Complaints to NCM fall down sharply...4,000 Indian women deserted by NRI husbands since 2016...79 districts in India still don't have blood banks...
'In both cases, there is a sneering disregard for the established processes of law while dealing with what the American president and the junior Indian minister regard as unpardonable behaviour,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
The cast looks dynamic, and now, we can't wait to see what it's going to be all about.
India has welcomed the election of Hassan Rouhani as the new president of Iran, saying the poll outcome is a "good signal" indicating greater convergence and consensus among Iranian people.
In an apparent resspone to India's aggressive counter-insurgency rhetoric, Pakistan's Army Chief General Raheel Sharif has warned that no one should dare to cast an evil eye on his country.
Future, even present, wars -- at least those involving such tech giants as China -- include hi-tech battlefields, which a Pakistan-obsessed India has not sufficiently prioritised. Today's generals plan on how to disrupt an enemy city's power supplies, rail networks, airports, ports, and government departments, not just by bombing or torpedoing them; they also examine the option of tripping up the computer networks that run these, notes David Devadas.
The defence minister has to correct a major asymmetry. Will his discipline come in the way?
Undeterred by the controversy over his earlier "terrorists have to be neutralised only through terrorists" remark, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has asserted that he will go to "any extent" to protect India and those who attack will be "paid back in the same coin".
'Counter-insurgency operations cannot be conducted by following inflexible SOPs.' 'It is unwise to enter jungles with a large body of troops without precise intelligence,' asserts counter-insurgency expert Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
The onus today is on China, but it also requires a little diplomatic finesse from India, backed by a modernised armed force, argues BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in this excerpt from his new book, Himalayan Challenge: India, China And The Quest For Peace.
The United States intelligence community in a new declassified file has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering an "influence campaign" to help Donald Trump win the White House and denigrate his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in a bid to undermine public faith in the American democratic process.
'The onus is now on China to explain to the world why it feels Pakistan should accompany India on the question of NSG Membership!! China's not so covert help for Pakistan's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes will stand exposed,' says former ambassador G Parthasarathy.
Drones may have been used for non-lethal purposes but state-sponsored assassinations and semi-covert wars are fuelling their boom and not scientific missions or creative activists, says American political activist Medea Benjamin.
'Of all artists who openly support the current political dispensation, she is far and away the finest,' argues Sreehari Nair. 'With the exception of perhaps Tabu, no Indian actress has done more to extend the range of the feminine mystique in Hindi cinema.'
'Modi loves to keep others guessing and basks in the media glare, both traits that are politically helpful but are inimical to stable relations, especially in the fragile Indo-Pak equation.'
'Pakistan has robust incentive to turn heat on LoC.'
US Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit to Pakistan addressed the issue of terrorism and also called on both - India and Pakistan to find a diplomatic solution to the violence at the border issue.
'The government must covertly eliminate the leaders of terrorist organisations abroad so as to eliminate the problem at its roots,' recommends Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Indians must remember that Pakistanis hate losing to India, at war or in cricket, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
He also sought setting up of a global fund to contain terrorism.
Political battles were decided not in boxing rings but in the court of the people, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Shah said in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, responding to Samajwadi Party's counter to Narendra Modi's "56 inch chest" remarks.
'Was he afraid that his answers during cross-examination would land him in trouble under the new ruling dispensation?'
The British government is under increasing pressure to order an inquiry into claims that the country's security services were covertly gathering a mass of personal data from some of the world's largest Internet firms through a US spy programme.
India would have responded differently to "Pakistan-sponsored" Mumbai terror attacks had there been a different "mix of people" at the helm, according to former foreign secretary and national security advisor Shivshankar Menon.
If the (Pakistani) military continues to send arms and fighters across the border, the Indian PM will have a strong justification to take action, says The Wall Street Journal.
It currently has between 140 and 150 nuclear weapons in its control and stockpiled around 200 to 300 kilogram of plutonium.
Tightening the noose around Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the United States on Wednesday designated the Pakistan-based terror group's student wing Al-Muhammadia Students a terrorist organisation and slapped sanctions against its two top leaders.
Claude Arpi salutes Lieutenant General Zorawar Chand Bakshi, India's most decorated general, who passed into the ages recently.
'India stands to gain immensely by forging a developmental partnership with China.' 'While through sustained strategic communication there is scope to steadily expand the commonality of interests between the two countries.' 'This is also a practical way to ensure that differences do not get over-magnified and become disputes,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'If an 'informal meeting' with Xi Jinping materialises before the SCO summit in June, that itself could be regarded as a significant breakthrough in India-China relations,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'ISI-backed jihadi groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayiba are now prepared to cross the International Border and attack targets in Punjab at will,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, India's former high commissioner to Pakistan.
The Indian intelligence brass may have snared a key Pakistani spy and Jadhav's arrest is Pakistan's way of getting even with India, says Rajeev Sharma.
Just like with millions of Indian Muslims, even the vice president of India has been forced to undergo the covert loyalty test: 'you are presumed to be pro-Pakistan until you demonstrably prove you are a nationalist', says Shehzad Poonawalla.
Union Minister Gen (Retd) V K Singh has said that the Indian Army is capable of executing daring operations to avenge 26/11-like attacks by eliminating offshore criminals but certain "considerations" preventing it from doing so.
'The only effective defence against a suicide attack is 'pre-emptive' destruction of the attacker,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'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.
Trump's foreign policy juggernaut has shelved the 'Deep State' and 'Axis of Evil'. But where is India?
'If India is already involved in helping the insurgents in Baluchistan and Karachi, as Pakistan says, it is but one step for New Delhi to bring Dawood or Hafiz Saeed into its sights,' says Amulya Ganguli.
30 years ago, after India sent in troops to resolve a crisis in the Maldives, Ambassador B S Prakash was part of an Indian government team assigned to the islands to help the then president. This is what he discovered. A Must Read!
'India can replicate what Pakistan did to Kulbhushan Jadhav should the need arise.' 'Hopefully, Pakistan will see reason before that transpires,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, former high commissioner to Pakistan.
