Comment & Briefs

Although initially the Maoists suffered some setbacks due to the lockdown, their indulgence in violent incidents over the past one month indicates that they are exploiting the situation to have an upper hand vis-à-vis security forces.

Smaller, smarter, potent and cheaper combat entities — linked and networked – will be at the heart of future warfare.

The prevailing environment has underlined the importance of a balanced market to the oil producers. India has been consistently reiterating the need for oil to be priced responsibly to ensure the stability of the oil market.

The inevitable reprioritisation of the central government’s expenditure in the coming union budgets would affect the resource allocations particularly for big ministries like the MoD, which will be forced to realign their business practices.

The abidance to ceasefire does not mean an end to the conflict, but it surely would work as a confidence-building measure, at least for now, to address the bigger challenge of
coronavirus.

Given the rapidly rising pension liability in India and the concern expressed by the CDS, the experiences of the US and the UK could be useful in carrying out pension reforms in India.

The execution of Bangabandhu’s killer is likely to lift the morale of the pro-liberation forces while weakening that of the anti-liberation groups who were already in disarray.

The COVID-19 crisis would severely impact the four countries at the social, political, economic and humanitarian levels, as these states were already facing multi-vector exigencies at the time of the pandemic’s outbreak.

As the focus and priority of the international community in recent years have been on averting nuclear terrorism and nuclear accidents, the nuclear experience of synergising safety and security can be highly useful in combating threats like COVID-19.

Pakistan’s efforts to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak may get severely constrained due to the refusal of the ulema and religious leaders to ensure that their followers abide by the rules of the lockdown and social distancing.