Energy war: India and China face off in Central Asia

Call it a diplomatic fandango. Heavy-duty Chinese bulldozers groan day and night, building motorable roads that will connect towns with cities in Kazakhstan. In the countryside, Russian engineers are busy putting new cables on newly-erected towers to put a fresh spark into the rusty, unreliable electrical grid.

On the streets of Tashkent and Dushanbe, Bollywood numbers incite local people to break into impromptu jigs. And in the war-torn dustbowls of Afghanistan, American workers are building schools and hospitals in the middle of non-stop gunfire. The Indians are doing the same, at the risk of their lives. This is the soft side of the story
TimesofIndia