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 to open campaign against Pakistan once again in Melbourne in men's T20 Cricket World Cup 2022

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a positive spinoff for cricket lovers, at least.  Australia will host the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2022 as reigning champions in October-November

Sri Lanka’s zoo workers threaten to starve animals over allowance demand

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is having its fallout in unexpected areas. Employees in Sri Lanka’s National Zoological Gardens in capital Colombo have threatened to stop feeding the zoo animals there, demanding payments of their allowances and removal of officials who are accused of misappropriation of funds

Daughters have right to inherit father's property if no will, says India's Supreme Court

In a significant verdict for gender equity, India's Supreme Court has said the daughters of a male Hindu, dying intestate, would be entitled to inherit the self-acquired and other properties obtained in the partition by the father and get preference over other collateral members of the family

Ten-year salary plus generous compensation: Pakistani business community rises in support of lynched Sri Lankan manager's family

In a laudable gesture of restitution for a heinous act of their compatriots, Pakistan’s business community has come forward to assist the widow of the Sri Lankan manager who was lynched last year in Sialkot's industrial area

In emotional reunion, Indian and Pakistani brothers meet after 74 years

Some India-Pakistan stories do have a happy ending. Two brothers, one Indian and one Pakistani, who were separated during the India-Pakistan partition of the subcontinent in 1947, were reunited after 74 years in Kartarpur, the Sikh pilgrim center in Pakistan, local media reported

Murals in the dead of night: Afghan women resist Taliban’s imposition of dark days

For Kabul, murals aren’t just paintings. It is also a general expression of protest, resentment against both their past and present rulers

Kashmiri girl turns reporter to highlight poor road conditions

An undated video of a little girl from Jammu and Kashmir who turned reporter to show the poor condition of roads, especially those leading to her home, has created a storm on the internet, with people complimenting her for her coverage

Indian Army provides food to migrant labourers in Jammu and Kashmir amid heavy snowfall; evacuates pregnant women

In a widely appreciated gesture, hundreds of migrant labourers were provided cooked food and winter clothing by the Indian Army amid biting cold and heavy snowfall in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir

Supreme Court of Pakistan to get its first female judge

The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) has confirmed the appointment of Justice Ayesha Malik to the country’s top court amid strong protest by lawyers who have been opposing her elevation as it supersedes several senior judges

Sri Lanka to cultivate more rubber plantations to enhance forest cover to 30 percent

Sri Lanka plans to increase forest cover from currently 29.3 percent to 30 percent by 2025 by cultivating rubber plants over an area of 500 hectares

South Asia’s first hybrid school with online classes and on-ground sports

Since the pandemic began in early 2020, much has changed in the education sector across the world

Pakistan struggles to appoint first female judge in top court amid protests by lawyers

Lawyers in Pakistan are gearing up to resist the appointment of Ayesha Malik, currently a judge in Lahore High Court, to the Supreme Court

Tourists throng snowbound Kashmir, as administration opens up more scenic places for swelling visitors

After two dismal summer seasons for tourism in Kashmir due to the pandemic, winter has brought cheer back to the valley

Church and temple share Christmas joy in Kerala

In times of social disharmony in inter-community ties, a church and a temple in Kerala are epitomising the traditional 'idea of India'

Thirty years on, prayers fill 125-year-old St Luke's Church in Kashmir

Prayers were held on Wednesday in the oldest church in Srinagar for the first time in over 30 years, with the St. Luke's Church seeing worshippers standing and praying just days ahead of Christmas