Representational Photo

What Trade Patterns Reveal About South Asia’s Economic Future

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.

The West Asia Conflict: Challenging Times for Indian Economy

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.

New EU Medicines Law Could Impact FTA With India

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.

Caught in Geopolitical Quagmire, West Asia Crisis Looms Large Over Indian Supply and Demand Metrics

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.

More on Geoeconomics, Trade and Development

After months-long tussle, Sri Lanka finally buys fertilizer from Chinese firm

Sri Lanka has now agreed to take delivery of organic fertilizer from China’s Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co Ltd, almost two months after Colombo had rejected its shipment, citing poor standards, forcing the firm to initiate arbitration proceedings

Sino-Indian border ‘generally stable'; dialogue on, says China

The situation at the China-India border is “generally stable” and both sides are maintaining dialogue and communication through diplomatic and military channels to ease the border situation following the standoff at eastern Ladakh, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday

ADB blacklists three Chinese firms from Nepal’s key infrastructure projects; Kathmandu airport extension to be impacted

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has blacklisted three Chinese state-owned firms from participating in its key infrastructure projects, including the Kathmandu airport development project, in Nepal

China warns companies blindly visiting Afghanistan for mineral exploration as foreigners arrested in several Afghan provinces

China has warned its companies and nationals on Friday against "blindly" visiting  Afghanistan to inspect mineral resources after multiple reports emerged of foreigners being arrested without exploration permits in several provinces

Fertilizer row: Sri Lanka to pay $6.7 million in compensation after Chinese firm launches arbitration procedure

Sri Lanka has decided to pay $6.7 million in compensation to the Chinese fertilizer firm after the latter initiated an arbitration proceeding against Colombo which had earlier rejected its fertilizer consignment of 20,000 metric tonnes, citing quality issues

Afghanistan receives a batch of Chinese Sinopharm vaccines; 'emergency assistance' in the pipeline

A batch of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Chinese government arrived in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan

China denies reports of canceling power projects in Sri Lanka

China has denied reports that Sino Soar Hybrid Technology Co, the Chinese firm which was awarded three power projects by the Sri Lanka government, had withdrawn from the project

India keeping close vigil on Chinese ship deployment; warships were kept battle-ready: Indian Navy chief

Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Radhakrishnan Hari Kumar said India was maintaining a close vigil on Chinese asset deployments in the Indian Ocean Region, and that during the peak of tensions at the India-China border earlier last year Indian naval assets were kept battle-ready

Despite 'India First' policy, Maldives signs deal with Chinese energy firm

In a significant development, the Maldives has roped in Sino Soar Hybrid Technology, the Chinese firm whose projects Sri Lanka had canceled after objection from India over security concerns,  to design, supply, and install power generation plants in 12 of its 200 inhabited islands. Significantly, the archipelago officially follows the ‘India First’ policy

China will work with Russia and India in a 'spirit of oneness', says Chinese Foreign Minister

The RIC Grouping (Russia, India, China) demonstrates genuine multilateralism in relations to the world, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday and "China will work with Russia and India acting in the spirit of openness, solidarity, trust and cooperation, in the spirit of the RIC mechanism.

China bags contract for developing ECT port terminal

Sri Lanka has awarded the contract for developing the second phase of the East Coast Terminal (ECT) of Colombo Port to China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC)

'India carefully re-examining trade, investment ties with Beijing'

In the wake of China’s “aggressive posture” and its attempts at “multiple transgressions along the border” last year, India is very carefully examining its options with regard to its trade and investment ties with Beijing to ensure that New Delhi’s “integrity and security remain intact”, Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Wednesday

Local anger boils in Pakistan’s Gwadar port town against CPEC projects

Gwadar, a southwestern port city in Pakistan, has been witnessing prolonged protest as locals staged sit-in on a key highway demanding the removal of security checkpoints, end to electricity shortage, and illegal fishing

India-China ties going through 'bad patch; India's interests will be served by 'much closer' ties with the US: Foreign Minister

India and China are going through “a particularly bad patch” in their relationship because Beijing has taken actions “for which they still don’t have a credible explanation”, and the Chinese leadership has to take a call on where they want to take the bilateral ties, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday

Fertiliser dispute: Colombo court extends ban on payment to Chinese company

Tensions between Sri Lanka and China over a shipment of rejected fertiliser continued to simmer as the Commercial High Court on Friday extended an interim order preventing the payment to China’s Qingdao Seawin Biotech Group Co. Ltd