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.'
If we value India, we must not only 'Make in India', but defend the idea of India, too.
As Afghanistan gradually realises that there can be no long-term stability in the country as long as Pakistan is involved, the time has come for India to register its solidarity when it would be most appreciated, says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
India must formulate a new growth path to become a top Asian economy.
Chinese leaders may well respond to challenges with heightened rhetoric.
President Xi Jinping's visit may put relations between India and China on a new trajectory
Humanitarian intervention has little meaning unless the international community is willing to engage in the aftermath, says Shyam Saran.
The choice before the next government is not between being a soft State and a tough State; it is between being a smart State and a dumb State, says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
We should be prepared for a phase of increased tensions in India-Pakistan relationship thanks to the evolving situation in Afghanistan, says Shyam Saran.
A disparate global network of violent fundamentalist Islamic groups threatens India's eastern flank as much as the north and west with a real possibility of these spilling over into our borders, says Shyam Saran.
The Indian government should resist the temptation to make a grand gesture of friendship towards Nawaz Sharif, says Shyam Saran
Aligning India with long-standing Pakhtoon aspirations may be a potentially potent lever, says Shyam Saran
Few people in India are aware that India and Indonesia are geographically contiguous, sharing a settled maritime boundary. The last island in the Andaman and Nicobar chain is only 80 kilometres from the first island of the Indonesian archipelago.
India has to leverage its "swing" status, engage with all and align with none, observes Shyam Saran
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