variety of opinions offered by our authors, drawn both from within the Vivekananda International Foundation and those who contribute from outside.

Of particular interest would be the analysis of China's latest White Paper on Defence authored by an old China hand and former Special Secretary in the R&AW;, Mr Jayadeva Ranade and an article on the much-needed reforms in India's Defence Acquisition process, written by a specialist in the field, KV Kuber.

We also have a new contributor, Mr Ajay Kumar a former IAS Officer, who has weighed in with his view on why India needs to take its already robust ties with Israel to the next level. Our regular contributor Dr Radhakrishna Rao, has written a timely piece on how digital revolution is all set to empower the people.

Hope you will enjoy the rich fare on offer here.

We are happy to present the latest edition of Vivek for your reading pleasure.

As is the practice, the magazine has a rich variety of opinions and analyses from eminent diplomats, strategic experts and emerging scholars.

Ambassador Tariq Karim, who served as Bangladesh's High Commissioner in India for five years until very recently, puts forward a compelling argument for enhancing regional as well as sub-regional cooperation in South Asia while Brig. Gurmeet Kanwal (retd) analyses the journey of India's Nuclear Doctrine 17 years to the month after the Pokharan tests in 1998. A former intelligence officer PM Heblikar has examined Sri Lanka's current state of political affairs and suggested a way India can re-engage with Colombo.

Then there are perceptive pieces on Myanmar, developments in West Asia and the future of MQM in Karachi by our in-house scholars.

One interesting addition to Vivek this time is an article on the need for the Indian army to embrace Social Media as part of its outreach programme.

We welcome feedback from our readers on the latest issue of Vivek.

It gives me a great pleasure to inform you that I have taken over the responsibility of being the Editor of Vivek e-magazine and VIF website from this month. My predecessor, KG Suresh, has moved on to take up a bigger task as Consulting Editor for India's National Channel Doordarshan. He will of course continue to be a Senior Fellow with the VIF. We wish him all the very best in his new assignment.

This issue of Vivek is coming to you later than usual because of the transition mentioned above. It nevertheless has articles that touch upon a number of
important issues.

One of our bright young researchers, Alvite has analysed the deliberately brutal approach adopted by the IS in its relentless March in West Asia. In Defence, Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee has dwelt upon the need to evolve a military doctrine rooted in indigenous culture and tradition while Brig. Gurmeet Kanwal emphasises the importance of battlefield air strike capability for a winning edge.

Our regular contributor Dr MN Buch also gives an insight into challenges of rapid urbanisation that is currently sweeping the country.

As in the past, our endeavour at Vivek is to bring you a wide variety opinions and analyses to generate a meaningful dialogue and discussion.

We welcome well-researched, topical and original contributions both for our website and for this e-magazine.

In his latest cabinet expansion cum reshuffle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appropriately responded to this sentiment and assigned this onerous task to Manohar Parrikar, a highly qualified technocrat with impeccable integrity and administrative experience as the Chief Minister of Goa. Parrikar is not only acclaimed for his honesty but also his ability to take bold and fast decisions on critical issues.

In his first interaction with the media back in his home state, Parrikar, equally reputed for his plain speaking, aptly observed that most of the defence deals executed during the previous regime had got "stuck" due to lobbying, vested interest and kickbacks involved. He also underlined the need to remove procedural bottlenecks to ensure that the procurement process is not affected.

With a full-fledged Defence Minister at the helm of affairs, one sincerely hopes that issues such as procurement and indigenization, critical to further enhancing the
capability of our armed forces as they face manifold challenges, would be taken up on a priority basis.

In this issue, Ambassador Prabhat Shukla looks at the Pashtun Factor in the Afghanistan Post-2014 scenario while eminent civil servant M N Buch critically analyses the Swachh Bharat campaign and suggests concrete measures to make it more effective.

Dr Dilip K Chakrabarti cautions us on the ever growing foreign archaeological collaborations. There are equally interesting and informative articles on a host of
critical issues confronting the nation. We hope you enjoy this edition.

The coming budget will reflect the priorities of the government and how far it is willing to go to usher in reforms that would turn promises into substantial deliverables over a period of time. Some alacrity has already been shown by the government in adopting the ordinance route for effecting much needed reforms in coal, insurance, land acquisition and other sectors to overcome the obstructionist stance of the Opposition in the Parliament. Much more is needed to be done in the coming time.

This issue carries a review by Gurmeet Kanwal on what was the year 2014 like for South Asia and some others in the strategic neighbourhood. Of abiding interest to
India is what happens in Afghanistan in the coming years. Gen. Sawhney and Sushant Sareen deliberate on the possibilities of India and China cooperating in Afghanistan with a view to stabilize the situation there. Gen. Gautam Banerjee looks at the state of Maoist insurgency in the last year and portents for the coming year. The success of Indian Mars Orbiter Mission is critically analysed by Radhakrishan Rao while Admiral Raman Puri examines in detail as to what lessons Arihant nuclear submarine programme holds for our indigenization efforts.

South Korea is fast becoming an important cog in India’s Look East Policy which now has been transformed into ‘Act East Policy’. Maj. Gen. Chakravorty gives his perspective on evolving strategic relationship with Seoul. This issue includes many other analytical perspectives that deal with internal and external dynamics of India and its evolving international relationships.

Hope that you find this issue interesting.

Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year from Team VIF

Hundred days is too short a period to assess the performance of a Government which came to power riding on lot of hopes and has full five years at its disposal to keep the promises it had made. Yet, like the box office collections of movies counted every week, the media makes a circus of such events. 

While it would be too early to pass any judgement on the Modi Government, its over three month long tenure clearly points to certain discernible indicators pertaining to the nation’s economy, security, social security etc. Of course, the most visible changes have been seen on the foreign policy front right from the word go.

On display is a strong and decisive leadership, which is willing to take bold steps and initiatives, secure national interests yet retain the consensus and traditions. It would take some time for changes in other crucial sectors to become visible on the ground given the enormity of the challenges. Nevertheless, the NDA Government’s first baby steps have restored the pride and confidence of a demoralised nation and instilled hopes that good days are not far away.

In this issue of Vivek, Brig (Retd) Gurmeet Kanwal outlines the challenges and opportunities before the new Chief of Army Staff, while veteran bureaucrat M N Buch presents a blueprint for the success of the proposed project to clean river Ganga.

Also on the menu are two insightful and analytical articles by RNP Singh and Sushant Sareen on topics hitherto skirted by mainstream media and the intelligentsia: the opposition of Muslim clerics to modernisation of Madrasas and India not being immune to Jihadists as is widely publicised and perceived. Do keep us posted with your invaluable inputs.

Two major developments on the domestic and international fronts have taken place since the publication of our last issue.

On May 16 came a historic electoral verdict wherein the world’s largest democracy voted for a single party majority Government in over two decades. For the first time, a person born after the country attained independence and belonging to humble origins came to occupy the top post in what was clearly seen as a quest for change, a dream for development and an assertion of identity by the majority community which has hitherto felt neglected and frustrated by the minority vote bank politics pursued by most political parties.

NDA.02 has begun its innings on a positive note reaching out to neighbouring countries with which India has shared uneasy ties over the last decade, taking harsh though unpopular economic decisions in the nation’s long term interests, bringing in efficiency and accountability in the work culture and functioning of the Government machinery and a strong emphasis on delivery.

The crisis in Iraq, the not so encouraging Monsoon and very high expectations of the people are among the immediate challenges before the Narendra Modi Government. The nation by and large has responded positively to the bold steps so far and one sincerely hopes that the Government obtains the desired results that would enable India to scale greater heights in all its endeavours.

On the international front, the Iraq situation following the success of the Islamist ISIS is a matter of deep concern both to India and the international community. Apart from apprehensions about oil supplies and hike in fuel prices as also safety of Indian nationals (many of them have been safely brought back to the country), the far reaching implications of growing Islamism on the Indian sub continent cannot be ignored.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei. In a democracy, the voice of the people is the voice of God. Come May 16, the verdict of the masses on the performance/non-performance of the different political parties would come to the fore and a new Government would assume office soon thereafter.

While Government formation is important, its stability, the maturity, vision and
decisiveness of its leadership and the quality of governance that it would deliver are equally critical. In recent times, the country has witnessed crises of confidence, of credibility and one sincerely hopes that the new Government would be able to restore the faith of the people in democracy, the rule of law and institutions, which has eroded over the years.

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections witnessed unprecedented mudslinging, personalized attacks and attempts to divide the electorate on casteist, communal and linguistic lines, which is most unfortunate even six decades after independence.

The low level of discourse engaged in by sections of the political class did not behove a mature democracy at a time when all the eyes of the world are on India.
Instead of debating governance related issues, which are of core concern to the people of India, particularly the youth, attempts were made by vested interests to focus only on the cliché subject of secularism, which has come to be identified with political hypocrisy.

One can only hope and pray that once the dust of the campaigning settles down, civility would be restored back into our polity and the political class would set an example by working together, particularly to resolve major challenges confronting the nation. In this issue, our eminent authors such as M N Buch, Dr A Surya Prakash and Prof B K Kuthiala have dealt with some of these critical issues.

We also have insightful articles on Defence, Diplomacy and Governance from our
distinguished scholars.

Please keep sending us your valuable feedback to enable us to serve you better in future.

The schedule for the Lok Sabha elections have been announced and the stage is set for the battle royale. In what was initially thought would be a Presidential style race between the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and the Congress Vice - President Rahul Gandhi, General Elections 2014 is fast turning into a referendum on the Gujarat Chief Minister, a contest between  Modi and others.The UPA Government has announced sops and freebies ahead of the polls in a last ditch attempt to woo the electorate disgusted with scams, price rise and lack of decisive leadership.

This  bi-monthly issue carries exclusive articles by eminent strategists, academics and journalists on topics ranging from diplomacy to economy.Among other topics,Mr Surya Prakash has analysed the performance of the 15th Lok Sabha while Mr Sushant Sareen has forayed into the political situation in the country by drawing comparisons between the Aam Aadmi Party and the PTI led by Imran Khan in Pakistan.

May - June 2015

March - April 2015

January - February  2015

VIVEK : September October : 2014

November - December  2014

July - August 2014

May  - June  2014

March  - April  2014

January - February 2014

Vivekananda International Foundation’s E-journal carries exclusive articles by distinguished scholars on diplomacy, strategy, governance, defence, neighbourhood, economy, media, history, science and technological Studies.

Selected articles from the E-journal are also featured regularly on the VIF Webiste : http://www.vifindia.org

VIVEK : Issues & Options is also e-disseminated to a large number of interested persons across the globe.

1. You agree that the use of Magzter.com, the application and its services, are at solely at your own risk. Neither Magzter.com nor its associates nor employees nor third party content providers guarantee that the service will be completely uninterrupted or error-free or foolproof against miscreant activities. Nor do they warranty that you will get the exact results as expected or promised by the website or product.

11. THE SERVICE AND ALL PUBLICATIONS ARE PROVIDED ON AN 'AS IS' AND 'AS AVAILABLE' BASIS. MAGZTER, ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS AND AGENTS EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, NEITHER MAGZTER NOR ITS AFFILIATES, SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS OR AGENTS, MAKES ANY WARRANTY THAT (I) THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, (II) THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE, (III) THE INFORMATION THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR THAT MAY BE CONTAINED IN THE PUBLICATIONS WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, OR (IV) THE QUALITY OF ANY PUBLICATIONS OR THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBTAINING AND MAINTAINING RELIABLE INTERNET CONNECTIVITY AND YOUR DEVICE. MAGZTER IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR INABILITY TO DOWNLOAD CONTENT. ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR MOBILE DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM MAGZTER OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SERVICE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY.

2. You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

2.You will maintain and promptly update that information to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account, including the selection and use of all content and services.

3. In no event will Magzter.com or any person or entity or third party involved in the creation, production and distribution of the content on the website and the application be liable in contract or legally for any damages, including and not limited to, direct, indirect, incidental, special, and consequential incurred to you while or on using Magzter.com. By registering on the website or downloading the application, you agree that the provisions mentioned in this section shall apply to all use of and content on the website and the application.

3. Without prior written or authorised permission from Magzter, you should not modify, copy, distribute or sell any content obtained from Magzter as everything published here is the proprietary property of Magzter or its licensors. As such unauthorised use may also violate applicable laws including copyright and trademark laws, Magzter strictly prohibits these and will terminate your access and account if any such illegal activity is proved or detected. You should also stand liable for the damages caused by these unauthorised activities. Except as permitted by the Publication's lawful owner, you acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading Publications accessed through the Service. Except as explicitly required under copyright law or permitted by the features of the Service you may not modify, reverse engineer, publish, transmit, display, participate in the transfer or sale, create derivative works of, or in any way commercially exploit or provide to a third party the content of the App, the Publications, or any portion of them without the express permission of Magzter and the owner of such content. We do not grant you any licenses, express or implied, to the intellectual property of Magzter or Magzter's licensors.

5. You specifically acknowledge that Magzter.com is not liable for any kind of defamatory or offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties or their content and that the risk of injury from the foregoing rests entirely with you.

8. Magzter reserves all rights to monitor the content published and inputted by you for the purpose of determining whether you are compliant with these terms and conditions and other operating rules determined by Magzter. Magzter has the right to take decisions about the content and delete them at its own will.

9. Magzter is a distributor and NOT a publisher of the Publications and so Magzter has no editorial control over the content, including opinions, advice, statements, services, offers etc., that is represented in the magazines. So Magzter will not take responsibility for the accuracy or the reliability for any information or facts provided therein or that is made available through the service, by anyone other than authorised Magzter employees who are acting on their official capacities. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered by the Service, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of Magzter. Magzter will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through the Service or from the Publications. The Service may contain links to other Internet sites and third-party resources and Magzter does not assume any responsibility or liability for communications or materials available at such linked sites. These links are provided for your convenience only. You are solely responsible for understanding any terms and conditions that may apply when you visit or place an order through a third-party site.

Details of the objectionable content, including its link on our platform

Download your favorite titles and read them offline, anytime and anywhere

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines and newspapers from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from thousands of best-selling titles.

Gift your loved ones with a Magzter Gift Card instantly and give them the freedom to read their favorite magazines from {{magCount}} best-selling international titles.

Girish Ramdas is the Co-founder and CEO of Magzter, a New York based startup that has been making waves in the global digital publishing business. Magzter has crossed 80 million users since its inception in 2011 from more than 150+ countries with 1000s of magazines, newspapers and books from more than 4,500 publishers worldwide. He has more than 25 years of experience in cross-platform publishing, including print, mobile, and Web development. During this period, he has co-founded and run three successful start-up businesses. He has enabled magazine companies to go digital and helps them monetize their content across the digital world. Girish's deep industry experience in online, mobile and publishing ecosystems has made him an expert in acquisition, marketing and monetizing digital content across platforms globally.

In the event that you encounter any objectionable content on our platform, we have put in place a grievance redressal policy to address your concerns.

Magzter Inc. (“Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared. Please read the following privacy policy (the “Policy”) to learn more about our privacy practices. By visiting any of the websites operated by the Company, and any sub-domains thereof, or using any of our mobile applications and other methods of content distribution (collectively, the “Service”), you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Policy, and you hereby consent that we will collect, use, and share your information in the following ways.

Magzter Inc. is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 80 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

Magzter is committed to providing a safe and secure platform for our users. Please note that Magzter is merely a platform for publishers to distribute their content. We do not control or endorse the content published on our platform. We cannot be held responsible for the actions of our publishers or their content.

Magzter is not responsible for compensating any party that has suffered damages or incurred costs due to any content, or part of the content, that violates their rights. Magzter is not liable to face any legal action in civil court for any violation of rights caused by any content, or part of the content, that infringes the rights of a third party.

Magzter offers the world’s largest {{allyoucanread}} subscription service called {{gold}} which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Magzter offers the world’s largest “All-You-Can-Read” subscription service called Magzter GOLD which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

Name

Note: This will only share the cover and the publication information, but not the content.

Please fill out this form if you need any help regarding publishing your content on Magzter

Prior to Magzter, he was the President of Dot Com Infoway (DCI) and Galatta Media. His duties included strategic marketing, partnership development, and monetizing content globally. DCI grew from a small team of 3 in 2000 to 300 by 2011 and was dealing with web, software and app development for clients globally.

Since we launched, Magzter has been committed to partnering with global organizations to provide the greatest possible newsstand technology & service to our customers. Whether you are looking to offer magazine subscriptions to your customer database or just want to learn more, Magzter is committed to helping your business grow. To find out more, please fill out the questionnaire below:

The DMCA allows us to restore the removed content if the party filing the original DMCA Notice does not file a court action against you within ten business days of receiving the copy of your Counter Notice.

This Policy covers Company’s treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Information”) and other information about you and your computer or device that Company gathers when you are accessing the Service. We may collect Personal Information from you, as explained in more detail below, and we use this Personal Information internally in connection with our Services, including to personalize, provide, and improve our products, services, content, and advertising, and to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to analyze how you use the Services. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described in point 4.

This title is included with your Magzter GOLD subscription

To analyze the quality of content and provide appropriate feedback to publishers

We have designated a Grievance Officer to address any complaints related to objectionable content.

We request that any complaint related to objectionable content be sent to the Grievance Officer through email to the above-mentioned email address. We also request that you provide the following details when making a complaint:

and the App that provides you the capability to order, subscribe to and receive the delivery of various magazines, books, news and magazine and publication related content (collectively known as 'Publications') and to have these digital versions of the Publications delivered to you

c. We also collect information associated with your use of the application in order to make personalized recommendations. If you provide your third-party account credentials to us, you understand some content and/or information in those accounts (“Third Party Account Information”) may be transmitted into your account with us if you authorize such transmissions, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to the Service is covered by this Policy.

f. The Personal Information we collect allows us to respond to your requests, improve our products and services, customize the advertising and content you see, and communicate with you about new products.

is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

n. We will also use usage information in order to ensure users adhere to our Terms of Use. For example, a user’s usage information will help us confirm that a user only downloads a magazine or other content a permitted number of times or to a permitted number of devices.

which gives digital readers unlimited access to 8,500+ magazines and newspapers for a monthly subscription price. Magzter also has the largest number of stories in the world with its game-changing ezRead 2.0 feature for its apps, which enables smartphone and small-screen mobile users to enjoy magazine content the way it was meant to be enjoyed, with article text that is easy to read and is accompanied by stunning videos and high resolution photography.

{{magzter}} is the World's largest and fastest growing self-service, cross-platform digital newsstand with over 87 million users since its inception in 2011 and thousands of magazines and newspapers across 40+ categories and 60+ languages. Headquartered in New York, Magzter has its local presence in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Singapore, and will soon be expanding to other countries. Founded by global entrepreneurs, Girish Ramdas and Vijay Radhakrishnan in June 2011, Magzter enables magazine and newspaper publishers around the world to create and deliver digital editions of their titles to global consumers.

VIVEK : Issues & Options- All Issues