Engaging India: The U.S. Role in India’s Fight against HIV/AIDS

A report by Teresita C. Schaffer and Pramit Mitra on the Task Force on HIV/AIDS, as directed by the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is both a major international issue for the United States and one of the most serious questions hanging over India’s future, extending beyond public health into India’s economic and social prospects. Since 1986, when the first case was reported in India, HIV has spread rapidly from urban to rural areas and from high-risk groups to the general population.

Originally published by CSIS on June 1, 2005. View the entire report, or the annotated version.

India and Pakistan—Still Moving Forward

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on peace developments between India and Pakistan.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to host a dinner on September 14 in New York for Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf made headlines, but the event did not provide the same visible boost for the peace process as their 2004 meeting. However, their dialogue is still moving ahead. The most encouraging development in the past six months is the start of discussions between Kashmiris and the governments of both India and Pakistan. There has been modest progress on the rest of the India-Pakistan agenda. These developments provide a backdrop for quiet diplomacy. A few missteps along the way are inevitable, but the two national leaders are learning about one another’s sensitivities and taking the process seriously.

Originally published in the Center for Strategic & International StudiesSouth Asia Monitor on October 1, 2005. Read the entire article.

India, Pakistan and Kashmir: Of Buses and People

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on India’s and Pakistan’s decision to start a bus service between the separated parts of Kashmir, and the resulting rejuvenated peace talks between the countries.

The agreement on the basic arrangements for starting bus service between Srinagar, capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, and Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan-administered part, came as a badly needed tonic to an India-Pakistan dialogue that was in danger of petering out. The agreement balanced the needs of both sides. Pakistan got its way on the knotty question of travel documents: rather than passports and visas, travelers will carry entry permits, to be issued within each side’s part of Kashmir and apparently approved by the other side. India succeeded in opening travel to all citizens, rather than restricting it to residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Originally published in the Center for Strategic & International StudiesSouth Asia Monitor on April 1, 2005. Read the entire article.

Outsourcing: The New Big Thing or the Slippery Slope?

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer and Shilpa Rajan on the implications of the growing trend of U.S. companies outsourcing jobs to India.

Outsourcing has provided additional jobs for India and lower costs for U.S. businesses, creating winners and losers in both countries. The most interesting questions concern its impact on international production processes. Outsourcing-related sectors are among the most open in the Indian economy. Will their success encourage greater openness? The United States, with its generally open market and its array of multinational corporations, has for the past three decades been steadily integrating with the rest of the world. The same is true within individual major corporations. Regardless of possible changes to tax codes or requirements for government procurement in the United States, and barring a major depression or interruption in telecommunications services, this trend is now likely to encompass services that do not need to be rendered in person.

Originally published in the Center for Strategic & International StudiesSouth Asia Monitor on December 1, 2004. Read the entire article.

Special Report: Rising India and U.S. Policy Options in Asia

A report by Teresita C. Schaffer and Mandavi Mehta on the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ year-long “Rising India and U.S. Policy Options in Asia” study and its corresponding conference.

India has completed a decade of economic growth at twice its pace in the last half-century and has emerged as a nuclear armed country. Although its future will depend on how it handles a host of domestic and international constraints, India may well emerge in the next two decades as a significant power in the broader Asian environment and on a global scale. For the United States, the “Rising India” study underlined the importance of two key building blocks for U.S.-Indian relations—India’s economic growth, and the new convergence between Indian and U.S. views of security in the Indian Ocean and in Asia. U.S. policymakers will need to integrate their views of South Asia, East Asia, and to some extent the Middle East in ways they have not normally done in the past. At least in the next 5–10 years, U.S. relations with China and India may well be complementary rather than conflicting. The unresolved problems between India and Pakistan, however, still stand as a complicating factor in India’s international posture and its relationship with the United States.

Originally published in CSIS‘ South Asia Monitor on December 1, 2001. Read the entire report.