Clockwise from top left: Iqbalunnisa Hussain’s memoir; cricket diplomacy; Andy Burnham; Manchester Museum’s South Asia Gallery; SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Islamabad. Open source images.

The Power, Potential, and Unrealised Promise, of South Asia

South Asia, for all its faults and constraints, is the fastest-growing economic region in the world this year. It is also home to the Commonwealth’s largest three countries in terms of population, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, representing just under two billion citizens, the majority under 30-years old.

From Remittances to Investments: Why Every State Should Build a Stronger Partnership with Overseas Indians

Overseas Indians possess both the financial capacity and the desire to invest, yet many promising projects are abandoned because of fragmented procedures, multiple government approvals and the absence of a single accountable institution to guide investors from concept to completion.

Bangladesh's Expatriate Card: A New Chapter in Migrant Financial Security

The Expatriate Card will be a source of recognition to millions of Bangladeshi remittance warriors and a sign of gratitude from the State for their support to the nation's development.

In Search of Dharma in the Indian Diaspora

We have become an aggressive and divisive society which is becoming intolerant of others' ideas and points of view. For a pluralistic society like India, all the people who live there are important and we need to work together to take the country forward and to great heights. Unless we change our present thinking, we have the danger of becoming an extremist state

More on South Asia Diaspora and Global Indians

Demoiselle cranes: It takes an Indian village to protect 'young ladies'

Come September and the residents of Keechan, a tiny village near Phalodi town of Jodhpur district of Rajasthan gets ready to welcome their winged visitors from across the Himalayas

American missionary, a Bangladesh leged, dies

Father Richard William Timm, a superior of the Congregation of Holy Cross in Dhaka, has passed away at the age of 97, an official said here on Sunday.  Conferred with the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1987, Father Timm was a legend in Bangladesh

Eight children sexually abused every day in Pakistan

More than eight children were subjected to sexual abuse on average every day in the first six months of 2020 in Pakistan, according to child protection NGO Sahil

Young Lankan housemaid allegedly tortured to death in Kuwait

The body of a 31-year old Sri Lankan maid who has allegedly been tortured to death is to be repatriated to Sri Lanka officials of the Ministry of Foreign Relations said

Early marriages of seven schoolgirls in a day stopped

Seven Bangladeshi schoolgirls were saved from early marriage in Sirajganj's Belkuchi upazila yesterday, thanks to timely action by the local administration

'Houseful' at Kashmir University: Clamour for Hindi studies in land of Urdu

The Department of Hindi at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar, offers a pleasant surprise. Contrary to the impression that Muslims in Kashmir are obsessed with Arabic and its cognate languages, the university's Hindi department is running full house

Pakistan's Sikh community wants rare religious scripture placed at shrine

The Sikh community in Pakistan said that it wants a handwritten copy of Guru Granth Sahib, which is currently on display at a museum in Lahore and estimated to be 300 years old, to be placed at the Gurdwara Dera Sahib, according to a media report

Now Netflix appoints Indian American Bajaria as head of global TV

To add to a number of Indian Americans heading or in responsible positions of top American corporations,  Netflix has promoted Indian American media leader to head its international TV operations as vice president for Global Television

Nepali artists collaborate with Indian record label for new album

Like most of Prasidha Yonzon’s tracks, Coax stands out

Pandemic will spike child labour, trafficking & slavery: Nobel Laureate Satyarthi

The COVID-19 pandemic will result in "most definite and substantial increase" in child labour, child trafficking and slavery across the world, warned India's Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi as he prepares to send an SOS tomoroow in a global event called 'Laureates and Leaders for Children Summit 2020' attended by the global who's who including WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the Dalai Lama along with prime ministers and presidents of different nations

Sikhs to be counted as 'ethnoreligious' group in US census, not as Asian Indians

In a break from the US constitutional separation of state and religion, the administration of President Donald Trump has introduced Sikhs as a distinctive group to be counted in the census underway and not as Asian Indians

Telugu actor Prabhas adopts a reserve forest near Hyderabad

Popular Telugu actor Prabhas has come forward to adopt 1,650 acres of reserve forest on the outskirts of Hyderabad

Regional cooperation needed in South Asia to face the pandemic

Unlike many other regions, South Asia is densely populated with one of the highest poverty levels in the world

A clutch of women in Bengal are drumming up a beat to rival male counterparts

What 53-year-old Gokul Chandra Das 'dhaki' (drummer) had started about 10 years ago has snowballed into a silent movement for women's empowerment in the impoverished stretches of West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district

Bhutan nominates Tenzin Lekphel as SG for BIMSTEC

One the founders of Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa, Tenzin Lekphel, is set to become the next secretary general (SG) of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)