Group photo of Silver Songbirds of Bengaluru with the Sri Lankan choristers from Colombo after the concert on 12 April 2026. Photo via Silver Songbirds of Bengaluru.

Music, Peace Building and a Shared South Asian Moment

“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”.

AI, Energy, Health, and Integrity: South Asia’s New Frontline Against Procurement Corruption

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.

How to Lose a Country in Four Years: Will the Taliban be Architects of Their Own Demise?

Yet ordinary Afghans refuse to stay silent. In Balkh province, people are turning public walls into canvases of defiance, spray-painting graffiti demanding education, rights, and freedom. These acts of artistic resistance, risking arrest and worse, echo the courage of exiled artists like Shamsia Hassani and Fatima Wojohat, whose work continues to amplify the cry for justice. Such quiet rebellion signals a population no longer cowed.

Trincomalee Energy Hub Development Will be a Strategic Milestone in India-Sri Lanka Ties

If one location matters most to India in Sri Lanka, it is Trincomalee. With one of the finest natural harbours in the world, Trincomalee has immense commercial, naval, and energy value. For decades, strategists in New Delhi have viewed it as critical to the security architecture of the Bay of Bengal.

More on Spotlight

Scramble for power and pelf: India’s elected representatives in an unedifying spectacle

Only adequate remuneration and commensurate punishment for infringement can the practice of illegal gratification be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, writes Amb Sarvajit Chakravarti (retd) for South Asia Monitor 

Padma Bridge epitomises Bangladesh‘s success story and Hasina’s leadership

Bangladesh has proved its capacity by building a 6.15 km bridge over the country's second toughest river using its own money, writes Fumiko Yamada for South Asia Monitor 

India: A nation bound by its constitution or a selective interpretation of civilization?

Those who were not part of the anti-British struggle had roots in the ideologies of landlord-clergy combine. They articulated nationalism in the name of religion, called it cultural nationalism, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor 

Rohingya repatriation from Bangladesh: Myanmar must keep its word

Myanmar and Bangladesh must cooperate in a neighbourly manner. Resolving the regional humanitarian problem will benefit the entire region of South Asia and Southeast Asia, writes Parvej Siddique Bhuiyan for South Asia Monitor 

India must take corrective measures to control hatred, divisiveness

In view of the growing trade and cultural ties between India and the Arab world, it will be disastrous if differences aggravate and no remedial and timely actions are taken, writes Asif Rameez Daudi for South Asia Monitor

India’s devotional politics; and its immunity to criticism

Beginning with Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru till Narendra Modi, we have a tendency to associate divine qualities to a political leader, writes Dr. Suparna Banerjee for South Asia Monitor

Bangladesh's help to Sri Lanka underlines need for SAARC revival

Covid-19 pandemic and Sri Lanka's crisis are the best examples for all member states to try their level best to revitalize SAARC, writes Dr Shakuntala Bhabani for South Asia Monitor

Religion is another name for love; hate is part of divisive politics

The major political parties in India need to oppose the gross violations of the Constitution, the bulldozer (in)justice and beating of accused in custody, writes Dr Ram Puniyani for South Asia Monitor

Are Hindus being persecuted in Bangladesh? Facts belie prevailing narratives

Unlike Myanmar and India, Bangladesh has never, particularly since 1991, promoted any discriminatory policy against minorities, writes Samina Akhter for South Asia Monitor

Will warming ties with the US be a lifeline for Pakistan?

A number of factors in Pakistan such as the alarming economic situation, continued grey-listing by the FATF, growing terrorism challenges created the exigency for a reset in its ties with Washington, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor 

Afghanistan: The failure of democracy, the US and the free world

But the democratic world, mainly the US, already lost its battle for democracy in South and Central Asia by allowing the collapse of the the Afghan Republic, writes Fahim Sadat for South Asia Monitor

India’s outreach to the Taliban: An opening with limited expectations

The Taliban, on the other hand, assiduously tried to exert themselves as an independent sovereign authority in Afghanistan, which was also reflected in the series of interviews that the group’s senior leaders gave to Indian media just before Singh’s visit. They also assured, on multiple occasions, that if New Delhi decided to re-open its embassy, they will be provided security, India’s prime concern, writes Shraddha Nand Bhatnagar for South Asia Monitor

Global economic prospects and challenges for South Asia: Cooperation is the key

The policy dilemmas which the economies of South Asia face call for collective thinking, although each country may have to pursue its own strategy, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor 

Saffron bigotry stumps the BJP in the Muslim world: Will the party change tack?

Now the BJP may begin to have second thoughts about aggressive pro-Hindu tactics. Even if it has won over large sections of the communal-minded Hindus at home, it will be wary of an Arab boycott of Indian products abroad, writes Amulya Ganguli for South Asia Monitor

Why Bangladesh should be seen as a South Asian economic miracle

Bangladesh is a South Asian miracle. Dislodging India, Bangladesh has quietly made its way to the top spot of the South Asian economic wheel, writes Shuvo Das for South Asia Monitor