Yet another 26/11 is here, and we’re doing the same things – sharing photos of candlelit silent moments, sharing photos of brave soldiers and warriors, and shaking our fist at the enemy. Even Modi mentioned it in today’s SAARC summit.

But infrastructure is not built on hope. There are measurable things that India needs to do, things that we’ve been stalling ever since Mumbai got hit with gunfire and explosions in 2008.

1. A real life Baywatch

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The 26/11 team that shook Mumbai for three days docked at a fisherman's colony off South Mumbai's Budhwar Park and calmly unloaded an arsenal of evil. No one stopped them as they sailed in a hijacked fishing trawler and jumped on to a dinghy in Mumbai port. What’s funny is that we spent about Rs. 150 crore on a fleet of speedboats, and then forgot about them.

Today, even if we do find out another deadly fleet is headed to Mumbai, we won’t have enough men in the water. About 30 of our 722 coastal patrol boats don’t work because we never bought spare parts for them.

2. Explosives scanners

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The most obvious way to prevent explosives from blowing up a place is to screen for them using an explosives scanner. When all else fails, at least the scanner will ensure that bombs don’t enter a building. India bought one for 6 crore, and never fixed it when it broke down.

3. All terrain vehicles

This is what UK's SAS is using to take down ISIS terrorists - about eight a day.

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But what about India – or even Mumbai? What’s interesting is that India did buy all-terrain bikes for Mumbai and they were showcased on Chowpatty beach.

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And that is where they lie today, rusting.

4. Bomb disposal suits

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We don’t all have the luck of Major Samar Anand (SRK in ‘Jab Tak Hai Jain’). And even after we realized how dangerous men with bombs were, we still didn’t buy enough bomb disposal suits. Pune only had one in 2012. Consequently, it was unprepared for the four low-intensity bomb blasts that happened across the city that year.

5. Bulletproof jackets

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When the Taj was burning, it was firemen on ladders bringing down panic-stricken hotel guests. But these men didn't have bulletproof jackets, despite bullets straying through the hotel. For that matter, when you look at the kind of bulletproof vests NSG commandos wear, you'll realize how bad ordinary police standard issue bulletproof vests are.

6. A line of sight

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We don’t have CCTV cameras, which means we can’t track attacks in real-time.



7. We don’t have a control room

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The reason our response to 26/11 was what it was, was because we didn’t have a control room. What we had was men in the streets, walkie-talkies blaring, and no standard operating procedure. We have procedures now – but the control room building is still coming up.

8. "It was .303 versus automatic rifles like AK-47s and AK-46s. Do we stand a chance?"

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When Thane Railway Police assistant sub-inspector Aaba Pandarkar reached the Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus for his daily beat, he thought firecrackers were going off to celebrate India vs. England in the fifth ODI. He was only armed with a .303 rifle, a relic of the British Raj. Regardless, he boldly tried to kill a terrorist straying bullets with an AK-47, one of the best combat assault weapons in the world.

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He was shot in his left lung, and still survived to tell his tale. In his interview with Rediff, he summed it up, "It was .303 versus automatic rifles like AK-47s and AK-46s. Do we stand a chance?"

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Interestingly, we bought over a 107 anti-material rifles that can shoot through concrete and armour, but never actually tried them out.