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First it was Al-Qaeda which threatened to launch a major attack on India. Now, it is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which is said to be targeting India.

Better late than never, seems to be the mantra at South Block as the government finally bites the bullet over the long-delayed acquisition bid to provide the Indian Air Force (IAF) with a new fleet of frontline fighters. Last April, the government announced its decision to break the deadlock over acquiring 126 Rafale jets from France by agreeing to buy 36 aircraft in a “fly away” condition instead. But the IAF has been reportedly very disappointed at what it considers “a half-hearted attempt” (as a high-ranking air force officer described it) to address the issue of dwindling numbers of fighter jets in its fleet. The air force is currently operating with just 34 fighter squadrons as against the sanctioned strength of 45, which is the baseline for ensuring air superiority against China and Pakistan. The IAF’s ageing fleets of MiG 21s and MiG 27s are to be phased out in the next six years, which makes it imperative for the air force to induct some 400 new fighter jets by 2025. Upgrading the existing fleets of Mirage 2000s and Jaguars is only a short term solution, as is inducting 72 more Sukhoi-30 MKIs from Russia to bulwark the 200 Sukhois already in the fleet (whose serviceability barely touches 55 percent).

Last Thursday was a painful day. That day saw deaths of two of very different Muslims. In the Nagpur jail at seven in the morning a man named Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was hanged. A few hours later, in Rameswaram, another man named Abul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, a great son of India, was buried with fanfare and ritual ceremony of full state honours. No camera was allowed to record hanging of Memon, a Bombay serial blast convict. The burial of the former President Kalam, also known as missile man, took place in full glare of day light.

International concern is growing over increasing illegal trafficking in men, women and children in South Asia, particularly in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Kisan Sabha has decided to launch state-wide agitation and create public awareness programme to press for demands related to farmers suffering due to apathy of Akhilesh Yadav government.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress leaders in Kerala never tire of proclaiming their ‘utmost respect’ for the judiciary. But the hollowness of their claims was exposed when they went ballistic against a High Court judge who strongly criticised the functioning of the office of the Advocate General.

The Gurdaspur terror attack on Monday has brought to the focus once again India’s internal security and also external threat. The fact that terrorists from across the border entered in broad daylight and killed innocent civilians and police personnel is a wake up call to strengthen intelligence network as well as the police force.

Gold is back in the news for the fall in its price both within the country and globally in recent days. Once derided by the celebrated economist John Maynard Keynes as “the relic of a barbaric age’, the charm this inert metal exercises in the minds of millions is mesmeric even in a country where cutting across status people hold on to gold and get it associated with their daily life in one form or another or in one function or another. As the demand for the yellow metal has over the years been quite out of proportion to the capacity to produce within the country, the yellow metal import has been the bane of India’s balance of payments position particularly more recently in the year 2013-14 when import of gold shot up astronomically. So any decline in the price of gold is construed as a breather for the managers of the economy as they could husband resources for productive investment in place of expending on costly and wasteful import of the yellow metal that is a sure-fire road to economic disaster.

Why is the BJP-led NDA government pursuing so keenly an unfinished Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh agenda to have a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU), which has been trying to have a free access into India’s burgeoning consumer market since 2007? India stands to gain little from such an arrangement. With its limited and mostly low-cost, low-technology small-value-added export basket, India can at best make only a tiny inroad into the EU market known for its preference to high quality products at competitive prices. On the contrary, EU, a hub of global high-technology products from automobile, transport and power equipment to wine and hi-fashion, can flood the Indian market with its world class wares and unsettle the current trade balance between the two markets.

On the eve of the recent death anniversary of Tollywood actor Uttam Kumar, the Kolkata-based intellectual circle erupted with praise for the long deceased actor. The universal appeal the actor still holds in almost all corners of this side of the fence of Bengal is somewhat astonishing and certainly cannot be attributed entirely through the commercial success of his films or the attempt of the current government administration to use his cult to gain popularity. Uttam Kumar’s appeal lay somewhere beyond these everyday matters and although unlike Ray, he was an insignificant figure in world cinema, his popularity did not dwindle away even after so many years after his departure. But often a man is more than a man, an actor becomes more than his acting skills and summation of his artistic achievements. What it is for Uttam Kumar that transpired him into greatness?