India

New Delhi's indirect support to the Russian position is not a product of Russian pressure. Neither is it about its genuine belief about Russia’s legitimate interests in Ukraine. Rather, it is the result of a desire to safeguard its own interests, strategic vulnerability and 'non-alignment'- a cultural foreign policy ethos that prevails in Indian thinking.

A satellite image-based investigation by Vertical52 reveals the extent of child labor in illegal mines in India that produce mica, a critical mineral for the tech industry. The research illustrates the need for stricter rules for companies like the ones the EU proposes in its draft directive on corporate sustainability due diligence. The investigation also shows that comprehensive solutions have to go beyond import bans and corporate liability.

At the third session of the 22nd Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Foreign Policy Conference, the penultimate panel focused on the German-Indian relationship - and the blurred lines between environmental and climate issues.

Global climate policy is the subject of multiple announcements put to the test over the course of these two weeks of COP26. Between the countries that have established carbon neutrality targets for 2050 (the United States and the European Union) and those looking to 2060 or further instead (Russia, China, India), the major challenge lies not in the deadlines, but in the translation of these dramatic promises into concrete actions.

India is the world’s largest exporter of buffalo, sheep and goat meat. Remarkably, the majority of this output is produced in traditional agropastoral systems.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in recent days has brought new dimensions of  human suffering and political crisis. Afghans are fearful of encountering hostile environments in their neighbouring countries and, in the case of Pakistan, possible security threats for ethnic and religious minorities. 

Urgently addressing the growing impact of climate change in developing countries, especially on the most poor and marginalized people and communities, requires a better understanding of what constitutes adaptation, how it applies in local contexts, and how to increase the quantity and quality of financing provided for such measures.

The need for cross-border data sharing throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that the future of multilateral threat management will hinge on steady yet flexible open-data publishing norms and multilateral data-transfer agreements. In many ways, India typifies the perspectives and needs of emerging economies related to data sharing, data flows, and related commercial regulation.