All actors within SCEF carry a shared responsibility to ensure that none of the three pillars, and particularly the Women’s Pillar, is reduced to a secondary or symbolic role. Failure to do so would risk reverting to the familiar and inadequate two-pillar dynamic dominated by EROs and the NUG.

Since the 2021 military coup, New Delhi has maintained a cautious engagement with the Myanmar junta, guided by its security concerns, strategic and economic stakes, and the need to counter China’s growing influence in the country. Yet on the ground, a different relationship is unfolding, one that is shaped by borderland communities and deeply interdependent local economies.

As a major oil refining hub and the world’s fourth-largest refining nation, India will look to bolster Myanmar's limited refining capacity, as the country relies heavily on imports of refined petroleum products.

Yet the NLD's political imagination has long been shaped by a conception of the Union that is centralized, cohesive, and guided from the top. Federalism, in this view, is not rejected outright, but it is deferred and treated as something to be addressed after democracy is secured.

The views and opinions expressed in these columns are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the policies or positions of ISP-Myanmar; the editorial team applies only minimal editing and does not interfere with the authors’ views.

Such massive proliferation of narcotics is triggering health emergencies, including high HIV prevalence. Therefore, drugs are no longer a law-and-order issue, but a social crisis.

For the KNU and the Karen Revolution now, the cost of inaction will not be borne by one people  alone. It will be borne by an entire generation of all peoples. In short, it should be clear to the  Karen people and the KNU that the 77th anniversary is not only a moment of remembrance. It is a  strategic pause. Reaffirming the fact that the Karen Revolution is a fight for a political order that  prevents its return, the KNU should look to transform itself from a fighting resistance  organization to also becoming a wartime governing body of Karen state, the Government of  Karen people and all people who live in Kawthoolei.

Another interesting development that coincided with Myanmar's election was the presence of anti-junta resistance groups from Karenni and Rakhine States in the Indian capital, perhaps as an atonement for ditching ethnic resistance groups in 1998 - in the infamous Operation Leech - which foiled the first ever serious attempt to form a Rakhine nationalist resistance against the military junta.

The information of the Government of India quietly contemplating the appointment of private security contractors to protect Indian investment interests in Myanmar comes as no surprise, since the tactically drained Tatmadaw cannot guarantee absolute security to project sites and personnel working therein.

A parliamentary committee wants the central government to criminalize illegal recruitment practices as a deterrence because cyber fraud has become an epidemic in India.

Interestingly, it has been reported that Washington has been secretly working on a plan to launch a Bangladesh-backed clandestine operation in Myanmar. U.S. officials quietly met AA and Chin National Front representatives in Bangladesh last April as part of a broader strategy to confront Myanmar's military junta in Rakhine State and beyond before the December general election.

The fact is, Ledo Road's reopening will be a game-changer for the landlocked Northeastern India, offering unparalleled business opportunities, as it connects three economies, including the world's second and fourth largest ones.

These manoeuvres reveal an elite-led, state-centric approach to crisis management – one focused on political survival, international legitimacy, and elite interests, rather than broad-based economic recovery or meaningful social development.