'A lot of people in India are not ready to move on. You are still concerned that any defence deal with the US will constrain your strategic autonomy, as if the US had the power to do that,' says Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L Stimson Centre, a Washington, DC think-tank.
Noting that the United States can only contribute marginally to India's success or failure, a report prepared by the Washington-based think- tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says it is in fact the actions of Indians at home and abroad that will determine which path India takes.
'The allegations of government involvement in targeted assassinations abroad are likely to help, not hurt, the ruling party.' 'True or false, they convey a sense of muscularity and, in some quarters, are celebrated as a harbinger of 'great power' status.'
In his book Lashkar-e-Taiba, From 9/11 to Mumbai, author Stephen Tankel points out that the 60-hour terror siege on Mumbai had catapulted the LeT to international notoriety.
'Lashkar clearly poses the greatest danger to India,' says Stephen Tankel, author of a book on the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Terming United States President Barack Obama's maiden trip to India as a triumph, noted American experts cutting across ideological spectrum on Monday said that it has taken the Indo-US relationship to an altogether new level.
South Asia experts have called the recent Obama-Singh meet a success, going by the positive signals given by both sides in all major areas of cooperation, both bilateral and multilateral.
The author of a definitive guide to the Kashmir crisis speaks with Managing Editor Aziz Haniffa.
Tariq Fatemi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States, said President Pervez Musharraf's failure to rout terrorism in Pakistan was largely because he did not have popular support, as the war on terror was seen by the people as 'America's war.'
Retired Commodore Uday Bhaskar, leading strategic analyst, has predicted that the Indo-US relationship 10 years into the future will still remain on track even if the bilateral civilian nuclear deal is not consummated because it is now driven largely by non-government actors.
Tariq Fatemi, former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and principal foreign policy adviser to erstwhile prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has urged New Delhi to lift the 'pause button' on the Indo-Pakistan composite dialogue, which was imposed after the Mumbai terror attacks.
Leading South Asia experts have assured the United States Congress that the prospect of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal falling into fundamentalist hands is, at least in the short term, unlikely.
David C Mulford, who will soon vacate his post as United States'ambassador to India, has urged the Obama administration to ensure the implementation of the India-US civilian nuclear agreement.In an interaction at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, Mulford said, "The nuclear deal may be completed, but the work isn't done. There is unfinished business there to be done."
Tyagi has said that in the changing phase of international relations, economic security also becomes vital.
Strategic affairs specialist Ashley Tellis believes the November 26 terror attacks on Mumbai has given birth to the "misguided notion" that a resolution of the Kashmir dispute is imperative to rein in terrorism in South Asia, and that this should be the priority of the proposed special envoy to the region.
At a seminar in Washington, DC, the consensus among a high-profile group of former diplomats, military leaders, politicians, businessmen and others was that the Mumbai terror attacks was a tangible manifestation of a global threat that calls for a global response.
India is not only the world's largest democracy, it is also a powerful model for other emerging democracies, a top United States official said on Wednesday.India is a model of tolerance and of strength in diversity, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William J Burns said. He pointed out that the bilateral ties between the two countries had 'come a long way'.
When a media person asked why despite the affinity the United States had such a hard time endorsing India's bid for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council, Burns went into a spin.
Indian CEOs are increasingly finding representation on some of the world's most influential policy bodies.
Ashley Tellis denies saying that the US 'got more from the government of Dr Manmohan Singh.' rediff stands by the interview.
'...a more capable State -- one that operates with greater capacity, greater efficiency, and greater clarity of purpose.' 'But I also see a more despotic State -- one that places more constraints on speech, assembly, dissent, and critique.' 'It may run 'better', but on the regime's rules.'
Indian-Americans have relatively more conservative views of policies in India while on issues affecting the US, the diaspora has a more liberal take, according to a survey of the political attitudes of the influential community in this country.
Seattle has become the first US city to outlaw caste discrimination after its local council passed a resolution, moved by an Indian-American politician and economist, to add caste to its non-discrimination policy.
'...to prevent this episode from disrupting ongoing cooperation.' 'The discovery of this plot had the potential to derail much of what has been achieved in the relationship during this administration's tenure -- I don't think that fact has been sufficiently appreciated in India.'
'And if the United States, at that time, perceives India to have welched on the deal, not been our friend, when we did so much to make it a friend, that's trouble.'
Decades after he received a letter from someone by the last name of Biden from Mumbai, soon after becoming a senator, Biden learned that his 'great, great, great, great, great grandfather' had worked in the East India Company. "There are five Bidens in Mumbai, India," Biden, then Vice President, told a Washington audience in 2015 at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of India-US civil nuclear deal.
"A Biden administration will be mostly positive for India," said Rick Rossow from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank. "I expect most positive areas of cooperation -- notably defence -- to be maintained," he said.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has supported Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh's suggestion on doing away with a rule that bars Indian carriers from flying abroad unless they complete five years of service and own a 20-aircraft fleet.
Ever since Nitish embarked on the slippery path of trying to unite the Opposition against the BJP, he has repeatedly rebutted suggestions that the exercise was aimed at bringing himself centre stage. The problem is: It is not enough if he says so. Others have to say so as well, especially Congress, observes Aditi Phadnis.
'They have to be seen as being responsive to the employment woes and economic stagnation afflicting many young people.'
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