Maldives Vice President Ahmed Naseem met the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to Male, Wang Lixin, and reaffirmed the archipelago’s firm support for the “One-China” policy
India’s Balance-of-Payments Challenge: Need for Structural Transformation in Uncertain Times
India possesses immense talent, entrepreneurial capacity, and a large domestic market, yet it still lacks sufficient depth in high-end manufacturing, research and development, semiconductor ecosystems, advanced engineering, and globally dominant product companies.
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.
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
