Nuclear weapons are meant to be deterrent weapons, rather than strategic or tactical weapons. The message to the enemy is: “You have the nuke, so have I, so don’t ever think of using them against us.” India’s nuclear warhead delivery system is far advanced than Pakistan’s. Pakistan knows this full well.   MINISTER of Defence Rajnath Singh has said that though India is still committed to its “No First Use” (NFU) nuclear policy, “what ..

 INDIA’S push for ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy was vividly on display during Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s visit to Bhutan, where he spelled out the unique relation between the two countries and hailed the Bhutanese concept of Gross National Happiness which underlines the essence of happiness in life. India’s relationship with the Himalayan kingdom is a prime example of excellent neighbourly engagement characterised by fine co-operation, understanding and trust ..

  DEFENCE Minister Mr. Rajnath Singh has done the most right thing by stressing that if at all talks were to take place between India and Pakistan, the subject will be Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). Let alone what a section of the political community may think in this regard, Mr. Rajnath Singh has made average Indian people very happy. Yes, that has been the subject on everybody’s mind. That has been hurting every Indian person in right and non-political frame of mind. Yes, this ..

  By Adv. R. S. Agrawal:  When any concurrent finding of fact is assailed in second appeal, the appellant is entitled to point out that it is bad in law because it was recorded de hors the pleadings or it was based on no evidence or it was based on misreading of material documentary evidence or it was recorded against any provision of law and lastly, the decision is one which no Judge acting judicially could reasonably have reached.  JUSTICE Abhay Manohar Sapre and Justice ..

 By ANSHUMAN BHARGAVA:  “As recently as the 1980s there were up to 80 million white-rumped vultures in India, but today the population numbers only a few thousands. In the Indian case, it was another type of inadvertent chemical poisoning that led the debacle for vultures.”   “Improving cross border collaboration, enforcement and building capacity for wildlife crime prosecution and improving the availability of information are crucial to stemming the decline ..

  Vijay Phanshikar: JUST as the group of youngsters felt a sense of shock last when I suggested that an odd failure was okay and manageable, it also felt a sense of pleasant surprise when I told them a few interesting stories and anecdotes from the lives of great personalities across time zone. “Uncle, nobody ever tells us such stories in an interesting manner,” a short and slightly plump girl said. Of course, that was not new. Countless hundreds of children of all ages have ..

PRIME Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort proved to be an expression of the vision for New India, encompassing not just a wide array of issues but also highlighting what India actually stood for -- as a society, as a nation. ..

The nation can never be homogenous unless all the components are welded together in a strong bind that would not wither in rough weather. When Mr. Kovind talked of national- welding, he meant all that and more. Let us not miss a wonderful reality at this point that the President’s address was a rare document that highlighted the national need in the most appropriate manner...

 The debt of the US Government is rising in tandem with household debt incurred by the consumers. Mr. Trump has reduced the Corporate Tax and Income Tax payable by the rich. This has led to stagnation in the revenue receipts of the US Government. The annual revenue receipts were US Dollars 3.3 trillion in 2017 when Mr. Trump assumed presidency.   A MAD race for reducing interest rates is afoot these days. United States’ President Trump has persuaded the US Federal Reserve Board to ..

 Vijay Phanshikar:   “Nothing should lull an NCC cadet to sleep or slackness”, said Lt. General Bhattacharjea, then the Director General (DG) of the National Cadet Corps. “The cadet must be alert all the time, ready to spring to action at a moment’s notice, and wearing a smile on the face all the time. And mind you, that smile should not be put on in a cosmetic manner; it should emerge from a happy soul. In other words, the cadet should be a happy person,” ..

  By Maj. General S.B. Asthana: While the discomfort of Pakistan and to some extent China, due to scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, was unwarranted, but expected, it was regrettable that some segments of global media chose to carry propaganda stories, based on fake news propagated by interested parties. THE peaceful celebration of Eid although at reduced scale, demolishes the propaganda fuelled by countries/media houses/politicians, who stand disappointed as they were ..

 By AKHIL BHARDWAJ: Creating imagined enemies out of protesters is a tool of psychological warfare that could easily turn into an intra-ethnic conflict. Xi is attempting to enlist the citizens of China in his attack on Hong Kong by playing on nationalism. He hopes to incite violence amongst the well organised pro- democracy protesters, giving him the moral authority to send in the PLA. Has Xi found the perfect tool to foil the surge of networked protesters or is China heading towards another ..

 Of greatness born By Vijay PhanshikarWhat happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry uplike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore—And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over—like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode?- ‘Harlem (Dream Deferred)’,A poem by Langston Hughes    Of greatness born!!! THIS is an eternal, universal question humans have often asked themselves! Really, what happens ..

 FINALLY the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has come under the watchful eyes of National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), an affiliate of the World Anti-doping agency. For years the cricket board has been resisting against coming under the ambit of the national anti-doping agency while rest of the sports federations had been subjected to the jurisdiction of NADA. While sportspersons in various disciplines were subjected to dope tests by NADA periodically, cricketers remained out of its ..

 EACH one of the youngsters -- all high school students -- was shocked actually when the subject of success and failure came up in a brief chat with them. “There is nothing wrong in failing in something. You can always try again and be successful,” was the statement that shocked them. “Uncle, how can you say that? How can one fail? And what will he do if he fails?”, asked a bright-eyed girl. Obviously, those kids were being pushed through a tough regimen of studies plus ..

 IN THE span of one week, Test cricket has seen the departure of two astounding performers who lent a special touch to the game with their class and classicism. After the retirement of pace ace Dale Steyn, South Africa bid adieu to Hashim Amla as he called time on his illustrious career, on Thursday. With Amla’s exit, the game of cricket has lost another batsman who thrived on classic stroke play even in the formats that essentially called for power hitting. At one time, Amla forced ..

 By ARUN SRIVASTAVA: The impact of Brexit will vary considerably across the European Union, with some regions bracing for severe costs and others less exposed. In fact, a study carried out by the Union points out that there may be divisions on the EU side that can be exploited to Britain’s advantage. BORIS Johnson’s pledge that the UK will fiercely pursue his Brexit policy and leave EU on October 31, “no ifs or buts,” has not only put the British polity in a ..

 THE pointless and illogical opposition to abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir has sounded a virtual death knell for the Congress party. If the incoherent responses to the Bill to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories presented the grand old party in poor light, the monumental blunder by the party’s leader in Lok Sabha, Mr. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, summed up the predicament of the Congress leaders who are as clueless with their strategy as ..

 EVEN though she was unwell, just a few hours before she breathed her last, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj wrote a congratulatory note to Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi for his successful execution of the new move on Kashmir. Then she collapsed, and a massive cardiac arrest took her away. This is the quintessence of the life and personality of the woman whose journey from the point of being the youngest legislator in Haryana to becoming Delhi’s Chief Minister to becoming India’s successful ..

  By D.C. Pathak  Induction of over 250 additional companies of security forces in J&K over the last few days was meant to deal with the possibility that a graver situation might be created by Pakistan after these historical decisions of the Government of India.  THE announcement by Home Minister Amit Shah in the Parliament about the abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution, which takes away with it Article 35A as well, and splitting J&K into two Union Territories ..

 THE United States, it appears, is paying very dearly for the gun culture and its liberal gun licensing policies. Former President Mr. Barrak Obama felt concerned about it and had mulled on curbing the menace. However, there is a strange standstill on the issue at the highest echelons of the US system ever since. Several mass shootings in public places have taken place since then by somewhat psychopathic and not so psychopathic individuals. The latest are two cases in which a 21-year-old boy ..

 WHEN former President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said that graduates from premier educational institutions like IIT and IIM should not be selling some big company’s detergents, there was a tinge of sadness. Sadness because such a world class talent is being wasted in doing jobs which could be done even by persons with lesser skills. It is in fact a colossal loss for the country that such talented people are not encouraged to do basic research in their field of specialisation. On the contrary ..

 EVEN as the nation celebrates scrapping of Special Status to Jammu and Kashmir and carving of two separate Union Territories out of the State, political shenanigans and dirty games will be played out there. For, the elements that ruled the roost in Kashmir for the past so many years will only step up their resistance to the new move by the Centre. It may not be wrong to expect many political parties in the State to come together to launch a massive political build-up to insist upon continuance ..

  ONCE again the issue of wrong umpiring decisions has raised its head with former Australian Captain Ricky Ponting questioning the efficacy of having neutral umpires. The controversial dismissal of David Warner in the first Test of the ongoing Ashes..

  THE clamour now raging in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) about the massive presence and fresh deployment of Armed Forces in the State has an unfortunate political dimension. Those who are indulging in kite-flying about the purpose of such a deployment are looking at the overall scenario from a narrow political perspective. Rumours are flying high about a possible withdrawal of Section 35A. Rumours also are raging about a possible trifurcation of the State into Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.  The ..

  By Vijay Phanshikar:  THIS issue is going to occupy collective consciousness all the time. It concerns not just a moral dimension but also a social angle -- of how some people offend people’s sense of decency and decorum in public places. This issue comes up fairly regularly in people’s conversation when they see some persons wearing clothes that seem to cross limits of decency, or behave in a manner that offends other people’s right to have a calm atmosphere in ..

By CONN HALLINANAccording to the Water Stress Index, out of 37 countries in the world facing “extremely high” water distress, 15 are in the Middle East, with Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia heading the list.IT IS written that “En..

 THERE is no doubt that the Ghaziabad milkman Mr. Vijendra finally got justice when the honourable Supreme Court acquitted him of the charge of adulteration of milk way back in 1979 under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954. But this took the judicial system to arrive at the final acquittal of the milkman 40 long years, making mockery of fundamental principles of justice. Honourable Justices R. Banumathi and A.S. Bopana made significant observations while acquitting the milkman of charges ..

  FINALLY the new Motor Vehicles Bill got the nod of the Parliament with the Rajya Sabha too passing it on Wednesday. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari has been expressing concern over high number of deaths in road accidents and promised to take legal measures to curb the road rage ever since he took the charge of the ministry in the last term of the NDA Government.  A reading of the contents of the Bill shows that the new law is designed to address most ..

AVISIBLY happy Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi on Monday conveyed the good news that from the ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ the country has travelled to ‘Tiger Jinda Hai,’ drawing upon the Bollywood analogy to tell the country that tiger populat..

 By W T Whitney Jr:  July 26 is about fighting a revolution and much more. As reflected in Fidel Castro’s “History Will Absolve Me,” Cuba’s revolution seeks true national liberation and also social justice. Speakers on July 26 have long evoked the memory of José Marti. Doing so, they testify to the continuity of Cuba’s revolutionary struggle. Presumably they are sending a message to US policy makers.  IT’S Bayamo’s turn this year ..

 By Vijay PhanshikarThe butterflycounts not monthsbut moments,and has time enough.- Rabindranath Tagore OF COURSE, for the butterfly, there is always time enough to live fully -- no matter the length of life! Unfortunately, the humans are not butterflies to realise this. They are always in a hurry to live longer, and yet have little time left to live more. A man known for his extreme sensitivity, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore often related to Nature, made intimate connects with leaves and ..

   By D.C. PathakPRESIDENT Donald Trump has completely demolished the universally practised mantra that diplomacy was the art of understatement which kept it from running into irreversible positions and robbing it of all flexibility. Being flexible is not the same thing as being shifty in international relations. Instant responses could prove to be potentially injurious in that arena particularly if they happened to be couched in hyperbolic expressions that made diplomatic ‘pressure..

EVEN as the country celebrates 20th anniversary of the victory in the Kargil Conflict, even as the people celebrate national heroes, even as they pay tributes to the martyrs of all wars, the issue of how the larger society motivates its youngsters to join Defence Forces comes to fore. There is no doubt that a grateful nation will always recall the valour of our Defence Forces for all time to come. But there is enough doubt about how vigorously it motivates its youngsters to become soldiers. At this ..

“Once India gets self –sufficient or nearly so in its clean energy goals, it can then assist other countries too in reaching those goals through technology and power-sharing. ..

SPORTING contests are often termed as war minus shooting. All the pulls, pressures, mindgames, and tactics that form an integral part of a soldier’s life find a striking similarity in a sportsman’s career too, albeit only on the field. The difference is -- sporting contests produce a winner or a loser who can restart another bout the next day while armed conflicts do not leave a room for another reset.  Lt Col Mahendra Singh Dhoni is set to experience this tenuous difference when ..

  HOW desperate Pakistan is for realignment of ties with the United States was on public display during Prime Minister Mr. Imran Khan’s visit to the US where he was not averse to peddling lies and presenting distinctly false narratives to please Washington. Yet again at the centre of the Pak-US paradigm was the operation to kill 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden that strained relations between the two countries. It was a unilateral operation ordered by then US President Mr. Barack Obama ..

FACED with challenges posed by terror groups, involving external and internal elements, it was only natural for the Government to make the anti-terrorist laws more stringent. As rightly said by Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah, while replying to the deb..

   The economic growth is down in India and there are few investment opportunities. For these reasons, the raising of Income Tax rate will only lead to an exodus of HNIs from India and boomerang as lower collections of Income Tax, lower investments and lower rates of GDP growth. It is impossible to sustain high Income Tax rates once we have opened our economy to global capital flows.   FINANCE Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has increased the marginal tax rate on high net worth ..

 Vijay Phanshikar:  Very few roads in the city have so many attractions as does Netaji Subhash Marg -- from the Iron Bridge (Loha Pul) at the western end to the south-east corner of the Shukrawar Talao (Gandhisagar). In good old days, the road presented a classic amalgam of the traditional and the modern. Today also, its character remains more or less the same, barring a few changes that time thrust upon it. If one cares to pause and ponder, one realises what an array of attractions lines ..

  SINCE taking guard for its second term after an astounding verdict in the general elections, the Modi Government has clearly hit the ground running with quick decisions on national security, setting agendas on delivering welfare schemes, initiatives to boost foreign investments, and initiating reforms in major sectors like railways and labour.  All these will go a long way in welfare of the society, the promise made by Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi in his inaugural speech while ..

 BY NAMING Rishabh Pant to play all the three formats as specialist wicketkeeper on the forthcoming tour to the West Indies, the Indian selectors have laid out a clear roadmap which seeks to blood youngsters instead of depending on old warhorse Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The selection, however, raises the most-asked question, have we already seen the end of Dhoni? The wicketkeeper-batsman has not made himself available for the West Indies tour and opted to serve his regiment in the territorial army. ..

 BY FREEZING promotions and putting a moratorium on new recruitments, the Government has sent out the message that it was very keen on its stake sale in badly debt-ridden Air India (AI). Not only that the Government has also relaxed several condition..

By Adv. R. S. Agrawal:  According to the SC, it is correct that the charge in the criminal trial arose from the death of a co-employee in the course of the incident resulting from the firing of a bullet which took place from the weapon which was assigned to the accused Mishra. But the charge of misconduct was on the ground of Mishra’s negligence in handling his weapon and his failure to handle the weapon. Consequently, the acquittal in the case was not a ground for setting aside penalty. ..

 By ANSHUMAN BHARGAVA:  “Growing population and its regular migration in search of job and livelihood and lack of housing for them will go on forcing illegal settlements in floodplains that will pose a perennial risk to a large population.”  “Rains are getting more intense and in short bursts with the gap between rainy days in monsoons ever rising. This erratic pattern is detrimental for crops and appropriate for flooding. Unfortunately, due to lack of proper ..

 EVEN if one wants to take an absolutely liberal view in Pakistan’s move to drop pro-Khalistan leader Gopal Singh Chawla from a panel linked to the Kartarpur Corridor, one just cannot take it as an honest gesture. The past is full of falsity by Pakistan in many such “peace and goodwill” steps. The Kartarpur Corridor is a dangerous zone which is bound to exploit anti-India sentiments among gullible youth by pro-Khalistan leaders like Chawla. As India handed over a dossier to ..

growth driver..

 DAYS after American President Mr. Donald Trump threw a fit over India’s imposition of retaliatory tariffs on 28 US products, his administration has exuded confidence of resolving the issues between the “two friends” through proper dialogue. The US State Department sees “enormous potential” for growth in India-US relationship, something that Mr. Trump also talks of but changes tack when it comes to commercial considerations. In fact, Mr. Trump has always adopted ..

   AMID the bulk of terrorism and violence-related news from Jammu and Kashmir, the tale of senior IPS officer Mr. Basant Rath’s endeavour of distributing free books to students in remote areas comes as a soothing whiff of fresh air. Mr. Rath, an IGP rank officer, is helping students in the hinterland of Jammu and Kashmir in preparing and cracking competitive examinations. He reaches out to the needy students and provides them study books without any question being asked. Such inspiring ..

  IN HIS first meeting with his Cabinet colleagues and departmental heads from the bureaucracy after reelection, Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had asked all of them to prepare a 100-day development plan for their respective areas of operation and ..