South Asia remains one of the least integrated regions in the world despite geographical proximity and complementary economic structures. Greater regional trade, improved transport connectivity, cross-border electricity markets, digital payment systems and investment partnerships could substantially reduce external vulnerabilities.
Between 2004 and 2023, India produced roughly five million graduates every year, but graduate employment increased by only around 2.8 million annually. Even fewer obtained salaried employment. Millions are either unemployed or working below their qualifications or in the waiting room for the elusive government job.
Policy instability during the 2015-2024 likely pushed back Sri Lanka’s path towards becoming South Asia’s first High-Income Country. The 2022 financial crisis would never have happened as stable growth during the first half of 2015–2024 would have built enough buffer to weather impact of the Covid pandemic
China’s Belt and Road Initiative - which funded Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port through loans resulting in a 99-year lease to Chinese State-owned enterprise in 2017 due to Colombo’s struggle to service said loans - follows the same expansionary script.
China on Wednesday hinted at an early launch of the Main Line-I project of Pakistan Railways – the biggest infrastructure project in the country’s history with an estimated cost of around USD 6.8 billion – that has been funded by Beijing as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has assured that all BRICS member nations will help India in combating the second and deadly wave of the COVID-19 pandemic
After facing heat from opposition leaders on vaccine procurement, the Sri Lankan government has said that the country was not a dumping ground for "Chinese garbage", a report in Daily Mirror says
The Brussels-based Europe India Chamber of Commerce (EICC) has accused China of creating "discriminatory" trade barriers, resorting to "forced" technology transfer and intellectual property theft and asked the European Union to confront and counter Beijing’s "disinformation" campaign and expressed displeasure over some EU countries being “soft on doing business” with China
After becoming fully operational, the Gwadar Port and Gwadar Free Zone would generate economic activities of around USD 10 billion per annum, said China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority Chairman Lt-Gen (retd) Asim Saleem Bajwa on Monday
Outgoing Tibetan president-in-exile Lobsang Sangay has warned his people and the world against Chinese aggression in no uncertain terms
A leading Indina think tank has claimed that China has been steadily increasing its influence within the United Nations using a combination of increased funding, strategically placing its key officials and selecting the most influential agencies and bodies to lead
A controversy erupted in Sri Lanka over the alleged differential pricing of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines that the Sri Lankan government has been procuring from China, with authorities facing the allegation of signing the deal at a relatively higher price
Sri Lanka has officially told a state enterprise of China investing in the island nation’s language policy in the Colombo Port City following controversy over a name board, a minister said
A Chinese national hacked and injured two Bangladeshi youths working on the Dhaka-Mawa railway project in Keraniganj near capital Dhaka
There seems to be no end to the Sino-Indian border standoff as Beijing is trying to equip its Western high-altitude plateau regions with new weapons systems, said reports quoting Chinese Communist Party-run media
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) fits perfectly with “Pakistan’s geo-economic paradigm that is now the vision of the government”, a top official said
China has so far donated around 1.8 million Sinopharm vaccines to Nepal, and the latter is now looking for a commercial agreement to seek more vaccines
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority Chairman Lt Gen (retd.) Asim Saleem Bajwa has termed an export-oriented textile factory, established by a Chinese investor in the country’s most fashionable city Lahore, as a role model for new special economic zones
Bangladesh will purchase 15 million vaccines from China at $10 per dose rate, reported Daily Star. As per the plan, 5 million doses will be supplied to Dhaka every month from June to August
