The three-year service extension given to Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, has surprised nobody in India. Since the failure of the Indo-Pakistan foreign ministers’ talks earlier this month, there has been a growing feeling in India that Pakistan is increasingly coming under the sway of the Pakistan Army and ISI, which many believe leads the terror campaign against India (a view given even more credence in light of the revelations about the ISI contained in the WikiLeaks documents).

Kayani was chiefly responsible for sabotaging the recent Indo-Pakistan talks and he has led Pakistan’s strategic diplomacy in China, with the United States, and on matters concerning Afghanistan’s future. Indeed, it was Kayani who impressed upon the Chinese the need for them to meet their commitment to supply two power reactors to Pakistan. In return, it has been implied that Pakistan will step up its campaign against the Uighur terrorists holed up in training camps in Pakistan’s FATA area.

On Afghanistan, Kayani and the Pakistan Army have campaigned to keep India out, and are pushing forward Pakistan-friendly Taliban factions for inclusion in the Afghan government when the US quits the country starting from the middle of next year.

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Mostly when I travel abroad—especially to more developed countries—I marvel at their efficient systems, incredible infrastructure and a way of life that helps people live somewhat equal lives.

Of course, I did a lot of that in my six days in London last week. But there's also now a privilege for urban Indians that’s rarely found in a lot of other cities around the world. In conversation after conversation in London, there was talk about the slowing economy, the lack of jobs and a less than secure future. This is all in stark contrast to social gatherings in Delhi or Mumbai, for example, where so much of the talk is devoted to things heading north—the stock market, real estate and annual salary packages.

In fact, more than a couple of Indian expatriates I met there were keen to move back to India to take advantage of the growth here. On a summer weekend, London is undoubtedly one of the most vibrant places in the world, with town squares and local hangouts brimming with thousands of people, even at four in the morning. It's a dynamism you might not find in a Delhi or Banagalore.

Last week, I attended the Ramnath Goenka Awardsfor Excellence in Journalism, in New Delhi. A total of 29 journalists received awards for excellence in a variety of categories, and it was a proud moment for so many to be recognized for their commitment to a profession that remains the fourth pillar of democracy.

But despite this moment of pride, there was also an uncomfortable sense of guilt among the wider fraternity of journalists who turned out in considerable numbers for what is generally known as India’s Pulitzers.

So what were they feeling guilty about? The growing problem of paid news.

Following last year’s elections in Maharashtra, allegations surfaced that the local media had taken thousands of dollars from politicians in return for publishing favourable news stories about them. And, in a panel discussion at the Ramnath Goenka Awards, executives from India’s leading media accepted the sad truth that such media payments are indeed commonplace today.

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British Prime Minister David Cameron is in India for a two-day trip to Bangalore, the country's major IT hub, and New Delhi.

On Wednesday, Cameron was present during a landmark signing agreement between BAE Systems, Rolls Royce and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. to supply India with 57 Hawk trainer jets. The deal is worth a whopping $1.1 billion.

The agreement indicates Cameron's focus of deepening strategic and economic ties with India rather than just talking politics. Doing so is one of the tips the British media appear to have been giving Cameron in the run up to his trip.

In fact, Financial Times political correspondent Alex Barker cautioned Cameron against five ‘elephant traps’ British politicians have been prone to getting caught in while in India in his blog on Tuesday.

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India will be keeping its fingers crossed the US decision to oppose the China-Pakistan nuclear deal will carry significant weight when the plan comes before the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) for ratification.

The US had been sending mixed signals since the deal to set up two Chinese power reactors in Pakistan was made public.  With the United States needing Chinese support for sanctions against Iran, it had initially only said it was seeking clarification on the deal from China. This came on the back of Pakistan’s own demands during a strategic dialogue with the United States in pursuit of a nuclear deal like the Indo-American one.

But after India expressed concern about the deal, first privately to China and the United States and then publicly, the US toughened its opposition. China, for its part, has maintained that a reactor deal with Pakistan signed before Beijing joined the NSG was effectively the ‘grandfathering’ of the present compact and therefore means the deal needs no NSG approval.

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Beijing looks like it’s facing another ‘security headache’—the Dalai Lama has turned into a Chinese language Tweeter. The Tibetan monk who the Chinese establishment loves to hate has been on Twitter to answer 10 questions at a time on his new Chinese language Twitter account at Twitter:@dalailamacn. And he doesn’t shy from answering sensitive political questions, batting on the front foot (to use a cricketing analogy) when it comes to China’s soft underbelly—Tibet.

So far, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which is in charge of internal security, has not apparently swung into action to attempt to block the Dalai Lama’s Tweets. One reason might be the infrequency of the updates—he has had just two Tweeting sessions so far, on May 21 and July 19.

The Chinese know very well that the West-backed Dalai Lamais hugely popular around the world (although his Twitter account posts a respectable but not remarkable 5,340 followers). And, it seems, he hasn’t so far been inundated with questions. For his last Tweeting session (July 19) he received just 326 questions.

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There's a battle royale going on between India’s home and foreign ministries after the spectacular failure of Indian diplomacy in Pakistan that has been outlined by my fellow blogger here.

The Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers’ meeting ended in a slanging match at the joint press conference when Pakistan refused to accept India’s steps toward peacemaking.

The trigger for Pakistani misbehaviour was the interview given to a newspaper by Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai on the eve of the foreign ministers’ meeting in Islamabad. Pillai revealed interrogation details of an American-Pakistani terrorist, David Coleman Headley, who had scouted locations in Mumbai for the November 2008 terrorist attack.

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As has been discussed by other writers on this blog, last week’s foreign minister-level talks in Islamabad between SM Krishna and Shah Mehmood Qureshi failed to inject the hoped for fresh lease of life into moribund bilateral ties.

I watched the live telecast of the Krishna-Qureshi press conference with my mouth agape as the two ministers openly disagreed with each other. Even basic diplomatic protocol wasn’t observed, with the two ministers sometimes speaking simultaneously, as though they were engaged in a TV discussion, not acting as responsible representatives of their countries.

Krishna did put forth very strongly Indian concerns over terrorism and denied Indian involvement in unrest in Balochistan. And while his Indian counterpart appeared composed, Qureshi looked upset, perhaps fully aware of the fact that Krishna’s visit was imploding right in front of the media. Clearly, the foreign offices of the two countries hadn’t done their homework properly and it was back to square one.

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Last week, I travelled to a small village outside Bulandshahar in western Uttar Pradesh to do a story on a not-for-profit that runs a girls school in the area.

The organisation was founded by an elderly man who had moved back to this village (his hometown) after decades in an extremely successful corporate career in the United States. In fact, by the time it came time for him to retire he headed the Asian operations of a Fortune 500 company.

For the past ten years, though, he has made this village his home, and his school now has 1,100 girls who not only all study for free, but who are also provided with uniforms, books, meals and vocational skills to ensure they can earn a living.

Spending a day at the school was inspiring, of course. But, one of the things that struck me after seeing this is that many people I meet in Delhi have growth myopia. Sure, we know we have huge infrastructural problems, but the growing prosperity of our metros has convinced many of us that India really is the next big economic superpower.

I’ve been getting increasingly agitated by the fallout from the latest India-Pakistan talks. And the more I think about it—and the more media coverage I see about the issue—the worse things get.

The newspapers and TV news here have been dominated by the meeting last week between Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Before the talks started, there was in-depth coverage of the expected agenda, followed by speculation and updates on the state of bilateral ties. And with the apparent failure of the talks, we’ve been left with discussions on who’s to blame.

On the evening news here, anchors tend to play to the gallery, doing their best to keep distrust burning between the two South Asian neighbours. In fact, despite the last 25 years of talks between the two countries, we don’t appear to have moved an inch. We talk about confidence building measures and other platitudes, but in reality not a modicum of trust exists between these two countries even after countless rounds of talks.

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