World and Us

Friendly relations between nations are under stress from rampaging bull' China, which is expending much of its newly-acquired energy in browbeating its neighbours. Sharing geographical boundaries with China and its client States, some of which, like Pakistan, openly support terrorism, India is waging a lonely battle against Chinese hegemony. Our relationship with China is fraught with contradictions: dependence on cheap Chinese imports ensures that despite a continuing military confrontation with China, it remains our biggest trading partner. Thus, for India, the challenge is threefold, military, political and economic

- DEVENDRA SAKSENA

“It was the best of times,it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” (A tale of two cities, 1859). The opening lines of the Charles Dickens classic aptly describe contemporary human civilisation; while the rich denizens of the Global North enjoy unlimited prosperity, people of the Global South are battling starvation and climate change; even with computers increasing human intelligence manifold, mankind is frittering away scarce resources in needless strife.

The world order has changed; the might of Russia has declined and a Chinese pole has emerged to challenge the unipolar dominance of the US, and its allies. The new Cold War and the wave of jingoism sweeping the entire globe has disrupted global supply chains built on the Ricardian principle of comparative advantage, where each country produced only what it could, at the lowest comparative cost.