Japan's flamboyant Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi

Global Warming: Midway through a post-Cold War thaw, Japan's relations with India had hit the chill of a nuclear winter in Pokhran, 1998. Then prime minister Yoshiro Mori came calling in August 2000 and proposed a "global partnership" with India. Now Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to Japan, in a world dominated by September 11, is the next step.

The Japanese have much to gain from India. Their economy has been in a slump for 10 years now, and efforts to effect a recovery have had little success. The Indian market, forgotten since the heady days when Suzuki drove in, is a lure. According to a 1999 survey by the EXIM Bank of Japan on promising FDI destinations, India ranked 3rd in the long term (next 10 years). It represents, as Japanese Ambassador to India Hiroshi Hirabayashi said, the last big frontier for foreign investors and traders. As India sees it, Japanese investment is more than welcome. Though it and infrastucture are top of the agenda, the rising tide of Chinese goods here is a concern for both countries, in turn.

That is not the only logic for cooperation: energy security is a major issue for Japan, a country that imports almost all the oil it needs. India, along with Vietnam, can help it secure its vital sea lines of communication.

-Samrat Choudhury

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Israel hits at Arafat, US looks away

Arafat's helicopter burns

Israel's destruction of Yaseer Arafat's personal helicopters and missile strikes near the Palestinian leader's Gaza HQ indicate a renewal of a ho-hum conflict. President George Bush's quick backing of Israeli action also suggests the Washington-Tel Aviv alliance is back in business. Just after September 11, there had been an angry exchange, with Bush and company-trying to win Arab support for the Afghan war-asking Israel to cool down and planting stories in American papers about a "deal in West Asia". Hawkish Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had compared Bush's policy to Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler.

Now the Taliban has been vanquished and the little charade is no longer necessary. So the Israelis can build on their successful "assassination policy"-annihilating key Palestinian terrorist leaders-and seek a solution to their perennial problem. The Americans will be happy to look away. It'll be like life after the Gulf war of 1991.

About the only person worried must be Arafat. He's got few friends in Washington anyway and is blamed for not capitalising on the periodic "removal" of more extreme Palestinian rivals and simply allowing new ones to spring up. What's the bet ol' Yasser will be in Delhi soon, looking for tea and sympathy.

-Ashok Malik

Ginger doesn't make all dance

For an invention that fuelled more speculation than the existence of the Yeti, Segway is ordinary. That does not mean it is ordinary-a scooter that behaves like an extension of the human body can hardly be that. It has a maximum speed of about 20 km per hour, runs on electricity and can be recharged from the mains. Operating cost: five cents (Rs 2.50) a day. Initial investment: $3,000 (Rs 1.5 lakh). Steep, for India.

So is it going to revolutionise personal transportation? Probably not yet, though Apple founder Steve Jobs seems to think so. For one, it can't get very far without a recharge, needing one every 20 km. The maximum speed isn't enough to worry Harley Davidson. Not to forget, it isn't a car at all, so no cover from rain or cold.

Inventor Dean Kamen, an eccentric millionaire who fits the cliche to a T, is exasperated: "Yes, it won't beam you to Mars or turn lead to gold. So sue me," he told the press. The Batman-like son of a comic book cartoonist believes he's got a good thing going. And that China could be a market. Which, given Chinese inventiveness, may mean we can ride Segway clones for Rs 10,000.

-Anil Padmanabhan and Samrat Choudhury