18th BRICS Summit

The Real Test for BRICS: More Choices for South Asia, or Just New Dependencies?

But the choice test applies to India as much as to the countries it hopes will follow its lead. If BRICS genuinely widens India's menu of markets, technology partners and financing sources without deepening its dependence on any one of them, it becomes a credible model for the rest of the Global South.

BRICS and the Mask of De-Dollarisation: Of Political Rhetoric and Financial Reality

India’s stand for a dollar-based system is not a rejection of BRICS alignment or unity, but it is a determined choice to act in favour of self-interest like any other founding member. The key difference is India’s position has been the most transparent of all founding members rather than standing behind the collective rhetoric.

Welfare Politics and State Borrowing in India: Easy Populism or Developmental Necessity?

The evidence indicates that the increase in state borrowing over the past decade is best understood as the outcome of a changing fiscal federal system rather than simply an expansion of welfare politics.

Slow Pace of Strategic Indian Projects: These Can Potentially be Gateways to Sri Lanka’s Economic Revival

For India, delays in its strategic projects are not merely bureaucratic setbacks but a matter of national security. Colombo’s motives remain opaque, but for New Delhi, a presence in Sri Lanka’s North and East is non-negotiable. 

More on Geoeconomics, Trade and Development

Nepal still preparing to evacuate citizens from Wuhan

A week after Nepalis in China's Hubei province asked the Nepal government to evacuate them, officials in Kathmandu have little idea how the evacuation will progress.

Modi offers help to Xi in coronavirus crisis

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered assistance to Chinese President Xi Jinping in the fight against the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic that has killed over 800 people and infected around 35,000 in China.

171 Bangladeshis asked to wait in Wuhan

The failure to arrange a flight has forced the government to scrap its plans to bring back 171 Bangladeshis from the locked-down cities in China amid a deadly coronavirus outbreak.  

'India offered to evacuate people from all neighbouring countries from Wuhan'

India had offered to evacuate people from all the neighbouring countries while bringing back Indian students from the Chinese city of Wuhan in the wake of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.

India ‘can look into’ evacuating Pakistani students in Wuhan

India can consider evacuating Pakistani students from the coronavirus-hit Hubei province “if such a situation arises” and resources are available, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday, while making it clear that Pakistan had made no request for it till now

Nepal-China meetings, projects delayed amid NCoV outbreak

Crucial meetings between the governments of Nepal and China, along with a number of Beijing-led infrastructure projects, have been delayed amid the fast-spreading novel coronavirus outbreak.
 

Chinese ships' crew, passengers barred from Mumbai port

The crew and passengers of ships arriving from China or certain other South-East Asian countries have been barred from entering Mumbai port as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus.
 

SriLankan Airlines slashes flights to China

SriLankan Airlines is rationalizing its services to China in accordance with current market conditions as per its long-held commercial policies, with a temporary reduction of frequencies to several cities, the airline said

Coronavirus and the Wuhan spirit: India could have done more than just evacuation

India, in 1938, was the first Asian country from where real help came for China. Today, India is the first Asian country to evacuate its citizens from China, writes Rajendra Shende for South Asia Monitor

India completes evacuation of nationals from Wuhan

India's evacuation of its nationals who were stranded in China's Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus epidemic, was completed on Sunday with around 650 people brought back in two phases

India suspends e-visa entry from China

The Indian government temporarily banned the e-visa entry of Chinese and other foreign nationals into India in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan

Pakistan, Maldives suspend flight operations to and from China as South Asia remains on high alert

Pakistan and Maldives halted flight operations to and from China after the death toll in the country climbed to more than 200 and the first coronavirus positive case was reported in India

No clearance for Sri Lanka to evacuate students in Wuhan

Sri Lanka has not yet received clearance to evacuate Sri Lankan students in Wuhan city, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

China keenly follows India's citizenship debate, Northeast ferment

The debate over the Indian Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019, or CAB, has been widely reported in the Chinese media, from the time the Bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha December 9  until December 12, when it was signed into law by the President Ram Nath Kovind, after the CAB was passed through both houses of parliament

Beijing optimistic about rebuilding ties with Colombo: A media analysis

The recently-concluded elections in Sri Lanka was widely covered in the Chinese media, an indication of the strategic interest of Beijing in the island nation and the Indian Ocean Region