2026

India and Taiwan’s evolving entente commerciale: trade and informal defense cooperation between Taiwan-India

India and Taiwan’s evolving entente commerciale: trade and informal defense cooperation between Taiwan-India

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.

India’s defence export rise opens a door for Australia

India’s defence export rise opens a door for Australia

By Dhruva Jaishankar

The new joint defense declaration between India and Australia articulated a more ambitious objective of defense industrial cooperation, including to “develop arrangements for advanced defense science and technology collaboration.” This may appear challenging, but India has made remarkable developments in its defense industrial capabilities over the past five years. These offer little-appreciated opportunities for many of its partners, including Australia.

Beyond the NZ-India free trade agreement: What comes next?

Beyond the NZ-India free trade agreement: What comes next?

By Dhruva Jaishankar

A world in which freedom of navigation or energy supplies can be imperiled by the actions of others will require more international partnerships. A consolidation of relations between the governments of India and New Zealand makes eminent sense in this context. While an FTA is a welcome development, it remains just one step toward what can be a much more broad-based and mutually-beneficial partnership.

The energy sector is AI's natural home. Right now, it's fumbling that edge

The energy sector is AI's natural home. Right now, it's fumbling that edge

By Piyush Verma and Andrei Covatariu

Much of the conversation in Geneva rightly focused on managing AI's growing energy demand. That work is essential, but it is only half the story. The larger opportunity lies in how AI can reduce energy use across industry, buildings, transport and power systems, while enabling greater integration of renewable energy.

Port of hope

Port of hope

By Vasabjit Banerjee

China evidently recognises the Calcutta Port System as an economic force multiplier for India’s economic power in the region. The Indian government has recently advanced several solutions, from modernisation to expansion of the port system. Yet, more needs to be done by the Indian government and private investors to strengthen the port system to ward off Chinese influence.

Debt office overhaul overdue in low-income countries

Debt office overhaul overdue in low-income countries

By Udaibir Das

Two decades of relief and reform treated debt management as a capacity problem. In a low-income country, it is statecraft; the office must stand as an institution of the state, mandated, autonomous and accountable. Reforming it and holding the sovereign and parliament accountable for outcomes means the debt cycle finally has a circuit breaker.

Who is the governor?

Who is the governor?

By Udaibir Das

If the governor is the last port of call, choosing one is not a staffing decision. The question is no longer who is senior or who is loyal, but who can fight a fire, who can say no and whose word the market will trust at three in the morning. Independence can be hollowed without being repealed. The clause reads perfectly while the substance is gone.

Systemic Sovereign Financial Risk: Re-Anchoring Sovereign Funds in the Sovereign’s Policy Mandate

Systemic Sovereign Financial Risk: Re-Anchoring Sovereign Funds in the Sovereign’s Policy Mandate

By Udaibir Das

Drawing on the public sector balance sheet literature, the economics of sovereign self-insurance, and the Knightian distinction between risk and uncertainty, this paper argues that conventional sovereign asset-liability management is necessary but incomplete.

Why the UAE’s OPEC exit signals a deeper recalibration of state autonomy

Why the UAE’s OPEC exit signals a deeper recalibration of state autonomy

By Udaibir Das

More moves of this kind should be expected, extending beyond energy into critical minerals, technology standards, industrial policy, and cross-border finance. The UAE’s decision is not an outlier. It is a marker — not of fragmentation, but of redefinition.

Expanding India’s Role in the International Semiconductor Ecosystem

Expanding India’s Role in the International Semiconductor Ecosystem

By Sujai Shivakumar, Hideki Tomoshige, and Jeffrey D. Bean

India is positioning itself as an increasingly important node in the global semiconductor ecosystem, building on its established strengths in chip design and deep pool of STEM talent. These efforts come at a time when global semiconductor supply chains remain highly concentrated, creating opportunities for India to contribute to diversification and resilience. 

When conflicts rewire banks

When conflicts rewire banks

By Udaibir Das

Under conditions of armed conflict and state rupture, banking shifts away from decentralized intermediation towards directed, survival-orientated finance. Yet the policy conversation has concentrated on sanctions, commodities and trade — the institutional reorganization of banking under conflict remains less well examined.

The Structural and Political Factors of the U.S. Reset with the World

The Structural and Political Factors of the U.S. Reset with the World

By Dhruva Jaishankar

For countries around the world — whether allies, partners, or competitors of the United States — there are important and immediate questions of how much and to what degree they will accommodate, or hedge against, the United States’ new approach to the world.