India’s states play an outsized role in public spending accounting for nearly +/- 60% of total government expenditure. However, their fiscal health varies greatly across pan India. As someone closely observing both macroeconomic trends and grassroots governance models, I notice a growing divide between states that follow prudent fiscal practices and those still trapped in populist spending cycles.
When democracies embrace the traits of war economies and view peace as a sign of weakness, we need to question not about those who benefit from war, but rather about those who continue to engage in it. Not only does it include safety, but it also includes power, contracts, careers, and control.
The age of overt, high-visibility strikes is diminishing in returns. Covert operations, cyber infiltration, and disrupting terror logistics silently deliver greater impact at a lower political cost. India needs to establish a dedicated Psychological and Information Warfare Command, rather than relying solely on MEA press briefings or tweets from leaders.
BRICS has the potential—and perhaps the will. Ahead of COP30, it should convene a high-level “Redefining Climate Summit” with other like-minded nations invited to the BRICS table. Let the world know: BRICS can indeed build the force to break the climate blockade. The clock is not ticking anymore. It’s screaming.
In the larger South Asia context, air pollution does not follow national boundaries and therefore the solutions for all the airsheds cannot come from any one city or a country. The countries in South Asia – India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan - that share a common airshed are impacted by the transboundary pollution. More than half of the air pollution across major cities in South Asia is not local but transboundary in nature.
Regional bodies like the SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, have the potential to foster cooperation on climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and trans-border pollution control. However, geopolitical tensions, particularly between India and Pakistan, hinder progress.
In the years gone by, India was defined by its religious and cultural strengths, but it has now taken Prime Minister Modi, with a new initiative, to give a boost to India-Caribbean ties through a purely development agenda. It is hoped that CARICOM would set up the mechanisms to get this agenda going. Is it that India is now showing its readiness to take on American and Chinese frontiers aimed at becoming a leader of the Global South if not a world power?
While the South Asian states securitize, local politics has often scapegoated refugee populations, turning majority insecurities into electoral capital – a fear that refugees’ encroachment on physical and political spaces, jobs, land, corner welfare resources meted out by the state and place undue pressures on infrastructure; acase in point the rhetoric against Bangladeshi migrants in India.
Managing the country’s debt remains a priority. Pakistan has $26 billion in debt servicing obligations for FY25, but the government has already paid $5.7 billion. It hopes to roll over $14.1 billion of this debt, but a shortfall of $6.3 billion remains. While this presents a challenge, the government is exploring ways to address the gap without relying heavily on expensive, short-term loans.
The JVP policy towards India took a u-turn when its youthful cadres were highly appreciative of the Indian assistance given during the tsunami and later at the height of the economic crisis two years ago. India’s $4 billion aid tops the list of overseas assistance. India also rushed food, fuel and medicines that helped end the long queues for these and other essentials.
Given this situation, Pakistan has not only failed to secure strategic depth in Afghanistan but has instead found itself trapped in a strategic dilemma. The Taliban have not cooperated with Pakistan in neutralizing the TTP and have consistently denied the TTP’s presence in Afghanistan, despite evidence indicating the group’s activity in the border areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This cooperation extends beyond providing safe havens
Direct maritime connectivity between Karachi and Chittagong will be crucial to the growth of trade and commerce between the two nations and beyond. They may significantly cut down on the time and expense of shipping products between them and will potentially be crucial in forging connections with other Middle Eastern, Central Asian and East Asian nations, including Russia and China.
Even among the practitioners, some have been over the years lauded as hawks for playing tough with their subcontinental rivals and some derided as doves for seeking reconciliation and understanding only to be rebuffed. But one thing that Pakistan experts in India agree on, be they former diplomats, security officials, academics, or strategic analysts, is that the one single barrier to conciliation and friendship was the all-powerful Pakistan Army which, in the words of Stephen Cohen, who had authored a book on the Pakistan Army, "imposes its own vision of a Pakistani nation.”
Even though prices of solar and other clean energy are falling rapidly, the level of global electricity production from coal and gas has not changed significantly. Countries that attended COP28 in Dubai returned after making history. Countries attending COP29 in Baku may end up wondering about the future of that history.
Militant groups are proliferating at an alarming rate. The last U.N. report on Afghanistan named scores of militant groups setting up house in Afghanistan, destabilizing an already fragile region. Well known among them is the Islamic State and the Tehrik -e-Taliban Pakistan as well as scores of lesser known militant groups. These groups are populated by militants with a grudge against China, Pakistan, the United States, Russia and India.
The problem with the payment started following the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government in August. Amid economic and political instability, forex-starved Bangladesh was paying around $20-40 million against a monthly bill of $90-100 million. This impacted Adani’s ability to procure coal for power generation and make obligatory payments. Adani had warned Dhaka to settle the bills
With almost all the senior politicians out of the poll arena, this election represents a generational shift in Sri Lankan politics with a surge of young leaders and a voting population increasingly vocal about breaking free from established political figures and their entrenched practices. The results of the election will likely set the stage for a broader transformation of Sri Lanka’s governance, reflecting the growing demand for new political dynamics led by the country’s younger generation.
The trip - coming as it does on the heels of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit to New Delhi with a large delegation - is a reflection of Europe's increasing desire for greater collaboration with India. And growing Indo-Spanish trade and economic ties may expand further cooperation in commerce, investment, research, technology, education, defense, and security between Europe and India.
Money is an integral part which ensures criminalisation of the political space remains dominated by many such non-state actors without much criticism and conflict. Corruption and the flow of money into politics, therefore, becomes codependent enabling a seamless structure that is vulnerable to uncontrolled hegemony and unlawful domination.
