By Ryoko Kato — The last few months have been filled with discontent for security experts in Japan eager to strengthen defense cooperation with Australia and the United States. In late April, the Japanese government was surprised when its coalition…
The GST passes Parliament; Vijay Rupani sworn in as chief minister of Gujarat; the center pushes states to eliminate Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees; Delhi considers a large minimum-wage increase; Haryana is merging its discoms; Maharashtra allows denser development in central…
By Richard Rossow — On August 3, the Rajya Sabha (upper house of India’s Parliament) passed the Constitution (122nd Amendment) (GST) Bill, 2014, allowing for the creation of a national “Goods and Services Tax” (GST). The vote came 15 months…
By Conor Cronin — Rodrigo Duterte, the newly minted president of the Philippines, was quick out of the gates after taking office in late June. In an executive order on July 24, Duterte established new freedom of information regulations for…
By Sarah Watson — Agriculture’s importance in India’s economic landscape is declining, but it still employs nearly 50 percent of workers. While most observers agree that India’s future growth path lies in moving workers out of agriculture to more productive…
By Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit — Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on July 25 delivered his first State of the Nation Address in which he summed up his legislative, projects, and public services priorities to achieve his vision of a people-centered…
In this episode we assess the implications of Japan’s upper house election results, following the victory for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. CSIS Japan Chair Senior Fellow Nicholas Szechenyi and CSIS Simon Chair in Political Economy Matthew Goodman…
Gujarat may follow Kerala’s lead in establishing a ‘fat tax,’ Haryana to allow male government employees to take paternity leave, Mamata Banerjee to visit Germany and Italy in November, Ford Motor Company to set up its first overseas research and…
By Sarah Watson — India’s government is faced with the task of not just creating new jobs but of upgrading existing jobs: converting them from low-productivity single-man businesses to high-productivity establishments that create exportable goods. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Start…
By Chau Hoang — To catapult Vietnam up the ranks of the world’s leading economies, Hanoi has resolved to turn the country into a “start-up nation” by 2020. The government plans to implement regulatory and financial measures to coax one…