Raj Chengappa

The US Secretary of State brought warmth, reassurance and a touch of Trump theatre to a strained partnership, but tensions over China, Pakistan, trade tariffs and migration remain far from resolved

India's military stands at a moment of profound transition. The rules of warfare are being rewritten in real time—by drones and artificial intelligence, cyber conflict and electronic warfare, contested borders and rapidly shifting geopolitical fault lines. For the man at the centre of that transformation, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, the challenge has been not just preparing for the next war, but redesigning India's military for a new era of conflict. In a wide-ranging interview with India Today Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa and Deputy Editor Pradip R. Sagar, just days before demitting office after a four-year stint, Gen. Chauhan reflects on the defining challenges of his tenure and outlines how India's armed forces are preparing for this radically changing battlespace—from Operation Sindoor and the China challenge to theatre commands, drones, cyber warfare and AI. Excerpts:

It's a year since Operation Sindoor, when India set a tough new normal for dealing with Pakistan and its sponsoring of terrorism

The pioneering heart surgeon turns 73 on May 8. The story of his 100 heart operations without any fatality and many other life-changing moments

A deep dive into the Rs 81,000 crore port-defence project that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has described as one of the biggest scams

A year ago, the terror attack in Pahalgam had left India outraged. What were the Modi government's hard options against Pakistan?

Amidst a tenuous two-week lull in the Iran war, the region assesses the damage already done and rethinks its security dependencies

A day before the deadline of March 31 to end Naxal violence, Home Minister Amit Shah declared to Parliament that the country is now 'Naxal-mukt'

As the region gets drawn into the US-Israel war on Iran, the key questions: Can it bring regime change? How long will the war last? Why should India worry?

Just when the 12-day Israel-Iran war last June threatened to engulf the Middle East, Donald Trump had pushed the two countries into a seemingly impossible truce

The hysterical outpouring of grief following Ayatollah Khomeini's death in 1989 revealed how his legacy of Islamic fundamentalism would dominate Iranian thinking, at least in the near future

As the National Green Tribunal clears the Rs 81,000 crore port and defence project on the island, environmentalists fear the loss it will inflict on its unique biodiversity

How New Delhi should deal with the new Tarique Rahman regime in Dhaka

A clutch of new agreements signal India's bold but risky gambit to join the big league of trading nations

Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal is the man of the moment, having signed two major back-to-back deals, one with the European Union and the other with the United States, within a week. Shortly after the joint statement on the Indo-US trade agreement, Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa spoke with him to assess what these arrangements mean for India's economic growth and the potential benefits for the common man. Excerpts

As analysts vet the fine-print of the India-US trade pact, a rewind to the historic India-US N-deal that allowed New Delhi to conduct civilian nuclear trade with the world

While the devil may be in the details, the Indo-US agreement returns ties to an even keel and restores India's competitive edge in key labour-intensive sectors

With New Delhi and Washington striking the coveted trade deal, the spotlight is on PM Narendra Modi's tactful engagement of US president Donald Trump

PM Narendra Modi gets a resounding mandate for ensuring political and economic security in the face of global uncertainty

There is much India can be proud of but equally be disturbed about. What the Republic needs is a radical new agenda to fast-track growth