A particular ritual occurs in the Indian defence sector’s reporting today, so familiar that it no longer registers as strange or distinct in what it actually does for the sector. The Defence Acquisition Council meets, and a figure is announced. Just recently, on the 3rd of July, 2026, this figure was 52,000 crore rupees. Illustration by The Geostrata This amount was cleared for anti-drone systems, air defence, and high-altitude surveillance platforms, amongst the defence mode

The partition severed a continent from the Indian perspective. Every direct land route India could have used to reach Central Asia in historic arteries through Peshawar, Kandahar, and Khyber fell on the hostile side of the frontier. For years after independence, India’s Central Asia policy has rested more on a wish than a plan. There is indirect hope that Pakistan would permit transit or that Afghanistan stabilises enough as a worthy substitute. Illustration by The Geostrata

The Indus Waters Treaty has been placed in abeyance by India, bringing about fresh worries over Pakistan's water security. However, the failing nation's fragility goes beyond the upstream geopolitics; it is also the result of decades of institutional sluggishness, under-investment and the failure to transform assured access to water into lasting economic resilience. Illustration by The Geostrata 2022 should have been a memorable summer for Pakistan, as it had excess water. Ra

In April of 2025, terrorists linked to the Pakistani organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) perpetrated one of the heinous acts of terror against innocent civilians in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in India. In the aftermath of the attack, India took many strategic, military and diplomatic steps to secure its national interest. One such step was the decision to place the Indus Water Treaty, 1960, in abeyance. Infographic by Eurasian Meridian For more than six decades, the Indus Wa

In 2023, India crossed the historic milestone of having the greatest population, as it exceeded China's, and now, in 2026, the number has gone up to 1.47 billion, with headlines shouting the phrase “overpopulation.” The old colonial slurs about India’s people “breeding like rats” have started to echo, however faintly, in modern conversation nowadays. Illustration by The Geostrata With an overwhelming increase in public discomfort, an important question starts to emerge: Is In

For years, world energy politics had been centred around crude oil and the actions of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). But in recent decades, as the world shifts from fossil fuel to cleaner energy, the geopolitical balance is shifting from the oil wells to the mineral mines. And the most severe geopolitical tug-of-war is now taking place over key metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, which play a vital role in electric vehicle (EV) battery pr

Trade finance is the financial instruments and services used to facilitate global trade in order to fill the gap between the dispatch of goods and the receipt of payment. It mitigates the risks associated with exports and imports through techniques like export credit, guarantees, insurance, and letters of credit, while facilitating cross-border trade. Illustration by The Geostrata Ports, highways, and manufacturing facilities receive policy attention, but for firms to compete

When the Philippines had its landmark BrahMos deal signed in 2022, it was not simply procuring a missile battery; it was signalling a strategic alignment with India, by supporting a rules-based maritime order against an assertive China in the South China Sea. That signal has since grown louder, with Vietnam in advanced discussions with India, and Indonesia has also expressed its interest in procuring BrahMos. Illustration by The Geostrata The export orders surge is as a resul

The synergy of India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has advanced into one of the most pivotal strategic partnerships in the contemporary international system. Once propelled by energy trade and diaspora connections, bilateral ties today integrate trade, investment, food security, technology, infrastructure, defence cooperation, renewable energy, and regional diplomacy. Illustration by The Geostrata This depicts a broader similarity of priorities, especially because India

On a map, they are almost insultingly small. A chain of islands so minute that the eye skips past them, drawn instead to the vast blue nothing surrounding them. But the ocean is not just an empty space. It is a highway. And an island is the only place you can build a tollbooth. And yet these fragments of territory, which are remote, often uninhabited, and ecologically fragile, are among the most contested pieces of land on earth. Empires were built to control them. Treaties h

In 2019, Delhi left the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) due to concerns regarding asymmetric exposure to unchecked Chinese manufacturing for the Indian market through ASEAN routes. The exit was not irrational by any means; the concerns about arbitrage regarding rules of origin were justified. However, this has left India as the largest economy in the region behind China, without a diversified trade anchor to rely on. Illustration by The Geostrata Now, joini

FROM THE MCMOHAN LINE TO MODERN CLAIMS: THE HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE DISPUTE India's neighbourhood is marked by complex geopolitical realities, with both Pakistan and China posing distinct challenges to its security, diplomacy, and regional interests. The India-Pakistan relations are clearly adversarial in nature. In addition to cross-border terrorism, Pakistan uses a number of other asymmetric methods, such as narcoterrorism, disinformation campaigns, diplomatic hindrances, a

The most momentous trade route in Asia is not marked on any state cartography. It does not feature in economic surveys, permeate in infrastructure summits or govern headlines like nautical bottlenecks and energy corridors. Despite this, it traverses some of the continent's geopolitically charged, vulnerable terrain from the hinterlands of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iran to the untamed highlands of Myanmar and the turbulent borderlands of Northeast India. Its freight is ne

India is one of the fastest-growing energy markets on the planet, while being the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil and the second-largest importer. Yet for a country whose economy depends substantially on imported oil, the strategic reserves portray quite an alarming story, a vision where infrastructure has grown but not quite fast enough. Illustration by The Geostrata THE SCALE OF DEPENDENCE To understand why India’s oil storage matters, it is imperative to first

Contemporary India’s strategic environment is like the Chakravyuh from the Mahabharat. The Chakravyuh was a military formation, and it had multiple layers to not only attack but also isolate the opponent from all sides. Abhimanyu knew how to enter it but not how to exit. The present situation of India is similar to that of Abhimanyu’s. Illustration by The Geostrata The layers of the Chakravyuh are a strong analogy to the present layers of encirclement faced by India. The fir

The world as a civilisation progressed through the firm establishment of trading routes among ancient empires, through the maritime routes, evolving to the nuanced Silk Road and then to the creation of the World Trade Organisation. These collective events highlight how important trading has been for any evolved civilisation throughout history across timelines. In the contemporary world, trading is not just limited to the material exchange but has gone beyond to establishing g

The ever-growing trend of bilateral FTAs in the global economy today can provide lessons to New Delhi amid its own push for the same. One such example would be Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia has been restructuring its EU FTA since 2025. The agreement focuses on adding value to the Malaysian semiconductor industry and on moving from assembly to chip design and fabrication. Trade access is being used as leverage to secure technology and R&D investment. Illustration by The Geostrata Th

“The Pakistani state’s oppression on its own people is a reality, which becomes into an cowardly irony whenever they face off against their avowed enemy, India.” A THROWBACK IN TIME The partition of India was not just a political division; it separated millions of people who had once fought together for freedom. It was based largely on religious demographics, creating Pakistan as a separate homeland for Muslims, while the rest became India. The real challenge was not drawing

A MARKET CATCHING FIRE India, however, is changing its journey. The subcontinent of a billion people is no longer shifting gears to the growls of petrol engines, but to silence. India’s 2025 total retail sales of electric vehicles exceeded 165,000 units, with battery electric vehicle sales reaching 176,500 units, a 77 per cent increase for all categories of vehicles in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Illustration by The Geostrata Two-wheelers and thr

On 10 June, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will surpass Pt Nehru as India's longest-serving elected Prime Minister, and when a leader breaks a longevity record, the first temptation is to treat it as a sporting achievement. It represents a significant moment in the history of the world's largest democracy, inviting reflection on the two leaders who shaped India in vastly different eras. Illustration by The Geostrata Narendra Modi's emergence as a transformational and charismati