INDIA COULD BE THE NEW CHINA OF THE 2020s

ous times considered.

It’s an option that the US has not pursued, but neither has either administration rejected it out of hand. “I don’t think we are ever again going to see a position where the United States is prepared to be the primary security provider and bear any burden or pay any price to uphold order in the Middle East,” said former Singaporean diplomat and chairman of the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute Bilahari Kausikan.

A NEW MULTIPOLAR WORLD ORDER India’s regional relationships, ability to get its domestic house in order, and grow its economy will likely shape its place in a new 21st century world order. This year’s Indian chairmanship of the Group of 20, which brings together the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies, is an opportunity for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to showcase where India is heading.

IN-DEPTH BBC, TORY GOVT CRITICISED FOR CURBING SOCCER STAR’S REMARK

The BBC has been in turmoil ever since ‘Match of the Day’ presenter Gary Lineker’s suspension for comparing the Tory government’s policy on illegal migrants with that of Nazi Germany. The former ace footballer’s suspension has led to a boycott of programmes by several other sports presenters pushing the broadcaster in turmoil. Lineker was the leading scorer for England at the 1986 soccer World Cup. The boycotts have forced the BBC to air only “limited” sports programmes. Analysts and soccer players also extended support to Lineker, once a national hero.

“India….can work with neighbors to build the peaceful and more prosperous periphery that its own development demands. It can participate in the remaking of the rules of the international system now underway… And it can reengage economically with the dynamic economies of Asia, participating in global value chains, to further its own transformation,” Menon said. The decade of India might finally have arrived.

This could be India’s decade if it plays its cards right. The subcontinental state is poised to be the next China, even if its path will likely be less straightforward than that of China and more of a Leninist two steps forward, one step backwards.

Leaving aside the multiple domestic issues India will have to address to realize its full potential, it is already, in the words of an Indian analyst, in a “geopolitical sweet spot.” Recently concluded defense and technology agreements with the US constitute a milestone. The agreements acknowledge reality, including that one underestimates the US at one’s peril and that, despite their domestic travails, the US and the UK still produce 50% of the global wealth as opposed to China and Russia’s combined 20%.

“For India, the West is the most important trading part-