By Prateek Tripathi
Though the field of quantum computing is not mature enough to provide remarkable practical applications at the moment, recent developments serve to exemplify the asymmetric nature of quantum technology development and how multiple incremental advancements can potentially lead to overall progress.
By Amoha Basrur and Pranoy Jainendran
With applications already spanning the automotive, aerospace, and data-centre sectors, spintronics has become a strategic priority for countries with the manufacturing capacity to compete for it, driving targeted R&D funding, national roadmaps, and industry partnerships aimed at securing technological leadership and supply chain resilience.
By Siddharth Yadav
Global corporate AI investment reached US$581.7 billion in 2025, more than double the previous year’s total, with most of it flowing to the economies that already dominate research and hardware. Economies with nascent domestic digital infrastructure, investment vehicles, research ecosystems, and governance frameworks risk being marginalized by the AI-driven future.
By Gopalika Arora
The retrenchment of finance is not merely a result of a temporary slowdown in climate finance commitments by the developed countries. It may also signal a deeper restructuring of the climate finance architecture driven by changing institutional priorities within the multilateral system that was expected to anchor the transition.
By Parul Bakshi and Lydia Powell
Over the past decade, three structural shifts have been reordering global energy trade, encompassing not only traditional oil and gas flows but also the rapidly growing cross-border trade in electricity and clean energy goods.
By Piyush Verma
For the Global South, the stakes are particularly high: the energy transition could unlock industrialization, resilience, and strategic bargaining power, but it could also reproduce older patterns of dependency through new technologies, standards, minerals, and financial asymmetries.
By Andreas Kuehn and Cauvery Ganapathy
While the integration of AI offers benefits for the optimization of energy systems through grid management, renewable energy integration, predictive maintenance, and accurate forecasting of alternative forms of energy, its energy-intensive nature could also negatively impact the countries and ecosystems seeking to adopt it.
By Medha Prasanna
The oil age will not end because the world runs out of oil, but because oil reserves stop being worth pumping. The UAE has moved fast, not as just a knee-jerk reaction to the conflict in the region, but as a strategic divergence.
By Andre Nicola
Across South America, governments are increasingly framing environmental regulation as a constraint on growth, investment, and national competitiveness. South America's political direction over the next several years will be an early test of whether economic development can be reconciled with environmental stewardship throughout the region.
By Pietro Zecca
Pursued only through scattered pilot projects, industrial decarbonization stays fragmented and slow. Organized as clusters, it becomes more practical and politically durable, connecting climate finance to visible assets and bridging decarbonization with development.
By Uma Vatsa and Shailesh Mishra
The AI industry is making large, long-lived bets on future demand, even as the technology itself is becoming more efficient. If AI systems become cheaper to run, more efficient to train, or less dependent on massively centralized compute, some of today’s infrastructure may prove oversized, poorly located, or economically fragile.
By Anit Mukherjee
As crude oil prices moderate and energy supplies become more predictable, India has an opportunity to address three key challenges.
By Ashita Jain
The proposed India-U.S. trade deal discussions are distinct from traditional FTA negotiations, for they resemble a strategic economic partnership being negotiated under tariff pressure and in pursuit of an increasingly elusive sense of predictability for Indian exporters.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
What’s the latest on U.S.-India relations? Dhruva Jaishankar answers.
By Samriddhi Vij, Akram Zaoui, and Mahdi Ghuloom
In the early hours of June 15, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed an announcement by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that a peace deal between the United States and Iran had been reached, iterating that both sides had declared “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.” ORF Middle East experts offer their quick takes.
Learn more about our major initiatives, as well as our convening and research on international security, technology policy, energy & climate, and economic development. Learn more about our staff and fellows.
Around the World Podcast
By Udaibir Das
To effectively manage debt and all liabilities, a top-down, country-wide reform is necessary to move towards a comprehensive liability management function.
By Kirat Singh, Tapas Peshin, Shayak Sengupta, Sumil K Thakrar, Christopher W Tessum, Jason D Hill, Inês M L Azevedo and Stephen P Luby
Absolute annual mortality ranges from less than 1 to over 650 deaths/year across units, and the mortality intensity of generation varies from under 0.002 to 0.43 deaths/GWh.
By Tapas Peshin, Shayak Sengupta, Sumil K Thakrar, Kirat Singh, Jason Hill, Joshua S Apte, Christopher W Tessum, Julian D Marshall and Inês M L Azevedo
Higher increases in pollution exposure are seen in scheduled castes/tribes, poor, and rural populations particularly in high coal production states.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
But the biggest obstacle remains China. China alone among the P-5 has not voiced support for the expansion of permanent UNSC seats but often hides behind others in negotiations.
Contribution from the Cyberspace Cooperation Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation America in the context of the seventh substantive session of the Open-ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025 (March 2024).
By Udaibir Das and Wayne Byres
After 50 years, the Basel Committee’s standards are crucial for maintaining global financial stability.
By Udaibir Das
The current global economic and capital market conditions necessitate reassessing conventional portfolio construction and risk management practices.
By Udaibir Das
Multilateral reform remains complex and demands patience to ensure that the process is transparent and inclusive.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
At a basic level, India’s large diaspora in the US and a shared sense of democracy continue to contribute to deepening India-US relations.
By Jeffrey D. Bean and Stephen Ezell
The United States has taken several key steps that we advocated. Foremost was passing the CHIPS and Science Act with bipartisan Congressional support in August 2022, which included appropriations of $52.7 billion for the CHIPS Act.
By Udaibir Das
Africa stands on the precipice of a financial renaissance, poised to redefine its influence in the global investment sphere.
By Sadiq Amini
A choice hasn’t been made, but non-Taliban stakeholders are eager for a policy change.
By Udaibir Das
As a unified bloc, Africa can negotiate better terms in international trade agreements, investment deals and financial arrangements.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
There are important differences between Biden and Trump on alliances, climate policy, immigration, tariffs, and democracy.
By Sadiq Amini
By spearheading the restoration of democracy in Afghanistan, Taiwan could eventually forge a strong alliance with a democratic Afghanistan.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
ORF America Executive Director Dhruva Jaishankar was interviewed by Adrija Chatterjee of Moneycontrol on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi.
By Sadiq Amini
Communal tensions are at fever pitch as the military seeks to steer the vote.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
Taiwan’s political status will inevitably be a zero-sum matter in the intensifying global competition between China and the US.
By Udaibir Das
Today’s financial sector is complex and plagued by structural flaws and unfinished reforms.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
As official EU-India relations have surged ahead over the past year, the non-governmental sector will quickly need to catch up.
By Piyush Verma
This diplomatic moment offers an opportunity built on the India-Indonesia relationship: closer cooperation with the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum, or IBSA.
Edited Volume
By Andreas Kuehn, Cauvery Ganapathy, Piyush Verma, Parul Bakshi, Lydia Powell, Gopalika Arora, Siddharth Yadav, Amoha Basrur, Pranoy Jainendran, Prateek Tripathi, and Sauradeep Bag
Editors: Sharon Stirling and Eszter Karacsony
By Benjamin Tkach and Vasabjit Banerjee
We evaluate cooperative steps that both India and Taiwan have taken in the defense arena, demonstrating how mutual antagonist China, economic ties, and budding security coordination are creating an entente.
