Ravi Sinha is described as "highly tech-savvy", and credited with infusing modern technology in the field of intelligence collection.
Vikram Sood remembers his friend and mentor B Raman, who passed away on Sunday.
The strategic advantage accruing to India in Siachen should not be given up for apparent short-term political gains. Giving up Siachen as a gesture of friendship would also mean that its recapture would be extremely expensive to India in men and material, says Vikram Sood.
In dealing with Pakistan, India's first step should be to stop treating it exclusively as a Muslim nation, writes Vikram Sood
In its campaign against India, Pakistan has used terror and its electronic media to great effect proving how useful a psywar campaign is in these adversarial situations. This will not change and let us not be under any delusion about this, writes Vikram Sood
All indications are that elections in Pakistan will now be held in May 2013. If this schedule is adhered to, then it will be the last day of the present government, says Vikram Sood.
The Lashkar-e-Tayiba's global mission is quite extensive something the West has now begun to realise. Many now assess the LeT to be a bigger eventual threat than the Al Qaeda because the Lashkar has state sponsorship, says Vikram Sood.
It was one thing to hold India to ransom and periodically threaten nuclear blackmail. But it was not going to work against the US. The US, as always, learned the hard way that it was not or need not be all that dependent on Pakistani cooperation and generosity, says Vikram Sood.
'...but from those who control the narrative.' Powerful nations have mastered this art of narrative building. Those nations who aspire to become global powers must do so, observes Shanthie Mariet D'Souza.
The Middle-East may not look the same in the times ahead, says Vikram Sood.
In India, there is a perception that the current ecological disaster is a responsibility of the developed world. If we want to play in the big league we must stop seeing ecological solutions as impositions, say Vikram Sood and Nandita Sood-Perret.
Given our troubled relationship with Pakistan, we need to keep our security apparatus in a state of alert with state-of-the-art equipment. All bilateral issues with Pakistan -- political, military, economic -- will simply have to go on the back-burner till Pakistan decides it wants to live as a good neighbour, says Vikram Sood.
The banned Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin wants to return to India even today, says former chief of Research and Analysis Wing, India's external spy agency A S Dulat, who regrets the government "wasted too much of time" chalking out plans for his comeback.
'It is not just the police, but all agencies of governance that are progressively being 'captured' by the forces of Hindutva, led by the central government and by the governments of the states where the BJP has power.'
'Here was a man who played a major part in helping the Bengalis of East Pakistan create a new nation, secured the merger of Sikkim into the Indian dominion and built R&AW into a formidable outfit, comparable to the best in the world.' Rameshwar Nath Kao shunned the limelight, hated to be photographed and preferred to work behind the scenes. A revealing excerpt from Nitin A Gokhale's much awaited book, R N Kao: Gentleman Spymaster.
'Raman knew everything and was privy to all the details of Yakub's movements'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has brought Hindi into vogue in the external affairs ministry and managed a diplomatic coup by inviting SAARC leaders, including Nawaz Sharif, to New Delhi for his swearing-in. Sheela Bhatt's impressions of the Indian prime minister's first day in office.
Countries in the region like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Maldives face serious existential threats from a mix of terrorist groups active in the region and elsewhere
'The response to terror is not always reciprocal terror, nor is launching a conventional response the best response.' 'The best response is to make the sponsor pay a price he cannot afford,' says former RA&W chief Vikram Sood.
The bravado of NDA ministers may have undone the gains made in cross-border security cooperation over the past several years.
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The eternal question remains unanswered, what price security and what cost liberty, says Vikram Sood.
'Pakistan's military leaders have to accept that the policy of proxy wars has damaged Pakistan more than it has damaged the enemy,' says former R&AW chief Vikram Sood.
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