Three names have been doing the rounds in India these days: Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, David Coleman Headley (a.k.a Dauod Geelani) and Tahawur Hussein Rana; one hard core veteran Jehadi and two motivated ‘would be’ terrorists. They are in the news for plotting major assaults in India. Among them, Ilyas Kashmiri who was rumored to be dead early this year, in fact survived three drone attacks in Pakistan’s Waziristan region, belongs to the Al Qaeda- Harkat-Ul- Jihad- Al-Islami (HuJI) lineage and heads Al Qaeda’s deadly 311 brigade. He still carries a head money of US $ 600,000 dollars.

After the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress National Meeting 2007, China started focusing on South Asia, specifically India. Both have been favorably disposed towards multilateralism, with India joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as an observer, while China joining SAARC summit in April 2008, also as an observer. Besides, people to people diplomacy expanded with mutual tourist visits.

Of late, the menace of computer ‘hacking’ has become a punishable offense when it compromises national security. Of course not all acts of hacking will be amounting to terrorism, and sometime used as a tool for pranks or profit. This could be regarded as terrorist action only if the hacking is designed to disrupt government’s activities, or to advance anti- national causes, or to intimidate its citizens. Either a threat or real use of it, is a potential act of terrorism, or rather can be regarded as cyber-crime or cyber-terrorism in a broader context.

Chandrayan-1 has created history. It has proved instrumental towards finding water on the surface of the moon. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has proved its competence once again but this time they should also thank their stars and this is not because there is something amiss with their capabilities but because of the lack of maturity shown by some segments of society earlier when Chandrayan-1 had permanently lost its contact with the earth.

India’s announcement on voluntary reduction of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has accelerated otherwise snail-paced negotiation on a deal to be reached at Copenhagen this December. It is a welcome step but tactical move. From the solitude of obstructing, as many argue, to all inclusive to the Copenhagen, India has sent a signal of relief to the climate negotiators, mostly representatives of developed countries. If world sees this Indian move as a surprise, they are wrong.

Cross border threats, which involve influx of counterfeit currencies, illegal arms, smuggling of narcotics, illegal wildlife trade and its derivatives and cross border terrorism, are gaining momentum along the 726 kilometer long porous India-Nepal border. It is a grave concern for India considering the present political instability in Nepal.

Indians are by nature emotive. But, unfortunately they believe in overreacting. So, be it 26/11 or Swine-flu or draught like situation: mostly they react excessively. They even cannot take a loss by cricket team sportingly so naturally they are bound to start the blame game when drought is at the doorstep. What best punching bag could be than the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD)? Few intellectuals are even asking for its closure.

The area, in which Franco-Indian ties have made the most progress however, remains that of defence cooperation, moving from the short term tactical relations of the Cold War, to the more long term and genuinely strategic. France has now become one of India’s most trusted Western defence partners, and Franco-Indian defence cooperation has been described by French officials as ‘discreet but wide-ranging and efficient’, both countries regularly trading information on terrorism, security in Asia and the Middle-East, and maritime piracy, amongst a host of other issues.

On the 14th of July, a contingent comprised of more than 400 Indian troops, drawn from the Army, Navy and Air Force marched down from the Arc de Triomphe monument during the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris. The event took place in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. It, undoubtedly, heralds a new chapter in Franco-Indian ties and the participation of Indian troops in the parade is indicative of a more profound trend which has been steadily growing over the past decade or so.