South Asia's higher education ecosystem — with over 1,500 universities and 60 million enrolled learners — is uniquely positioned to absorb and scale new models: work-integrated degrees, on-demand micro-credentials, lifelong learning. The Global South — Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East — shares the same structural challenges. The solutions that work at scale in India, Bangladesh or Nepal will travel naturally to these geographies.
For three decades, Sri Lanka successfully navigated the India-China rivalry, turning great-power competition into economic opportunity. Today, the country faces a far narrower and more dangerous corridor. Balancing between India and China was a game of leverage. But, balancing between the United States-Israel axis and Iran is a test of survival.
India’s calibrated reopening to Chinese FDI is a step forward, but its restrictive framework may limit the inflow of capital, technology, and expertise needed to boost high-tech manufacturing. If the objective is to transform India into a global manufacturing hub and reduce the trade deficit with China, a more nuanced approach may be required—one that balances security concerns with economic imperatives.
What is unfolding across South Asia’s cities is not just an urban crisis, it is a reflection of deeper tensions within development itself. Growth is happening, but it is not translating into stability. Opportunities exist, but they are unevenly distributed. Systems are expanding, but not fast enough to keep up with demand. Cities, which have long been seen as places where people come to improve their lives, are increasingly becoming spaces where people struggle to sustain them.
New Delhi should not view cricket ties as appeasement but as investment in peace. By embracing cricket diplomacy, India can show moral leadership, protect its strategic interests and give millions of fans across South Asia a reason to dream of friendship rather than enmity. The ongoing Asia Cup is a good start in that direction. A few handshakes could have made it an even better start.
For India, the situation will remain volatile, as it shares a thousand-mile open border with Nepal permitting free movement of people. The coup in Nepal came as a surprise to India and Indian intelligence agencies, just like the coups in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
Muhammad Yunus may bask in the applause of Western elites, but within Bangladesh his regime is a study in failure: illegitimate, incompetent, and dangerous. Nepal, with its army’s timely intervention and youth’s surprising maturity, showed that chaos need not consume a nation. Bangladesh, under Yunus, has shown the opposite: how a nation can betray its own future when it allows passion without perspective to rule the day.
We are well on our way to sealing the ozone hole. But let us ensure that in doing so, we do not ignore the new fissures opening at our feet. The work of healing our planet is never complete—it simply evolves.Let our legacy be that we were wise enough to see the whole board, not just the move we just made. The ozone hole is being sealed, but the deal is not done. The lesson is not over. The action must continue—even in celebration.
For the Indian government, the interim Karki administration offers a valuable interlocutor who understands both the cultural and strategic sensitivities of bilateral relations. Supporting her government’s limited but crucial agenda aligns with New Delhi’s interest in maintaining regional stability, securing cross-border trade, and containing potential Chinese inroads into Nepal’s political and economic life.
The Pokhara International Airport has become emblematic of systemic failure. A 2025 parliamentary investigation uncovered Rs14 billion (USD 105 million) in corruption and irregularities, including fake payments, unauthorized tax waivers for the Chinese contractor, and disbursements for incomplete infrastructure. Yet, senior officials remain largely untouchable—even ministers accused of human trafficking.
After the overthrow of governments in the South Asian countries of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the Nepalese crisis has consequences not just for the nation of 30 million people, but for the whole region, rooted in the country’s own turbulent political history and its legacy of attempting to balance ties between India, China and Pakistan.
Nepal, one of the world’s poorest countries, struggles with the South Asian region’s lowest per capita income and an unemployment rate approaching 13 percent, according to official estimates.
Many in the Global South as well as key South Asian allies—including Nepal and Sri Lanka—are closely observing India’s approach towards macroeconomic stability. How India moves forward in the months and years to come will signal whether it emerges as a resilient regional rule-shaper or a reactive follower in the evolving financial system.
Much of Washington’s tough posture stems from India’s reluctance to deepen its role in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). During his October 2024 visit to Tokyo, Jaishankar rejected Japanese Foreign Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s proposal for an “Asian NATO,” reaffirming India’s non-aligned stance. This slowed efforts to create a NATO-style architecture in the Indian Ocean, frustrating Washington.
The stakes extend far beyond a single disrupted meeting or a dozen wrongful arrests. They concern whether Bangladesh will continue down the path of political mimicry, repeating the sins of the Awami League era under a different banner, or whether it can genuinely chart a new course—one in which dissent is not criminalized, mobs are not emboldened, and courts are not politicized.
Regionally, Pakistan is face-to-face with water insecurity, that too at a time when strained ties with India have led to abeyance of the Indus Water Treaty and Pakistan’s dependence on those waters continues. To the northwest, Afghanistan also keeps pressing for its increasing dependence on the Indus waters due to its landlocked geographic location. This keeps ties with Afghanistan strained.
If India is treated as an independent balancer, global multipolarity becomes stable. If the West instead tries to “arm-twist” India, it only drives India closer to Russia–China alignment. A respected, autonomous India helps prevent both Western hegemony and China-centric hegemony — creating a truly balanced order.
Two demographic shifts are increasingly seen to be transforming global economies and labour markets: aging and declining working-age populations, predominantly in the developed economies, and expanding working-age populations, predominantly in the less developed economies.
Digital agriculture offers a path towards farm practice transformation in addition to increased adaptive capacity and mitigation of extreme climate shocks. The strategy involves a package of tools from satellite-based weather forecasting to artificial intelligence-based diagnosis of pests, mobile-based market access platforms, precision irrigation equipment, and monitoring of the health of soil through cloud-based services.
