India’s infrastructure has seen significant progress, with projects like the Golden Quadrilateral and the Ken-Betwa river linking initiative boosting connectivity, trade, and agriculture nationwide.

Golden Quadrilateral

One of the lasting symbols of the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership was the Golden Quadrilateral project.

• Objective: Launched with the aim of linking India’s four major cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata—the Golden Quadrilateral transformed the country’s road network, fostering better connectivity.
• Impact on Trade and Commerce: The project significantly boosted trade, commerce, and travel, bringing the diverse regions of India closer together.

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River Linking Project

• Vision for Inter-Basin Water Transfer: Another major initiative that gained traction during Vajpayee’s tenure was the idea of interlinking India’s rivers.
• Ken-Betwa River Linking Project: On the occasion of Vajpayee’s 100th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone for the Ken-Betwa river linking project.
  • This is the first river linking project under India’s national perspective plan. 
  • The project is set to benefit water-starved districts in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh by providing irrigation facilities to farmers.

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• Benefits of the Project: In addition to irrigation, the project will also provide drinking water facilities to the people in the region.
  • Green Energy: Moreover, hydropower generation from the project will contribute over 100 MW of green energy, helping in India’s transition to sustainable energy. 
  • Employment Generation: The project will also create significant employment opportunities, especially in rural areas.

Challenges

• Water Scarcity and Climate Change: India’s river basins are becoming increasingly water-deficient, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. 
  • Transferring water between river basins is a complex and difficult proposition, particularly when the environmental effects of such projects are considered.
• Environmental Concerns and Historical Examples: Globally, projects like these are often shunned due to their environmental implications. 
  • The Farakka barrage built in 1975, constructed to save the Kolkata port, is a prime example of unintended consequences.
  • While it served its intended purpose, it has led to sedimentation upstream, causing recurrent floods in Bihar, and land grabbing downstream.
• Water as a State Subject: Water management in India is under the State List, but efforts to shift it to the Concurrent List for better coordination face political roadblocks, contributing to increasing inter-state water disputes.
• Disputes Over Water Resources: States often turn to the judiciary to resolve water disputes, but the archaic legal system in India may not be the best avenue for addressing these issues.

Solutions

• Creating a National Commission for Basin Management: There is a need for a unique, homegrown institutional framework to manage water resources and resolve disputes. 
  • Establishing a National Commission for Basin Management could help ensure that the interests of all parties—both the Centre and the states—are considered in a fair and transparent manner.
• Ensuring Sustainable Water Use: One of the key objectives of inter-basin water transfer projects is to provide water for agricultural use in water-scarce regions.
  • Promote Water-Efficient Practices: However, this objective could be undermined if farmers continue to cultivate water-intensive crops in these areas. 
  • It is crucial to promote water-efficient agricultural practices to ensure the long-term success of such projects.

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Conclusion

By taking a strategic and balanced approach, India can ensure that these infrastructure projects deliver lasting benefits to its people.

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Political shifts, power dynamics, rivalries, and external influences are reshaping the South Asian region, and India’s relationships with its neighbours are evolving. India’s foreign policy in 2025 must adapt to the rapidly changing strategic environment in South Asia.

Diminishing Great Power Interest in South Asia

• Decline of U.S. Influence:  A decade ago, the U.S. was deeply engaged in South Asia due to terrorism, India-Pakistan tensions, and its Afghan military presence. Today, with these issues waning, the region has lost priority in Washington’s agenda. 
• Shift in Global Priorities: As global focus on South Asia wanes, attention to the Kashmir conflict and its status as a nuclear flashpoint has diminished. The region is now seen as more stable compared to other global hotspots.

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India-Pakistan Relations

• Quietened Frontiers: India’s frontier with Pakistan has become relatively quieter, especially along the Line of Control in Kashmir. 
  • Diplomatic Engagement: Diplomatic engagement between India and Pakistan has diminished, with no trade or political interactions and a lack of high commissioners for over five years.
• Taliban-Pakistan Dynamic: A new dynamic influencing India-Pakistan relations is the growing tensions between the Taliban-led Afghanistan and Pakistan. 
  • A reversed Situation: While India previously feared Pakistan gaining strategic depth in Afghanistan through Taliban support, the situation has reversed.
  • The Taliban’s increasing hostility towards Pakistan, including territorial claims, has become a larger concern for Islamabad than India.

Decline of Regional Cooperation in South Asia

• SAARC Dysfunctionality: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has been non-functional since 2014, and regional cooperation has weakened significantly.
  • Trade, travel, tourism, and educational exchanges among South Asian countries have sharply declined, and bilateralism has taken precedence over regionalism.
• India’s Bilateral Approach: India’s approach to South Asia has shifted from engaging with the region as a whole to focusing on individual countries. 
  • This shift has led India to prioritize relationships with smaller regional states, rather than engagement with South Asia as a bloc.

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India-China Relations

• Unsettled Border Disputes: India’s relationship with China is characterized by a fluctuating mix of distrust and cautious optimism. 
  • Recent agreements on patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) provided temporary relief, but tensions remain. 
• Dam on Yarlung Tsangpo: China’s plans to build a massive dam on the Brahmaputra River and its continued actions in Ladakh indicate that India’s relationship with its powerful neighbour will remain testy.

Constant Flux in India’s Neighbourhood Relations

• Unpredictable Ties: India’s relationships with its smaller neighbours like Nepal and Bangladesh will continue to be dynamic and prone to fluctuations. 
  • India’s ties in the region will not settle into a stable pattern, requiring ongoing efforts in diplomacy, engagement, and firefighting.
• Success and Challenges: India will face both successes and challenges in these relationships, and its foreign policy must remain adaptable to these shifts.

Suggestions

• Maintaining Calm with Pakistan: India’s priority should be to preserve the current calm with Pakistan. Now is not the time for extensive dialogue or military escalation.
• Cautious Engagement with the Taliban: India should engage cautiously with the Taliban, viewing it as neither an ally nor an adversary. 
  • Maintaining a neutral stance while supporting the Afghan people would better serve India’s interests than closer ties, which could become a liability.
• Leveraging Global Powers’ Reduced Interest: India should engage with the U.S., especially the incoming administration, to discuss regional issues such as the future of Bangladesh.
  • Collaborating With Other Powers: Additionally, India should collaborate with Japan, South Korea, and European powers to provide regional public goods in South Asia, leveraging their financial and infrastructural capabilities.
• Linking South Asia to Broader Strategic Objectives: India’s foreign policy in South Asia should be aligned with its broader strategies in the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific regions.
  • Incorporating South Asian nations with other leading powers/groupings could be beneficial.

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Conclusion

India’s foreign policy in 2025 must navigate a complex and shifting strategic landscape in South Asia. By focusing on maintaining stability with Pakistan, engaging cautiously with the Taliban, and leveraging external powers’ reduced interest, India can assert its position and continue to influence the region’s evolving dynamics.

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The University Grants Commission (UGC) has introduced new guidelines that includes the launch of two innovative degree programmes—an accelerated and an extended degree programme—for undergraduate students.

Accelerated and Extended Degree Programmes

• Accelerated Degree Programme: The programme allows students to complete their undergraduate degrees in a shorter time than the traditional duration. 
  • Objective: This structure caters to students who wish to enter the workforce sooner, gain professional experience early, or save on tuition fees.
• Extended Degree Programme: In contrast, the extended degree programme provides students with more time to complete their studies. 
  • This option offers more opportunities for specialisation, research, and hands-on experiences like internships and travel.
  • Objective: It also facilitates a better balance between academic and personal life, making it a suitable choice for students with additional commitments.    

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Benefits of Flexibility in Education

• Global Standards in Higher Education: UGC reforms align undergraduate education with international benchmarks, offering a flexible credit system that enables students to tailor their academic journey to personal and career goals.
  • Enhanced Mobility: Credit options provide mobility, allowing a student who has earned credits at one university to transfer to a different university without losing progress towards their degree.
• Multidisciplinary Learning: Following the principles of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the new structure encourages a multidisciplinary approach.
  • Skill Development: This broadens students’ learning horizons, helping them not only gain expertise in their chosen fields but also develop creative, soft, and problem-solving skills that foster innovation.

Challenges and Concerns

• Potential Impact on Engineering Education: Engineering education faces challenges with accelerated degree programs due to the need for deep theoretical and practical knowledge in subjects like mathematics, physics, and advanced engineering principles. 
  • Superficial Understanding: The compressed timeline may hinder students’ ability to master essential technical competencies, especially with limited time for hands-on projects, internships, and lab work.    
• Low Value of Degree: The value of the degree may diminish if a student takes more time to complete it.                                                       
• Economic Implications for Students: While the extended degree option offers more time for specialisation and research, it may increase the financial burden on students, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Curriculum Restructuring: The shift towards accelerated and extended degrees necessitates significant restructuring of curricula and teaching methodologies.
• Digital Divide: The introduction of greater digitalisation in education to support these reforms could exacerbate the existing digital divide, particularly for students from rural or underprivileged backgrounds who lack access to reliable internet and technology.
• Support for Underprivileged Students: The new system could disproportionately affect students from underprivileged backgrounds, who may struggle to navigate the changes without proper guidance and support.
• Faculty Development and Training: For the successful implementation of these reforms, educators will need to undergo professional development to adapt to the demands of flexible and interdisciplinary curricula.

Path Forward

• To ensure the success of the new guidelines, universities will need to invest in strategic planning, timely recruitment of faculty, and the development of administrative systems capable of managing these new academic structures.

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Conclusion

If these challenges are addressed effectively, the reforms could lay the foundation for a more dynamic and globally competitive higher education system. This would contribute to India’s vision of becoming a “Viksit Bharat” by 2047.

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