Death in a hospital, on an ICU bed and under effective medical care brings a level of mental satisfaction to family members, of having done their best to save a life.

Except for a brief period in 1998 when I was researching for a dissertation on ‘Non Military Threats’, I never ever focused on pandemics as a source of existential security threat to a nation.

We got caught unprepared due to some plain incompetency, lack of teamwork, power greed at political and administrative levels. We are paying an inordinately heavy price for it.

Who is leading Delhi out of this crisis? The PM? The HM? The CM? The SC? The HC? The LG? Delhi, our national capital seems to be a rudderless boat adrift in a storm.

I hear continuous wailing of sirens of ambulances taking patients stricken with the Chinese virus to hospitals. Are they banshees carting people to death or are they angels of mercy flying them to recovery?

India has the capacity, intellect, and research facilities — within and outside of government — to develop and field systems faster than ever before.