Bangladesh football fans

Goals Beyond Borders: Can Bangladesh Leverage its Football Craze as a Soft-power Tool?

Beyond the ambassadors of Brazil, Argentina, and Norway, the ambassadors of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Egypt have also been drawing on their countries' football heritage to deepen cultural engagement with the football-crazy people of Bangladesh. 

Name Change and Memory Archives: Striking Divergence Between India and Pakistan

Ironically, while India continues to rename roads and institutions associated with its medieval and colonial past, Pakistan’s Punjab province has begun moving in the opposite direction.

Protective Parenting: Raising Safe Children or Fragile Adults?

Unfortunately, a growing number of parents appear apprehensive about their children becoming proficient in their mother tongue, believing that greater exposure to local languages may somehow hinder their command of English or other global languages. This perception is both unfortunate and unfounded. A strong foundation in one's mother tongue strengthens cognitive development, improves learning outcomes, and facilitates the acquisition of additional languages.

When Poison Enters the System: Impunity, Vigilantism and South Asia’s Internal Security Failure

Across South Asia, the difference between prejudice and collapse is not the existence of hate. Every society has it in varying shades.  The difference is whether the majoritarian state internalizes hate against the ‘other’,  whether FIRs get diluted, trials get delayed, mobs get garlanded  and impunity driven violence against minorities becomes low-cost. When that happens, the poison is not outside the system. It becomes the system.

More on Soft Power, Culture and Society

India has the world's longest highway tunnel above 10,000 feet

India's newly-built over nine km long Atal Tunnel has officially been certified by the World Book of Records, as the 'World's Longest Highway Tunnel above 10,000 Feet', said the Ministry of Defence

Trekker rescued by Indian Army high-altitude warfare team in a challenging operation

A young trekker, trapped between rocks on a hill in Kerala's Palakkad since Monday, was rescued this morning after a marathon effort by the Indian Army in a difficult and challenging operation

Kerala man trapped between rocks for two days; Indian Army, Indian Air Force in massive rescue operation

A youth, in his 20s, has been trapped on a hill between rocks in Malampuzha area of Palakkad in Kerala in southern India since Monday with rescuers unable to reach him or provide him with food or water

Broken pledges of Nepal's grandees leaves Kathmandu zoo animals in distress

Last year, KP Sharma Oli, then Prime Minister of Nepal, and his wife had announced taking sponsorship of a one-horned rhino, living in the Central Zoo of Nepal, for a year and promised to pay NPR 1.5 million to cover the feed, care, and medication

South Asia grieves over Lata Mangeshkar's death; reflects subcontinent's cultural connectedness

The passing away of legendary Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar has triggered an outpouring of grief not just in India, but in the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives as well, showing that music has no boundaries and recognises no political divisions

Kerala’s famed snake boat race to be held in UAE

After the Indian Premier League, the Nehru Trophy boat race, one of the famed annual events held in Alappuzha of Kerala, is slated to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this year

World's best new building: Bangladesh's rural hospital exemplifies sustainable development

Bangladesh’s Friendship Hospital, built in a remote part of the southern district of Satkhira, has won the world's best new building award by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for putting “care and humanity” at the heart of its design

India, with 49, has most Ramsar sites In South Asia

Two more wetlands in India were declared as Ramsar sites, taking the total number of protected sites in the country to 49, India's Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said on Wednesday

Role of women in India's growth cycle expanding; old thinking about women needs to change, says PM Modi

The role of women is continuously expanding in a changing India, and women’s commissions should also work to promote and recognise women entrepreneurs

Saudi Arabia holds first yoga festival; more than a thousand participate

More than 1,000 people gathered at the Juman Park in King Abdullah Economic City as the country’s first yoga festival kicked off on January 29. The event will continue till February 1

Modi speaks about how a 90-year-old Argentinian woman spread Indian culture in Argentina and Latin America

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday spoke in his monthly radio address of Indian culture was being spread in far-away Argentina and Latin America by a 90-year-old woman who had studied the Indian scriptures and was introduced to Indian culture when she came to India

Songs behind the veil, poetry on Twitter - Afghans go virtual in challenging Taliban’s tyranny

“We are keeping our Kabul alive, at least virtually,” Habib Khan, an Afghan journalist, now in exile, tweeted, asking people to join him in a Twitter Space to listen to "live music from Afghan artists, enjoy Afghan poetry and Afghan talks".

Pakistan's cricket isolation to end; Australia to tour with full squad

The shunning of Pakistan as an international cricketing destination because of security fears is about to end with Australia announcing a tour of Pakistan, possibly in March, with a full-strength squad

Justice Ayesha Malik becomes Pakistan's first woman judge in apex court

Justice Ayesha Malik on Monday took oath as a judge in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, becoming the first female judge in the country’s judicial history to reach the top court

Sri Lankan hit song adapted for poll campaign in local Indian elections

The peppy beat of Sri Lankan singer Yohani de Silva’s “Menike Maga Hithe”, which had taken the Indian music scene by storm, has been adapted by the ruling BJP in important local elections in the country's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh as its campaign song