If bird flu arrives, what will India do?

India is a hotbed not only of strange diseases but of stranger disease surveillance and control institutions. Every year, known and unknown fevers erupt in all parts of the country, and the New Delhi-based National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) swings into inaction. The procedure is a standard one: it claims to have investigated the epidemic, but, when asked, is unable to provide any information on the causative agent