After the tragic downing of flight MH17, the US along with some major European countries has called for “hard-hitting sanctions” on Russia. The UK is pushing for the tough “Tier 3” sanctions against Russia that could cover areas such as financial services, trade and energy exports. However, there are growing concerns that the strongest-possible sanctions will be blocked by EU member states because of French arms sales as well as German dependence on fossil fuels from Russia.

A recent New York Times editorial (India’s Role in the Nuclear Race), has recommended that the issue of India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) be restricted till India “proves itself willing to take a leading role in halting the spread of the world’s most lethal weapons.” The editorial has premised India’s NSG membership upon fulfillment of three conditions: Signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), halting

Twitter, an online social networking and microblogging service was born in 2006. Interestingly, in a short span of time it has emerged as one of the most popular mediums of influence. This service at times also gets described as ‘SMS of Internet’.  Like any other internet based services this amenity too has both positives and negatives. To judge the relevance of any such service it is also important to check the category of users using such services and their approach behind using it.

On May 16, 2014, the world’s biggest democracy and Asia’s rapidly rising power, India announced results of history’s longest and biggest multiparty democratic elections. Held in nine phases spreading across April-May 2014, the country chose to bring in power the government of Narendra Damodardas Modi, leader of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)- known for his unconventional but successful policies.

In an attempt to clip Pakistan’s terror charity Jamaat ud Dawa’s (JuD) financial wings further, the U.S. Department of the Treasury on 25 June (2014) has once again targeted the leadership and financial networks of the organization. The JuD (formerly Markaz Dawat-ul-Irshad-MDI) which is a social charily front for the deadly Jihad group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been operating with impunity inside Pakistan since its inception.

In a remarkable display of faith in regional cooperation, the new Prime Minister in Delhi invited all the heads of governments and their representatives of SAARC and Mauritius to his swearing-in. Interestingly, except for a common dinner hosted by the President of India, the SAARC leaders never met as a group. Are we looking forward to a robust, frequent, effective, and efficient regional dialogue on a myriad of issues regarding South Asia, especially on the environment front? Too early to predict, but we shall be hopeful.