Author Name: Himanshi Dahiya Abstract Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged as one of the most significant grassroots mechanisms for promoting women empowerment in India. These groups, primarily composed of rural women , facilitate inclusion, collective decision-making, entrepreneurship, and social awareness . The SHG movement , strengthen through initiative such as National Rural livelihood Mission and the SHGs-Bank Linkage programme introduced by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, has transformed the socio – economic status of millions of women across the country. This research paper examines the role of SHGs in enhancing women’s economic independence , political participation, social mobility and decision making power within households and communities . The study explores how SHGs contribute to poverty reduction, access to credit, skill development, and leadership opportunities. It also analyses the challenges faced by SHGs, including inadequate financial literacy, market accessibility, limited training, and patriarchal barriers. The paper adopts a qualitative and analytical approachusing secondary data from government reports, journals, policy documents, and case studies. The findings suggest that SHGs have significantly improved women’s confidence, income generation, and participation in local governance. However, structural inequalities and institutional limitations continue to hinder their full potential.The paper concludes that strengthening SHGs through digital literacy, financial support,policy intervention, and capacity-building initiatives can further enhance women empowerment and rural development in India. Keywords: Self-Help Groups, Women Empowerment, Rural Development, Financial Inclusion, Micro finance, SHG-Bank Linkage, Gender Equality, Livelihood

Authors: Apoorva Singh and Sujauddin Abstract One of the most discussed issues in current International Relations is the transformation of the international system from a largely unipolar order into an increasingly multipolar one. Traditional approaches to polarity have focused on material indicators such as military capabilities and economic power. This study takes a behavioral approach and investigates whether states’ diplomatic behavior in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is evidence of an emerging multipolar order. The research uses voting records of the UNGA as a comprehensive longitudinal dataset and applies Social Network Analysis (SNA) to map patterns of diplomatic alignment, alliance formation, and geopolitical realignment among the 193 member states. The study uses roll-call votes in the UNGA to construct voting similarity matrices and applies network metrics such as degree centrality, eigenvector centrality, and betweenness centrality, as well as the Leiden and Louvain community detection algorithms, to detect alliance clusters, bridge states, and changing cooperation patterns. The analysis also performs temporal comparisons across the post-Cold War, post-9/11, and contemporary geopolitical eras to explore structural changes in the international diplomatic network. In addition, the study examines issue-specific voting patterns on security, sovereignty, human rights, decolonization, development, and environmental governance to assess whether coalition structures remain consistent across different policy domains. The results indicate that the current international system has emerged as an asymmetric form of multipolarity, rather than a revival of rigid bipolarity or a continuation of uncontested unipolar pre-eminence. The agenda-setting power of a cohesive Euro- Atlantic institutional core remains important, while the counter-network centred on China and Russia has increased in structural prominence. Meanwhile, new and middle powers such as India, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye are taking on strategically crucial brokerage roles that connect competing geopolitical clusters through issue-specific diplomatic hedging rather than fixed alliance commitments. The findings also show how major geopolitical shocks—including the 2003 Iraq War, the 2014 Crimea crisis, and the Russia–Ukraine conflict—have accelerated network configuration by strengthening some alignments while encouraging strategic neutrality among many Global South states. The study finds that contemporary multipolarity is best understood as a dynamic, networked system of overlapping coalitions, institutional persistence, and strategic autonomy rather than clearly defined power blocs. This research provides a new empirical framework for measuring the distribution of global power beyond traditional material capabilities by merging International Relations theory with network science. It contributes to ongoing discussions on polarity, alliance politics, and global governance. It also demonstrates the usefulness of computational network analysis for understanding the shifting architecture of international diplomacy and provides foundation for future AI-assisted real-time monitoring of geopolitical realignments.

Authors: 1. Nandana Gireesh, University of Kerala 2. Devangi Sandhu, Amity University, Noida 3. Kirtika Verma, Amity University, Noida 4. Ishayu Mukherjee, The Heritage School Abstract Strait of Hormuz continues to be one of the key strategic maritime chokepoints worldwide, ensuring the passage of more than 20% of global oil supplies. With China being the largest crude oil importer, stability within the Strait is critical to securing both economic growth and security interests. The period from 2018 to 2025 has seen several developments that exposed vulnerabilities of global energy supply chains, including tanker attacks in the Gulf, US sanctions on Iran, increasing regional tensions, and disruptions of international energy trade due to the coronavirus pandemic. Increasingly complex security landscape in the Gulf illustrates the connection between strategic competition, interdependence, and vulnerability in energy supply. Within the scope of Geopolitical Security Theory and Complex Interdependence Theory, the impact of increased insecurity in the region on China’s growing energy security needs in relation to Gulf countries will be analysed. Despite growing economic partnerships and investment projects in the region, including the Belt and Road Initiative, geopolitical challenges still pose risks to energy supply safety. Consequently, the Strait of Hormuz remains both a critical energy lifeline and a strategic vulnerability within China’s broader energy security framework. Keywords: Energy security, Strait of Hormuz, China–Iran relations, Iran sanctions, Maritime chokepoint, Complex interdependence, Tanker warfare, Gulf geopolitics, Belt and Road Initiative, Post-COVID instability, Renewable energy transition

Author : Laksh Asija Abstract This study conducts a comparative analysis of government-led and market-led FinTech models and their respective impacts on financial inclusion, using India and Kenya as contrasting case studies. India’s government-led model, anchored by the JAM Trinity (Jan Dhan–Aadhaar–Mobile) and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), is compared against Kenya’s market-led model, exemplified by Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money platform. Drawing on secondary data from the World Bank Global Findex Database, the Reserve Bank of India, the Central Bank of Kenya, and existing academic literature, this study employs a qualitative comparative case study methodology to evaluate both models across five analytical dimensions: access, usage, cost, depth, and sustainability. Findings reveal that government-led models demonstrate superior capacity for broad-based, equitable access at zero cost, while market-led models show advantages in product depth and rural usage penetration. The study concludes that hybrid models combining public infrastructure with private competition offer the most promising pathway to comprehensive financial inclusion in developing economies.

Author: Priyanshu Keshri Abstract This paper examines the causal architecture of the ongoing West Asia conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, and its cascading effects on global energy markets and India’s energy security. India’s structural dependence on imported hydrocarbons—crude oil import dependency reaching nearly 89 percent in FY 2023–24 – renders it acutely vulnerable to disruptions along the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime chokepoint through which substantial share of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade transits. The paper argues that the crisis, and the resulting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply shock in India, is not the product of unintended confrontation but of calculated escalation rooted in four interlocking causes: contested perceptions of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the collapse of diplomatic mechanisms such as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), militarization dynamics exemplified by the Twelve-Day War, and the broader theoretical relationship between petrostates and militarized interstate disputes. The analysis situates India’s energy predicament within a condition of “dual energy dependency,” in which continued reliance on fossil fuels coexists with an expanding renewable energy transition. Keywords: Strait of Hormuz, Iran nuclear program, energy security, petrostates, India LPG crisis, JCPOA, geopolitical escalation

Authors: Shohrah Kadwani, Swati Dahiya, Shivangi Bhupendra, Krishnapriya KS, Archit Bhattacharya, and Ayeni Sarah Biola Abstract The rapid expansion of digital health technologies through wearable devices, health applications, and AI-driven technologies has created a shift in how traditional patient health data is being handled. As health data increasingly shifts from traditional healthcare institutions to consumer-facing digital platforms, it creates regulatory challenges that existing legal frameworks were not designed to address. This paper examines how effectively the United Kingdom and European Union protect digital health data privacy in this evolving environment. This paper uses a qualitative and comparative approach to analyse the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the European Health Data Space (EHDS). Research was conducted into legislation, academic literature and case studies, and the paper is divided into three interconnected themes: wearable technologies, public trust and consent. The findings draw on the concept of regulatory lag, and suggest that despite comprehensive legal frameworks, both jurisdictions face a common structural problem: technological innovation seems to be advancing faster than policy can respond. Wearable technologies blur the distinction between lifestyle and health data to exploit the gaps in existing regulatory frameworks, and current consent mechanisms often fail to provide meaningful user control over data. This paper argues that both the UK and EU have largely adopted a reactive, rather than a proactive approach to digital health governance and emphasises a need to incorporate stronger consent mechanisms, oversight of wearable technologies and clearer accountability structures to adapt to an increasingly digital healthcare environment. To read the full paper, download below:

Author: Soumya Jha Introduction Cross-border financial consumer disputes (CBFCD) have become structurally complex as they unfold across overlapping domestic, regional, and international legal orders, each asserting regulatory authority without hierarchical resolution. Drawing on Martti Koskenniemi (2007) and Gunther Teubner (1997), this literature review treats legal fragmentation not as a background context but as a causal mechanism producing normative indeterminacy rather than coordinated governance. Using narrative analyses, it traces three evolutionary phases,including post-2008 paternalistic redress, fintech-driven contractualisation (2013–2018), and the current geo-financial sovereignty phase. It argues that CBFCD have shifted from domestic mis-selling adjudication to sovereignty-inflected exclusions through extraterritorial enforcement, often preventing consumer remedy. Each phase is anchored to a concrete dispute, so that the doctrinal shifts are traced to their effects on the consumer rather than treated as abstract regime change. Further, it identifies five literature gaps whose convergence at the intersection of fintech governance, Global South regulatory capacity, and algorithmic accountability remains unaddressed in existing literature. Keywords: Legal Fragmentation, Cross Border Financial Consumer Disputes, Financial Governance, Fintech Regulation, Sanctions, Extraterritoriality, and Global South.

Authors: Ananya Kukreja, Isa Mathew, Jay Kalra Abstract This paper examines and compares the soft power strategies of the United States of America and China in the twenty-first century while focusing on the role of digital platforms, algorithms and influencer culture as instruments of soft power projection. Using Joseph Nye’s framework of soft power as the primary lens, the study conducts a qualitative comparative analysis of China’s statedriven model, characterised by centralised content control and platform governance, and the market-led model in the United States of America, which operates through decentralised privatesector actors and influencer economies. The paper focuses on this comparison prominently within the geopolitical context of the South Asian region, where both nations constantly compete for cultural and political influence. Keywords: Soft power; United States of America; China; Joseph Nye; TikTok; ByteDance; Influencer marketing; Algorithms; Digital diplomacy; Platform governance