If sportswomen are treated equally and provided with equitable opportunities, women athletes from South Asia are bound to participate in greater numbers in top international events like the Olympics, writes Sarita Bartaula for South Asia Monitor
Economic ties are significant for both West Bengal and Bangladesh due to cultural linkages and geographic proximity. West Bengal acts as a gateway for Bangladeshis seeking access to medical facilities, education, and business opportunities. Significant trade also takes place through land ports. Hence, the first response of the BNP-led government would likely be to minimize any chances of a downturn in ties. New Delhi, too, will continue to prioritize Bangladesh, especially at a time when Dhaka has outlined defense modernization plans with likely Chinese help.
The architecture of financial and infrastructural assistance deployed by India and China in Sri Lanka differs significantly. Their infrastructure profiles, however, are not fundamentally competitive and instead represent distinct advantages that Sri Lanka has leveraged for its development. India and China are essential pillars of Sri Lanka's development future and economic ambitions.
“The presence of the Sri Lankan singers “made this not just a local gathering, but a shared South Asian moment,” Nirupama Menon Rao said after the show. “Music does that so effortlessly. It crosses borders without asking for permission”.
South Asia’s future depends on reliable infrastructure and trustworthy public services. Artificial intelligence—especially advanced technologies such as Graph Attention Networks—offers governments a powerful tool to reduce corruption in procurement, improve healthcare delivery, strengthen energy security and enhance public trust.
If sportswomen are treated equally and provided with equitable opportunities, women athletes from South Asia are bound to participate in greater numbers in top international events like the Olympics, writes Sarita Bartaula for South Asia Monitor
India ought to tread cautiously in aligning with the US as a counterweight to China, writes Mayank Mishra for South Asia Monitor
Warship building and design is an arduous undertaking and India now joins a select group of nations that have demonstrated proven capability to conceive, design, and build an aircraft carrier, writes C Uday Bhaskar for South Asia Monitor
One can be optimistic that Biden’s selection will lead to a debate on freedom of religion and more interfaith dialogues in South Asia and other parts of the world, writes Frank F. Islam for South Asia Monitor
Instability in Afghanistan along with the discord with Pakistan does not augur well for South and Central Asian connectivity, writes Niranjan Marjani for South Asia Monitor
With the historic revocation, the Indian government has finally applied salve on the festering anger in Kashmir: anger born out of chronic underdevelopment and misgovernance, writes Suchismita Panda for South Asia Monitor
Cooperation among BCIM members is essential for the sustainable development of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin, writes Dipankar Dey for South Asia Monitor
US Secretary of Defense General Lloyd James Austin has said that the Afghan forces must slow the Taliban’s momentum. The question is how, writes Lt Gen P. C. Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
With the ever-growing presence of China in Southeast Asia, it would be injudicious to keep the economic and strategic prospects that West Bengal has to offer underutilized, and hostage to petty internal politics, writes Anondeeta Chakraborty for South Asia Monitor
Not only was the use of a weaponized drone on the Jammu IAF base an act of war but a violation of the ceasefire agreement concluded by DGs, military operations, of India and Pakistan, effective from midnight, 24-25 February 2021, writes Col. Anil Bhat (Retd) for South Asia Monitor
The Pakistan incident against Chinese workers is all the more worrying as Chinese personnel and technicians are working on various projects not only in Pakistan, but in other South Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, as well as many African nations, writes N S Venkataram for South Asia Monitor
Better connectivity in this region would facilitate the establishment of trade linkages with other regions through platforms such as the BIMSTEC, SAARC, and ASEAN, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor
For Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government, the acid test of preserving Nepal’s core interests and increasing its bargaining capacity vis-à-vis India and China will depend on how the Nepalese leadership responds to the emerging geopolitical and geoeconomic imperatives in the region, writes Zahoor Ahmad Dar for South Asia Monitor
Given Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean, China has developed huge stakes in the island nation, writes N. Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
Fifty years after its liberation from Pakistan, Bangladesh is the reverse image of the country it broke away from -- a moderate Muslim majority nation anchored in its liberal syncretic Bengali culture that guided its 1971 secession from Pakistan, writes Subir Bhaumik for South Asia Monitor