'India should be able to weather the storm, given its enhanced standing among the major powers. However, India's international clout is partly from its rapidly growing emerging economy and a large and expanding commercial market. 'If the Indian economy continues to slow and protectionist barriers advance, then our international clout will also diminish. The international fallout from bringing the Valley to heel may be more difficult to handle,' says Shyam Saran.

'Such incidents can only exacerbate the sense of alienation among the Kashmiri people, in particular the Kashmiri youth.' 'It is as if for some of our political figures and misguided youth, Kashmir is a piece of real estate over which we assert our claim, but the people there are dispensable,' notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.

A culture of science and innovation must be embedded in society wherein people not only use new technology but understand it as well. Without this, obscurantism and blind faith can sit side by side with digital technology and, in fact, use the same technology to reinforce their hold on people, says Shram Saran.

India has an unprecedented opportunity to develop solar industry because like China, it offers scale which is critical to reducing costs and to stimulate innovation, says Shyam Saran.

The ancient Jordanian city and its immense faades were lost for almost 1,000 years!

'The digital age has forced diplomats to be less formal and more accessible, reaching out to ordinary people both within and outside their countries, combining statecraft with streetcraft,' says former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.

'There appears to be greater convergence of interests between China and the US in the Afghan-Pakistan theatre than between India and the US. This is hardly a recipe for a super-alliance,' says former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.

India needs to be alert on how the Doklam standoff plays into the factional infighting in China's Communist Party, says Ambassador Shyam Saran, the former foreign secretary.

Today humanity is churning the ocean with a thoughtless vengeance -- with toxic wastes, plastics and hazardous substances being dumped into our once pristine seas. And there is no benign Lord Shiva to rescue us from our collective greed, says Shyam Saran.

The appointment of Yogi Adityanath as UP CM, the revival of the Ram Temple movement, the elevation of a ban on cow slaughter as a national priority, and the targeting of any social behaviour deemed contrary to a set of narrowly prescribed Indian values point to a social regression that contradicts the inclusive and forward-looking impulse that underlies Modi's vision of a modern India.

India needs to consider whether the Donald Trump administration can actually deliver, observes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.

'Given Chinese sensitivity to anything to do with Tibet -- and the fact that in the 1950s it was the Tibet issue which led to the deterioration of India-China relations and the border war in 1962 -- India should be particularly careful in not triggering a Chinese reaction which it may not be able to handle,' says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.

'What struck me was how content the hermit seemed in his little cave, not at all self-conscious in proclaiming that it was the grace of Shiva that had brought him to Tapovan and it was Shiva who would look after him.'

The government's initial promise and energy seems to have dissipated.

'The Pakistan government, we were told, has a plan to renovate several Hindu temples and Buddhist sites, which over the years have fallen into disrepair. The aim is to create a pilgrimage circuit to attract visitors from all over the subcontinent.'

'There were assurances that Jaish-e-Mohammad was being reined in as was the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, but Pakistan's security forces could not risk opening too many dangerous new fronts,' notes former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran, who has just returned from a visit to Lahore.

'Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi be able to continue political engagement with Pakistan against the inevitable upsurge of negative and hostile public sentiment?'

The contrived controversy over the so-called blockade of the India-Nepal border has obscured the perilous path on which the current ruling elite in Nepal are taking the country towards.

'We should not have waited for the political crisis in Nepal to erupt before being galvanised into action,' says Shyam Saran. 'We should have seen what was coming and not accepted assurances from the leaders of the political parties at their face value.'