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India is a big subcontinent with over one billion people and it is also the world's biggest democracy. So when the Mumbai attacks occurred, it bled all hearts. The well-planned and coordinated attacks on 10 locations in the country's financial centre last week were aimed at inflicting maximum damage to India's burgeoning economy and creating further distrust with its western neighbour, Pakistan, which has improved ties with India in recent months.

Today India has made its presence felt throughout the international community with its outward policies. Such approaches have rapidly transformed the once passive and conservative country into a key global player.

With India attaining such an influential status, it has put itself in an enviable position. Countries near and far that are hostile could try to undermine the positive developments in this subcontinent. Both local and international analysts agree that by choosing Mumbai as well as two luxury hotels as targets, the attackers must have links with outsiders. Some of them have identified the terrorists with two militant groups, the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI) and Pakistan-based Laskar e Taiyyaba. These groups have ties with al-Qaeda.

Given the high casualty toll of nearly 200 people including 24 foreigners and one Thai, the attack has quickly become a global issue with Western governments expressing interest in cooperating with the Indian government. The US, UK and Israel are sending experts to investigate and interrogate the lone apprehended terrorist.

Following the attack, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed to take "whatever measures are necessary" to track down those responsible. He said the perpetrators were based "outside the country" and India would not tolerate "neighbours" that provide a haven to militants targeting it.

Although a local group known as Deccan Mujahadeen has claimed responsibility, terrorist experts were still perplexed by the high level of skills and sophistication of bomb-devices and weapons used in the attack.

There are many Indians who are not integrated into the community and who have been left out across the country's geographical and religious spread. These people remain marginalised and are willing to do anything including committing terrorist acts. In the past, there were terrorist attacks across the religious line in Mumbai and elsewhere.

As Mumbai returns to normalcy, Indian authorities will have to deal with the deterioration in the relationship with Pakistan. President Asif Ali Zardari has pledged full cooperation with India. At the moment, with all fingers in India pointing at Pakistan's suspected role, a proposal for joint investigation would be essential to identifying the culprits and restoring much-needed mutual confidence. Like many terrorist acts before that occurred in both countries, authorities from India and Pakistan this time will not divulge their information easily.

What is important to ensure that the two nuclear rivals do not increase their level of confrontation? Given the heightening in terrorist attacks, it is imperative for both sides to keep their nuclear facilities safe and well protected.

In India, the media and analysts have criticised the government and intelligence communities for their failure to detect the movement of terrorists who managed to sneak into the country for a period of time.

In the final analysis, it is not hard to see that India has to review its intelligence structure and seek to strengthen whatever deficiencies it has. With so many quarters in India holding the firm belief that Pakistan's intelligence agency was involved in this carnage, it is possible that in the future India would initiate so-called pre-emptive strikes at terrorist groups that it deems dangerous to its national security.

This attack would also encourage India to cooperate with its Western counterparts in counter-terrorism, which India has been reluctant to do so in the past. In case investigations prove links with foreign countries or external groups such as al-Quaeda, it would further impact India's counter-terrorism strategy, which has been inward-looking, making it part of overall global anti-terrorism efforts.