By Brian Webster, Alan Gelb, and Anit Mukherjee
Shifting the payment of social transfers from cash to direct deposit via bank or mobile money accounts can directly improve efficiency for governments and convenience for beneficiaries. It may also produce positive spillovers such as boosting financial inclusion and empowering women. But do these spillovers materialize, and under what circumstances?
By Udaibir Das
The Trevor Manuel G20 Africa Expert Panel Report reframes Africa’s constraints as a single system of mispricing, debt compression and governance asymmetry. Its proposals for refinancing, collective bargaining and International Monetary Fund quota reform mark the first coordinated attempt to shift power within the international financial architecture.
By Udaibir Das
Ubuntu economics does not invoke moral claims. It advances a structural argument: Africa’s demographic momentum, mineral endowments and ecological assets are central to global prosperity, and instability in the region imposes system-wide costs. The reform frameworks are now primarily in place. The question is whether the political and institutional conditions of 2026 permit their implementation.
By Piyush Verma and Telmen Altanshagai
Mongolia is not just a customer or supplier—but a co-partner in building new regional supply-chains, new corridors and new resource-alliances. It speaks to a future where India is not simply plugged into global energy markets, but co-creating them.
By Udaibir Das
While stability prevails in institutional titles, resilience prevails in policy content. This shift influences the oversight and allocation of approximately $470tn in global financial assets. This has structural implications and affects public accountability.
By Anit Mukherjee, Alan Gelb, and Brian Webster
This study considers the experience of the mothers with the shift to mobile money, and to the change in payments service provider that took place in 2019, through a survey of recipients and a control group.
By Sadiq Amini
If China’s Afghanistan policy is anything to go by, it is clear that it is not yet ready to wear the title of regional power, much less global power.
By Anit Mukherjee
Data is a challenge, but with imaginative incentives, metrics, and solutions such as an AgriStack, we can look forward to a new agricultural revolution over the coming decade.
By Anit Mukherjee, Alan Gelb, and Brian Webster
This study surveys the payment system from the perspective of recipients, including their views on convenience and the benefits from competition.
By Shayak Sengupta, Sumil K Thakrar, Kirat Singh, Rahul Tongia, Jason D. Hill, Ines M. L. Azevedo, and Peter J. Adams
Air pollution and greenhouse gases from India's coal-dominant electricity system causes widespread, premature deaths in the country.
The focus of this issue of the U.S.-India Energy Monitor is natural gas in the United States and India.
Special Report
By Shayak Sengupta
By Dhruva Jaishankar
A divided Congress, a divided Republican Party, and a divided America may still be able to get some things done in the next two years.
By Shayak Sengupta, Peter Adams, Thomas Deetjen, Puneet Kamboj, Swati D'Souza, Rahul Tongia, and Inês Azevedo
Electricity consumption and emissions of states in India are similar to differences between those of entire countries.
By Dhruva Jaishankar
India is the second largest producer of STEM graduates after China, churning out about five times as many as the US each year.
By Sadiq Amini
Pakistan is clearly worried, and rightly so. Hence, unlike the 1990s, Islamabad has not recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
Increased malicious cyber activities by criminals and state actors undermine the technical security of digital systems and threaten the industrial, social, and economic systems that rely on them.
Special Report
By Abagail Lawson
By Dhruva Jaishankar
Japan’s relations with India are currently healthy but, in some respects, the proverbial glass appears only half full.
Recent developments – most notably the rise and assertiveness of the People’s Republic of China – have led to a rethink about the role of democracy in Indian foreign policy.
Special Report
By Dhruva Jaishankar & Ammar Nainar
By Andreas Kuehn
Supply chain breakdowns and disruptions through cyber or other means can have
significant regional and global effects.
By Andreas Kuehn
The industry has for long been criticized for not paying sufficient attention to the cybersecurity of its products.
India Climate Update is produced by Observer Research Foundation America (ORF America), Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and facilitated and distributed by ClimateWorks Foundation.
The focus of this issue of the U.S.-India Energy Monitor is the wind sector in the United States and India.
Special Report
By Shayak Sengupta & Jahanvi Singh
By Mchael Depp
The digitalization of national intelligence systems has made it possible for NATO to more effectively support Ukraine’s efforts with intelligence sharing.
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