India’s inward remittances keep growing, having more than doubled since 2010, and showing a growth of over 6 per cent per year, ahead of GDP growth. By comparison, China’s inbound remittances have been falling. Pakistan and Bangladesh get about one-fourth of what India gets.
If democracy does survive in this sub-continent, posterity will certainly hail these recently pronounced three judgments as the primary reason for its preservation.
While Iran’s ties with the West, especially US, may have hit rock bottom, Pakistan despite the public posturing will not be able to go ahead with the project at the cost of annoying the US.
At the heart of the violence lies majority triumphalism combined with a systematic denial of knowledge acquisition, specifically histories, for the minority community in Manipur.
Other countries in the region, such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nepal, are also struggling to arrest the depletion of their foreign exchange reserves as a result of high fuel prices. However, Bangladesh is still better placed and has enough time to work out a deal with the IMF.
Experts have pointed out Pakistan’s need to undergo deep structural reforms to avoid recurring cycles of loans and knocking at the IMF's doors
For Sri Lanka, which is in dire need of foreign exchange reserves, tea is among a few commodities offering an assured income in dollars. The industry faced immense hardship during the last year’s ban on chemical fertilisers
The move isn’t a recognition of the Taliban regime which remains internationally isolated. The emphasis on people-people and civilizational connections underscores New Delhi’s attempt to retain its soft power in the country
From withdrawing the fuel subsidies, hiking electricity tariffs and reducing expenditure to increasing tax rates, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has gone all out at the expense of its own political capital to get the IMF programme running
Notwithstanding the Deuba’s government push to strengthen ties with the US, Nepal is still far from signing any security pact with it. Further, China, despite suffering a relative pushback in Nepal, is unlikely to take such a deal kindly
If Yameen returns to power in the Maldives, it would have repercussions on the present close strategic ties with India
India needs strong and friendly relations, be they diplomatic, economic, social or cultural, with the countries of GCC. And some of these arguments carry over for relations with members of the OIC too
Challenges are compounded by the almost unaffordable prices of global commodities and fuel—factors beyond the government’s control. “I cannot control this but cannot leave people without food and fuel, either,” Ismail said.
Denigration of another faith is not the act or practice of a true Hindu. Every Hindu must condemn such acts., writes Amb Sarvajit Chakravarty (retd) for South Asia Monitor
While ASHAs make us proud, the state of the health management system makes us hang our heads in shame. Is this where India should be in the 21st century?
Messages, and communal narratives - and even state-sanctioned actions - targeting Muslims reach audiences in the Muslim countries in real time and will produce resentment against India and its diaspora community living there. These sentiments will eventually make it a bit harder for their governments to embrace New Delhi and do business with it, at least in the open.
“Today, Indian Navy is counted among the frontline navies of the world. Today, the world’s largest maritime forces are ready to work and cooperate with India,” Singh said and described INS Khanderi as a shining example of the ‘Make in India’ capabilities of the country.
The decision to build the much-awaited Padma Bridge, which is set to open for traffic on June 25, through its own finances has brightened Bangladesh's image in the world, writes Dr Malika-e-Abida Khattak for South Asia Monitor.
While air remains a major mode of transportation for tourists—almost 77 percent, around 80 percent of Bangladeshi tourists used the land as the mode of transportation. Thus, an integrated, cross-border railway network as a faster mode of transport could bring enormous benefits to the region, including boosting regional trade.
