The television footage that caught him on camera as he went on a shooting spree in Mumbai provoked a collective national outrage. As India continues to accuse Pakistan of not taking enough action against terror, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab’s “confession” in court has brought the focus back on the trial that will determine the fate of the lone surviving militant involved in Mumbai 26/11. Two aspects stand out in Kasab’s statements over the last few days; both provide scope for further investigation...

It was Bharat that had voted for the Congress-led alliance in large numbers and it was Bharat that got its due in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Growth in the rural sector was the buzzword. After several years of economic reforms – so famously initiated by Manmohan Singh when he presented the budget in 1991 under the Narasimha Rao government – the focus seems to have moved back, at least for the time being, to the socialist model that the Congress had used to go...

As the ceremonies play out all over again, it is still work in progress when it comes to matters affecting India 62 years after she became independent. It’s an uneasy situation on the internal security front.  There have been no terror strikes after the 26/11 Mumbai attack. The simplistic explanation is that it would be to too much for Pakistan-based groups to do anything when they are under such intense international scrutiny.  But a grim warning by some analysts is that there will be strikes –...

UID is an entity under the Planning Commission and under this programme, unique identification cards would be provided to citizens by 2011.This was perhaps the most ambitious promise in its Lok Sabha poll manifesto and the Congress-led UPA government is pulling out all stops to make sure it delivers on this one. It has roped in one of the best-known names from the Indian IT industry to give citizens their unique identity number. In the process, it also hopes to plug leakages in the public servic...

As security personnel flushed out Naxalites (Maoists) from the so-called liberated zone in West Bengal’s Lalgarh, the fight against Red Terror moved to a new, more challenging level. But it also raised concerns that the latest campaign could be a long-drawn one, given the track record of the police and central paramilitary forces.Two battalions of the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (Cobra) are in place, most personnel taken from existing CRPF units deployed in Naxal-affected areas.