Following the high profile assassinations of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB (erstwhile Soviet Union’s secret service-Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti) agent in November 2006, the British investigators found that Litvinenko’s killers used polonium-210, a rare radioactive element worth over $10 million to poison him.

India has put its first successful step in the arena of ballistic missile defence by conducting a successful but surprise test of a new interceptor missile in late November over the Bay of Bengal. This missile, named AXO (Atmospheric Intercept System), was fired from the Wheeler Islands off Chandipur in Orissa. In fact, AXO is a modified version of Prithvi-II specially manufactured for this test. It intercepted another surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile.

With a growing economy and increasing population, India’s energy demands are mounting. The household sector is the largest consumer of energy in India, accounting for 40-50 per cent of the total energy consumption in the country. In rural areas, the domestic sector accounts for nearly 80 per cent of total energy consumption. It has been estimated that with the current rate of consumption, India would require over 450 million tones of coal, 94 million tones of oil and 220 million units of electricity by 2006 to sustain its energy needs.

Despite many pioneering works in developed countries, defence economics has few takers in the developing world, including India, where the subject's relevance has not been comprehended until now. Even at present, many security analysts question the utility of the application of economic principles in the strategic sector!

The Maoists (also known as Naxalites) in India are encouraged by the recent success of their Nepalese counterpart, who emerged as a legitimate power center after a decade of protracted people’s war. The effects are already visible in Bihar, the neighbouring Indian State. Despite convoluted security arrangements by the Bihar Police, the partial success of the Bandh (general strike) on Oct. 30, 2006, by the Maoists indicated that they were capable enough to strike at their will.

Several new developments point to the fact that New Delhi is undeterred by any pressures from the Western world and has followed an independent foreign policy driven more by realpolitik and less by the moral high ground of democracy to engage the military regime in Myanmar. New Delhi has thus made great friends in Myanmar.

The Havana meeting has certainly removed, though for the time being, the chill in India and Pakistan's bilateral relations. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf had agreed to restart the peace process that has been stalled following the July 11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai. The apprehension regarding the breakdown of the composite dialogue process has ended.

Consider this: The reputation of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, regarded a premier institute for thousands of medical and health care professionals, students and researchers, has been tarnished by a deadly dengue outbreak. How ironic it may sound, the sprawling premise, cramped with quarters and not far from an active but stagnant drain, actually serves as a haven for mosquitoes and other disease-carrying vectors.

The eastern Indian state of Orissa will turn to a mass of barren and desert-like lands in another 150 years, warned Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO). This is an alarming finding considering that the world is observing this year as the year of deserts and desertification with the theme, "Let's stop dry lands from turning deserts". Desertification is a process of productivity loss of lands. When severe, it leads to permanent damage.

North Korea’s defiance has culminated in a seismic wave of around 4.2 in the Richter scale, but its politico-strategic ramifications are beyond calculation. The episode has provided sufficient fodder for the strategic community to interpret vividly the nomenclature of clandestine proliferation, possible actions and reactions of the stakeholders, and the current state of the global nuclear order. However, it should be understood that Pyongyang’s case is not a single phenomenon.