One of the most striking features of South Asian trade is how little the region trades internally. Intra-regional trade within South Asia remains among the lowest in the world relative to geographic proximity. Political tensions — especially between India and Pakistan — have prevented the emergence of a deeply integrated regional production system comparable to ASEAN or the European Union. This is a major missed opportunity.
Scarcity of cooking fuel is pushing people, particularly across South Asia, toward hunger. Livelihoods have been lost among the large unorganised labour force while thousands of self-employed street vendors, smaller restaurants and eateries are being forced to close shop, facing a scary, insecure future. For middle class households across India, everyday snacks like the samosa or dosa have become scarce because of shortage and high prices of cooking gas cylinders.
India is one of the world’s largest suppliers of generic medicines and APIs to Europe. If the EU begins favouring “Made in EU” pharmaceutical production through procurement preferences, subsidies or state aid, Indian drug manufacturers could face reduced access to EU public procurement contracts and tougher supply-chain resilience requirements.
India’s pharma export market has been affected as India supplies medicines to more than 200 countries. Supply chain interruption not only hurts Indian producers but also creates medicine scarcity in the US, UK, and African markets that highly depend on Indian generics. From the logistics end, re-routing of cargo away from conflict-ridden corridors such as the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz has increased freight insurance premiums, distressing Indian exporters who function on lean cost structures.
Leaked documents of correspondence between Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu show that Beijing had put pressure on the Himalayan country to accept its Covid vaccine without its efficiency and efficacy being established
As part of the broader Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is set to lay the final stretch of a cross-border fiber optic cable in Pakistan that will create the Digital Silk Road, serving the geostrategic interests of both countries, Nikkei Asia reported
China has rejected claims that Chinese-made railway carriages pose a threat to passengers in Sri Lanka
China will try to assert itself more across the world as it now feels confident that it has the economic, political and military capabilities to ensure that its views are heard on the global stage
China has announced that it will provide half a million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Nepal
A U-turn on the Colombo port's East Container Terminal and then an attempt to create negativity around the India-supplied COVID-19 vaccine signals that there could be more powerful forces than just mere trade unions and some local groups which are nudging Sri Lanka to adopt an aggressive stand against India right now
Nepali traders have accused China of conducting an 'undeclared trade blockade' as their merchandise-laden container trucks have not been allowed to cross the border into Nepal for the past 16 months
At the beginning of 2021, there comes encouraging news from China. According to the preliminary calculation of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China’s GDP in 2020 reached 101.6 trillion yuan (around 14.7 trillion USD), increased by 2.3% from 2019. For the first time, China's GDP exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan threshold?achieving a historic leap
The Myanmar army may not be comfortable with the manner in which the NLD has given in to China for the China-Myanmar-Economic Corridor (CMEC), which is an invitation for the People’s Liberation Army to establish in Myanmar, like Pakistan, including Chinese marines posted at Kyaukphyu port like in Gwadar of Pakistan, writes Lt Gen Prakash Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
A day after the Sri Lanka government decided to operate the East Container Terminal (ECT) of Colombo Port locally after tremendous pressure from trade unions, India seems to see a Chinese hand in orchestrating and funding the protests against the ECT deal by the trade unions in Sri Lanka
Helped by National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, the government on Monday hurriedly passed three bills, including the one seeking establishment of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority, amid ruckus by the opposition members
China has decided to provide a coronavirus vaccine to Nepal but it is still unclear how long it will take for the consignment to arrive, as the product is yet to get emergency use approval in the country
Pakistan on Monday received the first batch of China's Sinopharm vaccine against the novel coronavirus
China will be sending 300,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to Nepal, ten days after India sent one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine there, marking the launch of nationwide inoculation drive in the Himalayan country
Bangladesh peacekeepers have rescued 32 Chinese gold mine workers in the Central African Republic (CAR) from an attack by armed rebels
