Publishing Institution: East-West Center / Political Geography: India / Topic: Development

Author:: Veena Vidyadharan
Publication Date:: 05-2021
Content Type:: Special Report
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: The transboundary rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna along with their tributaries and distributaries create a vibrant water grid connecting their riparian countries. Historically, these rivers have played a prominent role in shaping the economy of the Indian sub-continent as a major means of trade and transportation. In the post-colonial era, new political boundaries between countries mostly cut off these riverine networks because the priority of the newly-established countries and their governments was to develop road and rail networks for internal consolidation and integration more efficiently. Hence, waterways connectivity among new regional countries was comparatively neglected. India and Bangladesh, for example, share 54 transboundary rivers. Despite existing bilateral agreements for using designated riverine routes for trade and transit, only in the past few years have infrastructural development initiatives started in India for constructing river terminals, multimodal terminals as well as fairway development. And there are other opportunities.
Topic:: Development, Infrastructure, Regional Integration, and Ecology
Political Geography:: Bangladesh, South Asia, India, Indo-Pacific, and Bay of Bengal

Author:: Dieter Ernst
Publication Date:: 02-2014
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: India faces a fundamental puzzle. The country is a leading exporter of information-technology services, including knowledge-intensive chip design. Yet electronics manufacturing in India is struggling despite a huge and growing domestic market and pockets of world-class capabilities. To examine this puzzle the World Bank commissioned this study in May 2013 on behalf of the Chief Economic Advisor, Government of India, Raghuram Rajan (now the governor of the Reserve Bank of India). Drawing on extensive survey questionnaires and interviews with key industry players (both domestic and foreign) and relevant government agencies, this study identifies major challenges India-based companies face in engaging in electronics manufacturing. The analysis culminates in detailed policy suggestions for regulatory reform and support policies needed to unblock barriers to investment in this industry and to fast-track its upgrading through innovation.
Topic:: Development, Economics, Globalization, Industrial Policy, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:: South Asia and India

Author:: Sourabh Gupta
Publication Date:: 03-2011
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: Civilizational, cultural, and geographic neighbors, India and Indonesia share striking commonalities in their modern historical trajectories. In both societies, European powers, the Dutch and the British, benefited from the decline of tired Islamic land empires to graft colonial modes of exploitation that progressed fitfully from coast to hinterland to interior. Following proto-nationalist revolt s, the Indian Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and the Java War of 1825-30, both the Dutch and the British skillfully engineered a buffer of indigenous elite collaborators. This strategy succeeded to such an extent that their faraway possessions were governed by less than two hundred and a thousand expatriate administrators, respectively.
Topic:: Democratization, Development, Post Colonialism, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:: Indonesia, India, and Asia

Author:: K.Y. Ratnam
Publication Date:: 12-2008
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: This study argues that the democratic state in India is an historical product of very specific circumstances; as such the broader idea of democracy is not consistent with the specific Caste system. Therefore, there is serious juxtaposition between the institutional promise of democracy and the real practice of democracy in relation to the victims of the caste system, the Dalits. However, the caste based hierarchical relations of dominance and subordination have provided sufficient conditions for the rise of Dalit consciousness and these objective conditions have transformed into the sites of democratic struggles when the Dalits are affronted with the real operation of liberal democratic principles of, equality, freedom, fraternity, and social justice. Caste conflict, thus, lies at the structural dimensions of Indian society in the form of exclusion, discrimination, and economic inequality. Inequalities based on the caste divisions are intrinsically anti democratic, and the caste system as an oppressive ideological system represents the scheme of power, domination, privilege, and hierarchy. Its very foundation remains acentral obstacle in the path of democratic redistribution of power.
Topic:: Democratization, Development, and Political Economy
Political Geography:: South Asia and India

Author:: Toufiq A. Siddiqi
Publication Date:: 08-2004
Content Type:: Policy Brief
Institution:: East-West Center
Abstract:: India and Pakistan have had volatile relations ever since they became independent of Britain in 1947. Frequent hostility has stifled cooperation between the two countries and inhibited development in the region. Recently, however, tensions show signs of easing. In March 2004, India's then prime minister visited Pakistan to attend a South Asian regional summit. Flights, bus service, and cricket matches between the two countries have resumed; India's newly elected government continues to support the process. Peace could bring a wide range of benefits not only to India and Pakistan but to the wider region as well. For example, it could enable cooperation on importing energy via a natural-gas pipeline, which would support environmentally sound development. The improved road and rail system that would necessarily accompany a pipeline would also support the goal of building an Asian highway network and the resurgence of cross-border trade, another likely consequence of détente. These benefits could spread far beyond India and Pakistan into the wider west, central, and south Asian region.
Topic:: International Relations, Development, and Regional Cooperation
Political Geography:: Pakistan, South Asia, and India

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