Ties between India and East and Southeast Asia are bound to strengthen, given the growing synergies in strategic areas such as defence, critical technology and higher education. It is important for Indian students, professionals, and skilled workers to harness educational and work opportunities in that region that is open to receiving Indian students and techies. This is especially important given that countries in the Anglosphere, not just the US but also Canada and to an extent Australia, are adopting increasingly insular immigration policies and tightening student and work visa regulations.

Across Kashmir, the image of crowded reading rooms alongside empty classrooms should compel us to reflect on the direction our education system is taking. Reading rooms may help students prepare for examinations, but schools and colleges prepare them for life. 

The future of Indian higher education may depend not on greater central control, but on creating autonomous institutions operating within a strong framework of accountability.

Pakistan’s absence is not without costs. Diplomatic exclusion is only one facet of the spectre that looms over the country: limited transit access, reduced prospects for integration into Bay-centric supply networks and weakened soft-power influences across the Indian Ocean littoral.

It has been formally recognised in the Report of the Advisory Committee on Women Pradhans, Transforming Women’s Representation and Role in Panchayati Raj Institutions: Efforts to Eliminate Proxy Participation, which recorded that elected women representatives are often “represented by their husbands or male relatives” and recommended the imposition of stringent and exemplary penalties to curb such practices.

When the university community itself has not succeeded in resolving many serious problems confronting higher education, on what moral basis should students simply be asked to remain silent and trust the system?

The treaty that once symbolized diplomatic success should now become a model for climate-resilient hydro-diplomacy. The river has changed, the climate has changed, and the needs of both nations have changed. The treaty must change with them.

Until the region’s economies produce jobs, and its ministers produce respect, at the pace they produce graduates, South Asia’s Gen Z will keep finding new, and increasingly desperate, ways to be heard

The real question is simpler: do Indian states want to use a resource that is geographically closer, internationally certified, available already, or would they prefer to continue to suffer from a yearly deficit on the other side of the Corridor?

In the case of the Global South, this would mean designing AI according to the demands of that particular place and within the bounds of its available power. It would mean opting for small language models, frugality, and less energy-intensive infrastructure over costly mimicry of Silicon Valley.

The government is also engaging doctors, psychologists, lawyers, civil society organisations, NGOs, religious leaders and community representatives to facilitate de-radicalisation and reintegration. Young people are encouraged to participate in constructive social activities that promote communal harmony and reduce the appeal of extremist ideologies.

But it may be the smaller South Asian states that feel the most pressure. Countries such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives are faced with a more polarised geopolitical environment. They want Chinese investment to boost development and keep close diplomatic and security ties with India and western partners.

A big development happened in 2025. Nepal started exporting electricity to Bangladesh through India's transmission network. This was the first time Nepalese hydropower was commercially transmitted to Bangladesh via Indian territory. The initial export volume was 40 megawatts. The significance of the agreement is much bigger. It showed that regional energy cooperation can overcome political barriers.  

In the effort to combat this multi-dimensional challenge, democratic states are faced with deep policy constraints, many of which can be paralyzing. The fundamental paradox is how to maintain the open, democratic character of the digital commons while at the same time countering more advanced opponents who are not held back by democratic principles. Disseminating disinformation is a tactic governments use to influence public opinion that has the potential to conflict with the strong constitutional freedoms of expression that exist in liberal democracies.

The rising significance of the Bay links closely to the growing Indo-Pacific concept. As the economic and strategic focus shifts toward Asia, major powers like the United States, China, India, Japan, Australia, and the European Union are paying more attention to maritime corridors connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans.