The Chief of the Naval Staff foresees wonderful capabilities for INS Vikramaditya.  

ADMIRAL SUREESH MEHTA: The goal has already been set for the long-drawn process of transformation. — Photo: Vipin Chandran
S. Anandan
A transformational wave buoyed by blue-water capability and cutting-edge technology is sweeping the Indian Navy. The force has embarked on a plan for all-round […]

The curious thing about banning rebel outfits is that the action has followed or has been followed by the emergence of clones, often carrying the same name, styling themselves dissident or pro-talks factions. 
M. S. Prabhakara
The Centre’s decision to ban the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD-J), also known as Black […]

The British Prime Minister’s appeal to the international community to react strongly against what is happening in Burma. 
Gordon Brown

The appalling but inevitable outcome of Aung San Suu Kyi’s sham trial is final proof that the military regime in Burma is determined to continue defying the world.
Depressing news that she has been sentenced to up […]

Simon Tisdall
The expected victory of the opposition Democratic Party in Japan’s August 30 general election is creating a new element of uncertainty in the Asia-Pacific region, already unsettled by North Korea’s war drums and China’s assertiveness. The ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party has held power for 52 of the past 53 years. It is […]

Policies with regard to agriculture, education and health need to change in order to ensure a meaningful and wide-ranging security for this country. 
Pushpa M. Bhargava
The arms business is probably the second largest business in the world after the food business. It is, therefore, not surprising that we consider national security to be just […]

An increasingly confident Iraqi army takes the lead in security operations as it moves towards independence from its U.S. overseers. 
Rod Nordland
“Yes, we are in charge now,” said an Iraqi army soldier, Sergeant Salman Fallah Jassim, as he led a mixed Iraqi and American patrol through the saw grass of a dried-up irrigation canal, […]

Jeffrey Gettleman
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Ms Clinton gave a gentle nudge to Angola on Sunday, urging this up-and-coming nation, a major oil producer, to push harder to democratise.
Ms Clinton said she was “encouraged by the steps the Angolan government has taken,” like the peaceful parliamentary election last year. But she said the country […]

It is time for the truth about command failures during the Kargil war to be made public.
Praveen Swami
“Generalship unparalleled in the history of warfare,” 15 Corps Commander Lieutenant-General Kishan Pal said of his contribution as a commander of India’s forces during the Kargil war.
As India observes the tenth anniversary of that, we have […]

Is Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban, really dead?
Hamid Mir
The ongoing attacks by American drones are unpopular in Pakistan, but a large number of Pakistanis are happy over the news that the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in one such attack on August 5 in South Waziristan. […]

The risks to the projections of GDP growth, inflation for 2009-10 are on the upside 

A farmer works in a paddy nursery on the outskirts of Vijayawada for transplanting them in the fields for kharif season. — PHOTO: V. RAJU
OOMMEN A. NINAN
While the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, voiced his concern over agriculture production, […]