Developing a vaccine is a serious job. Post the outbreak of Covid-19, many agencies in the world have started working towards the development of a vaccine to stop the spread of Coronavirus. At present, the usable vaccine is still a few months or a year away. As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), currently around 60 vaccine candidates are in the pre-clinical trial stage. For any vaccine to reach the stage of public distribution, normally takes around 12 to 18 months. It is expected that by January/February 2021, the Covid-19 vaccine could become available.

The US Congress has recently taken a decision that inadvertently worked in favour of India. In an intrepid foreign policy decision, the Congress came down heavily on the offer made by Obama adminstration to Pakistan for sale of the state-of-art, all weather, and multi-role fighter defence equipment and refused to utilise American taxpayers’ money to fund the eight fighter jets to Pakistan.

Lately, the United States and some European nations have lifted oil and other financial sanctions on Iran and have also released roughly $100 billion of its assets after international inspectors concluded that Iran had complied on its promises to dismantle large sections of its nuclear programme. To signal that the relations are now moving towards friendship, just few hour before the implementation of the nuclear accord five Americans were released from Iran’s prison.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a successful trip to Central Asia and Russia in the past weeks. Various new collaborations -- from tourism to terrorism -- got formalized during these visits. One important agenda of this visit was to acquire uranium required for nuclear energy production. Mr. Modi was successful in working out various modalities in this regard with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Few months back he also collaborated with Canada and Australia in regards to trade of uranium to India.

The genesis of 'Directed Energy Weapon' (DEWs) came up during cold war when Karl Bendetson and the High Frontier panel of private citizens advised President Ronald Reagan for a crash program to develop missile defenses. It was not just to defend against Soviet nuclear weapons but also because of strong indications that the Soviets were going to deploy 'powerful directed energy weapons' in space to gain control of space by using weapons like lasers, jammers etc. Towards the end of Cold War, the US focused on ballistic missile defence and spending on DEWs.

The latest Sukhoi T-50 prototype – PAK-FA – a twin-engine fifth-generation stealth jet fighter aborted a takeoff at the recently held MAKS Air Show outside Moscow on 21 August 2011 after four days of successful demo flights. While two prototypes of PAK-FA have cumulatively made 48 flights since 29 January 2010, it will be important to know the reasons of this mishap.

The Pentagon releasing annual reports on Chinese Military Power is not new. However, for all these years Pentagon’s basic mandate has been to contextualize the Chinese threat to the US interests. Interestingly, in its latest report to Congress, titled "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China, 2010" it highlights some issues of concern for India in regards to certain Chinese military investments.

India, today, stands at a threshold in leveraging its economic and military growth in consonant with its national security goals. This situation has not only earned a national identity but also an international status where both economy and military strength are major determinants. It’s an irony that India’s growing international status has coincided with two major international developments: One is the disintegration of the erstwhile Soviet Union and the second one is the end of the Cold War.