my one-year-old daughter alone with my wife. And I blame Yale Law School professor Amy Chua for my paranoia.

My little one was born barely three months after Chua horrified the Western world with her parenting memoir, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”, which unapologetically presumed the superior efficacy of harsh, traditional Chinese parenting. In the bestselling book, Chua listed all the fun things she denied her daughters, which many in the West consider to be essential ingredients of childhood.… Read the rest

For much of the month of April, student groups in Malaysia marched in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, demanding the abolition of the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN), a student loan scheme that the protesters criticised as an exploitative, anti-poor commercial scheme. Instead of loans with high interest rates, they wanted free education.

But on April 28, when an estimated 100,000 people rallied in the same capital to demand electoral reforms under Bersih 3.0 (the Malay word literally means clean), the vibrant student movement was conspicuous … Read the rest

A week after successfully testing its maiden Long Range Ballistic Missile (LRBM) Agni-V, India sought to downplay the regional security implications of the launch by dubbing the missile as a “weapon of peace”.

“We were asked to develop a national deterrent as part of a government policy and we did it. That’s it. These are weapons of peace. If you are powerful enough and are committed to ‘no first strike’ there is no harm done to anybody. We always stand by ‘no first strike’,” Tessy Thomas, a senior scientist involved … Read the rest