As Pakistan and China dive deeper into undersea warfare, India’s ambitions remain stranded by delay, indecision, and the dead weight of bureaucracy. India’s undersea fleet is showing its age. Of the 17 conventional submarines currently in service, most are over three decades old - creaking veterans that are fast approaching retirement. The Navy’s three nuclear-powered boats offer some relief, and the six new Scorpene-class submarines, built with French help at Mazagon Dock in

From Bhabha’s sketches in wartime Bombay to Kudankulam’s glowing domes, India’s atomic journey has embodied persistence, ingenuity and purpose. India’s nuclear odyssey began with an idea of peace, not war. Whereas the West’s atomic pursuits in the mid-20th century were rooted in weapons, India’s pioneers saw in nuclear energy the promise of national progress. In 1944, Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the father of India’s nuclear programme, had envisioned a self-reliant nation built

Each one of us knew instantly, every time a martyr passed us, that it could have been any one of us instead.   It was early July 1999. In the harsh mountains of Ladakh, the Indian Army had already fought many battles to evict enemy intrusions across the Line of Control. After initial setbacks due to underestimating the enemy’s preparedness for a prolonged campaign, our units were making steady progress, securing one ridge at a time and pushing the enemy back toward the LC. On

America’s renewed embrace of Pakistan may be aimed at countering China, but it risks reviving ghosts that may return to haunt the US....

While India has made big strides in defence self-reliance, a truly ‘Atmanirbhar’ military machine remains elusive. India likes to see...

Gadchiroli: In a major development, six hardcore senior Maoists, including three women, carrying a combined bounty of Rs 62-lakhs, laid...

When Indian policymakers talk of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India), the phrase generally conjures images of solar panels,...

At the mouth of the Malacca Strait, India is trying to turn an isolated outpost into a maritime gamechanger. India’s southernmost tip is...

Over the years, she realised we had sworn allegiance to the Olive Greens well before we married our soulmates. It was the third week of...

From Dhaka to Kathmandu, the rising shadow of foreign meddling in South Asia is compelling India to face new tests of resilience. When...

Once a potent force, the Maoists are now a relic of an obsolete ideology, unable to adapt to a confident and rapidly modernising India....

As great-power rivalry intensifies by the day, India’s foray into hypersonic missiles reflects its ambition to secure strategic autonomy...

China’s dams on the Brahmaputra threaten India’s water security, but they also open the door to fragile cooperation. After the Pahalgam...

The Burmese dha, a long, straight sword used in the martial art of banshay, is said to possess a peculiar virtue: it can strike even when...

As our country turns 79, it faces an abrasive America and a perfidious Pakistan, and must balance external provocation with domestic...

Maharashtra’s new ‘Urban Naxal’ law revives an old debate of how to fight insurgency without eroding dissent. Maharashtra’s politicians...

India’s Apaches and Pakistan’s Z-10MEs are signposts in an accelerating South Asian arms race. In South Asia, where the map is still...

The humble shipping container is being undermined by a toxic mix of deception, negligence and regulatory blind spots. In 2004, Efthymios...

When passion meets courage,  there’s no looking back. Major Satish Dahiya embodied both. His supreme sacrifice on 14 February 2017...

China’s mammoth hydropower project on the Brahmaputra is rattling its southern neighbours and the river itself. China has long sought to...