rainbowz

Why is this boost in capacity needed? India needs to boost refining capacity to meet growing demand. India’s current refining capacity of 249.9 million tonnes per annum exceeds domestic consumption of petroleum products which was 213.7 million tonnes in the previous fiscal.  However, India’s consumption of petroleum products is likely to rise to 335 million tonnes per annum by 2030 and to 472 million tonnes by 2040 according to government estimates.  How will this be achieved? The expansion in refining capacity will come from both brownfield and greenfield projects.  The new refinery project in Ratnagiri is one of the key projects in the planned expansion and  has received investment  from Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s national oil companies — Saudi Aramco and ADNOC respectively — which together own 50 per cent of the project while the remaining 50 per cent is owned by Indian PSUs, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Hindu...

Gujral doctrine  can play a significant role in shaping South Asia. IK Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral was sworn in as the  12 th  Prime Minister of India  from April 1997 to May 1998. IK Gujral can be remembered for  two significant contributions to Indian foreign policy: One, he propounded the  'Gujral doctrine'  when he was the union minister of External Affairs in the HD Deve Gowda Government. It is considered a milestone in India's foreign policy. Two, despite international pressure, Gujral firmly  refused to sign the   Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)  in October 1996. What is the Gujral Doctrine? The Gujral Doctrine is a set of  five principles  to guide the conduct of foreign relations with India’s immediate neighbours. These five principles arise from the belief that  India’s stature and strength cannot be isolated from the quality of its relations with its neighbours. It, thus, recognises the  supr...

Soft power  is the ability to attract and co-opt, rather than coerce (hard  power ).  Soft power  is the ability to shape the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. A defining feature of  soft power  is that it is non-coercive; the currency of  soft power  is culture, political values, and foreign policies. The term Soft Power was first used by the eminent IR scholar Joseph Nye in his book "Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power.” The  United Kingdom  leads the world in soft power diplomacy. It is closely followed by  France ,  Germany , United States, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, and Australia in that order. India's Soft Power The most important element is India’s long history, culture and civilization. In the 1980s, the famous theatre personality Peter Brook produced the Mahabharata with a universal cast. The impact was spectacular. The great Indian epic became popul...

In the 2040s, India is  expected  to surpass the United States (in PPP terms) and become the world’s second largest economy, behind China. Alongside this Indian emergence, the international order is undergoing significant change as well, with power increasingly diffused among states as a new, multipolar geostrategic landscape begins to emerge with fresh layers of complexities. These developments have the potential to position India as the world’s most influential democracy in the second half of the 21st century, giving it the ability to shape the Indo-Pacific region and the dynamically evolving global order. ASIA POWER INDEX India is ranked a “major power” in the Lowy Institute’s new Asia Power Index. The country comes in near the top in the overall power rankings, just behind the US, China, and Japan. India also comes in third in terms of its cultural influence, as well as on the “future trends” measure. These two components of overall power reflect the visibility of Indian b...

Nuclear Doctrine of India India built its first research reactor in 1956 and its first plutonium reprocessing plant by 1964. India's nuclear programme can trace its origins to March 1944 and its  three-stage  efforts in technology were established by  Homi Jehangir Bhabha  when he founded the nuclear research centre, the  Tata Institute of Fundamental Research . India's  loss of territory to China in a brief Himalayan border war in October 1962, provided the New Delhi government impetus for developing  nuclear  weapons as a means of deterring potential Chinese aggression. By 1964  India  was in a position to develop  nuclear  weapons. India has had its  first nuclear test in May 1974  during the government of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The name of this nuclear test was  "Smiling Buddha" .  After this, the Pokhran-II test was a part of the series of  five nuclear tests conducted between 11...