The Truth About Ourselves
The human genome sequence has been completed and shows some surprising findings. Despite having one-third less genes than estimated, human beings are still very complex. With access to disease genes, medicine and diagnostics will be revolutionised. However, this will also raise ethical questions on cloning and genetic privacy.

Hope In Hell
Four weeks after the earthquake, Gujarat is still coming to terms with the devastation. True grit is emerging from the rubble but it will be some time before lives are rebuilt. INDIA TODAY's teams went out across these death zones, capturing stories which record this renewal.

Simmer Time

Profitable Loss
36 With over 90,000 employees opting for the VRS scheme, PSU banks are set to get over their problem of overstaffing. But is it going to make banks more competitive in this age of automation? Besides, it is also going to cost more than Rs 7,500 crore and will deprive the banks of skilled workers.

Paper Money

Spreading Terror
The attacks on Delhi's Red Fort,
the Srinagar airport and the city's police control room show the Lashkar-e-Toiba is increasingly catching the Indian security forces unawares-and emerging as the most daring terrorist group from Pakistan.

Face Off
It's David Vs Goliath as India play an Australian demolition squad at home. What makes the Aussies tick and how can India take them on?

Cricketwatch:
Ashley Mallett

DIPLOMACY

General Partners

After 40 years, India and its eastern neighbour are rediscovering each other

By Swapan Dasgupta in Yangon

TOP BRASS: Singh (far left) with Than Shwe (second from left) and other SPDC leaders

A visit to the small and undistinguished mazar of the last Mughal ruler of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar, in downtown Yangon, is semi-obligatory for all visitors from the subcontinent. The leather-bound visitor's book in the basement, adjoining the real tomb discovered during renovation work in 1991, tells the story of the comings of South Asia's notables to the Myanmar capital. From 1978 to 1998, the bulk of distinguished visitors was from Bangladesh and Pakistan and included a disproportionate number of senior military officers. From 1999, the trickle of Indian visitors turned into a virtual flood of Delhi's officialdom and military brass, culminating with External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh's visit on February 15.

Not since Jawaharlal Nehru gifted Aung Sun, the father of free Myanmar, an overcoat for his 1948 London visit and then dreamt Asian solidarity with his successor U Nu, have Indo-Myanmar relations witnessed such a high. After being out of each other's radar since General Ne Win drew his country within a bamboo curtain in 1963, the neighbours have rediscovered each other.

OLD ROUTES NEW LINKS

1. ROAD: The 160 km Tamu-Kalemyo-Kalewa road now links Imphal to Mandalay. 2. If the Ledo road is rebuilt, Assam will be linked with China.

3. CROSSING: Apart from Moreh, new points are to be established in Pangsau, Champhal and Paletwa.

4. RIVER: The proposed Kaladan river navigation project could link Mizoram to Sittwe (Akyab).

The 160 km Tamu-Kalemyo-Kalewa road which Singh inaugurated last week with enthusiastic fanfare is symbolic. Built by India's Border Roads Organisation at a cost of Rs 121 crore, the highway across the Kbaw Valley links Imphal to the road to Mandalay. It follows the tracks of the Burma Road which fell into disrepair and disuse after 1945. Now, like the rest of Indo-Myanmar relations, it has been extricated from the realms of archaeology. "It's a memorable day," said Singh with studied understatement. "We conveyed a message-that land links us."

In the coming days that message may be reinforced. Apart from Moreh in Manipur, border-crossing posts are planned in Champhal and Paletwa in Mizoram and the Pangsau pass in Arunachal Pradesh. There is also an ambitious plan to establish a riverine route through the Kaladan river linking Mizoram with the port of Sittwe (Akyab). India has requested permission for the reopening of its consulate in Mandalay, which could perhaps lead to a reciprocal arrangement for Myanmar in Kolkata. The unblocking of what Singh calls "the arteries of past commerce" could one day even lead to the rebuilding of the Ledo road that linked Assam with China some 50 years ago. Not to speak of a gas pipeline into India along the Kaladan river.

The rediscovery of Myanmar is replete with expectations, a reason why the grim reality of the Moreh-Tamu link fast emerging as a centre of smuggling in Chinese electronic goods is glossed over. Despite teething problems, both countries need each other. The convergence of national interests override each other's imperfections.

MetroScape
Delhi On My Mind...
I'm very flattered to have this act of 'piracy' take place," laughs William Dalrymple, as extracts from his engrossing travelogue City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi were interpreted by photographer Agnes Montanari and art historian Nathalie Trouveroy in an exhibition.
more...

Looking Glass

Delhi: Restaurant

Delhi: Exhibition

Mumbai: Exhibition

"I was very much against the idea of India," says William Dalrymple, author, The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. In conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro, he talks about his old girlfriend, Delhi and his "enormously exciting" next book, The White Moghuls in Interviews.