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

Pakistani singer Atif Aslam releases new song featuring Mahira Khan

Pakistani singer-actor Atif Aslam, whose songs are popular across the subcontinent, took to Twitter to announce the release of his new song Ajnabi, featuring actor Mahira Khan in the video. The song was released on Youtube

Superhit Sri Lankan song Manike Mage Hithe now part of India’s election campaign

After captivating India’s globally popular film industry and its entertainment-craving public, Sri Lanka’s chartbuster song Manike Mage Hithe (In my Heart) has now made its appearance in an Indian election campaign

Bangladeshi girl wins award from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for raising mental health awareness

Bangladeshi girl Fairooz Faizah Beether, the co-founder of an organization that aims at enlightening the youth about the importance of mental health care, has won the 2021 Goalkeepers Global Goals Changemaker Award, announced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Pakistani actor Mahira Khan joins Commonwealth campaign against domestic, sexual violence

Renowned Pakistani actor and National Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Mahira Khan, has joined a Commonwealth campaign against domestic abuse and sexual assault

Two more Indian beaches get coveted international Blue Flag certification, total now 10

In yet another recognition of India’s commitment to protect and conserve its coastal and marine ecosystems through holistic management of the resources the globally recognized and the coveted global eco-label Blue Flag has accorded the Blue Flag certification for two new beaches this year –Kovalam in Kerala and Eden in Puducherry beaches, both in southern India

Unifying power of music: Sri Lankan hit song captures Indian hearts, Bollywood bewitched

Politics divides, but music unites. This is nowhere more illustrative than in South Asia where a superhit Sri Lankan song “Manake Mage Hithe” is making waves in India

Renowned Indian astrophysicist and science populariser Thanu Padmanabhan dead

Eminent Indian theoretical physicist and cosmologist Thanu Padmanabhan died in Pune, aged 64, on Friday after a massive heart attack, The Hindu reported

New Zealand abandons Pakistan tour; big blow to Pakistan and PM Imran Khan

In what is seen as a big blow to Pakistan's bid to show the world that it was capable of providing a safe and secure environment for international sports, New Zealand’s first cricket tour to the country in 18 years was abandoned Friday following a “government security alert”

Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia, to celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary

Adelaide Festival Centre, Australia will celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi with a presentation on October 28 titled "Ahimsa: Meditations on Gandhi" featuring original pieces from one of Australia’s finest jazz composers Sandy Evans, inspired by the Indian freedom fighter’s writings and philosophy of non-violence

Afghanistan’s girl footballers escape to Pakistan

Afghanistan’s national junior girls' football team members along with their families have crossed over to Pakistan after Islamabad issued emergency humanitarian visas to evacuate them from their country following the Taliban takeover

Pakistan has much to prove as New Zealand cricket team begin tour

In what is seen as a litmus test of Pakistan's ability to provide a safe and secure environment for international sports, a New Zealand cricket team has arrived in Islamabad after a 18-year hiatus and will play One-Day International and Twenty20 games amidst a promise of “extraordinary” security

Taliban allows women in universities with gender segregation; mixed response to announcement

In what comes as a big relief to Afghan girls and women, the Taliban announced that women will be allowed to study in universities in the country but with gender-segregated classrooms

Former captain Ramiz Raza becomes head of Pakistan Cricket Board

Ramiz Raja, former captain of the Pakistan Cricket team, was on Monday elected “unanimously and unopposed” the new chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the PCB said in a statement

Indian success story: Para-athletes got a level playing field with able-bodied athletes with government, private support

A level playing field for para and able-bodied athletes, encouraging support from the government, timely hand-holding by private players, mushrooming of exclusive arenas and incentives contributed to the impressive showing by in Tokyo Paralympics for the disabled where it had its best-ever showing of 19 medals, including five golds, The Indian Express said in a despatch

India registers Its best showing at Paralympics with a 19-medal haul In Tokyo

India registered its best showing to date at the Paralympic Games for athletes with disabilities, finishing with five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals in Tokyo