“The presence of the Sri Lankan singers “made this not just a local gathering, but a shared South Asian moment,” Nirupama Menon Rao said after the show. “Music does that so effortlessly. It crosses borders without asking for permission”.
South Asia’s future depends on reliable infrastructure and trustworthy public services. Artificial intelligence—especially advanced technologies such as Graph Attention Networks—offers governments a powerful tool to reduce corruption in procurement, improve healthcare delivery, strengthen energy security and enhance public trust.
Yet ordinary Afghans refuse to stay silent. In Balkh province, people are turning public walls into canvases of defiance, spray-painting graffiti demanding education, rights, and freedom. These acts of artistic resistance, risking arrest and worse, echo the courage of exiled artists like Shamsia Hassani and Fatima Wojohat, whose work continues to amplify the cry for justice. Such quiet rebellion signals a population no longer cowed.
If one location matters most to India in Sri Lanka, it is Trincomalee. With one of the finest natural harbours in the world, Trincomalee has immense commercial, naval, and energy value. For decades, strategists in New Delhi have viewed it as critical to the security architecture of the Bay of Bengal.
However, concerns persist that efforts to reshape Bangladesh’s political landscape have not ceased. There are allegations that Yunus has mobilized aligned groups, including student activists, to push for constitutional reforms that critics argue could weaken the current government and create conditions for renewed political upheaval.
It becomes evident that the emergence of Sri Lanka–Israel relations in the 1980s was fundamentally driven by the realist imperatives of both states: Sri Lanka sought to strengthen its defence sector, while Israel aimed to legitimize its ties with Colombo. Each actor pursued distinct strategic objectives. However, what largely remains unknown is the US involvement in bringing Israel to Sri Lanka’s platform in the early 1980s.
It is high time South Asian countries not only pass stricter environmental regulations but also strictly enforce them, making sure that there is no factory releasing waste water without adequate treatment. Besides, upholding legally binding labour standards must also be a priority together with ensuring safety of the workplace environment.
The Rohingya dimension is inseparable from the question of AA engagement. Bangladesh hosts 1.4 million displaced Rohingya. While these numbers do not decrease, the fiscal, social, and security costs compound, pressing against the newly elected Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s electoral promises: a domestic agenda centered on growth in the Chattogram division, and a foreign policy agenda built around repatriation of the Rohingyas.
The progression from Purab Aur Pachhim to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge to Dangal is not a neat policy timeline. It is something subtler: a cultural echo of India’s journey from caution to engagement to assertion. The shift is not just in policy documents or diplomatic speeches; it is embedded in how stories are told, how characters behave, and how audiences respond.
Against this backdrop, in 2025, India, Sri Lanka, and the UAE signed a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop Trincomalee. The agreement, involving the Indian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the UAE Ministry of Investment, and Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Energy, was designed to enhance Sri Lanka’s energy security and integrate the country into regional energy networks.
Pakistan’s attempt to position itself as a peace broker in the Middle East may generate headlines, but it does little to advance the cause of stability. If anything, it underscores a larger truth: in high-stakes geopolitics, perceived neutrality without proven credibility is not an asset—it is a liability.
India’s leadership in global forums such as BRICS and the G20 further enhances its ability to bring together diverse stakeholders. Simultaneously, its role as a prominent voice of the Global South enables it to advocate for peace without appearing aligned with any specific
Expanding the arc of aerial/missile destruction to the Bab el-Mandeb would irreparably threaten the last viable option for Gulf oil exports and a regional war will soon cascade into an ‘epic’ global crisis. Ironically, the tally of death and destruction is barely mentioned and the war sanitized to a daily video ritual. Scroll and move on. Sagacious global leadership is absent when it is most needed and a discerning global civil society has been paralyzed by the unending Trump theatrics.
Given that Nepali citizens enjoy national treatment in India, greater enrolment in higher education institutions across Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal should be encouraged. India must remain the first responder to Nepal’s needs at all times. Sustained cooperation and mutual trust can help realise the vision of “Viksit Nepal” alongside “Viksit Bharat.” Regional frameworks such as SAARC, BBIN, and BIMSTEC should be leveraged to strengthen Nepal’s alignment with India across international platforms.
Balendra Shah’s rise as Prime Minister of Nepal represents a defining moment in the country’s contemporary political evolution. It signals a break from traditional party dominance and the emergence of a new political language shaped by youth aspirations and digital mobilization. At the same time, it introduces new uncertainties into Nepal’s regional relationships, particularly with India and China, both of whom will closely monitor Kathmandu’s evolving foreign policy orientation.
Since August 2024, Pakistan’s military establishment, its intelligence apparatus, and associated actors—including Turkey’s MIT—have allegedly been involved in sending weapons and explosives into Bangladesh. These materials are believed to have ended up in the possession of pro-Yunus loyalist mercenaries as well as various extremist groups, including Ansar Al Islam, a local affiliate of Al Qaeda.
Our shared values should call for appreciating others’ needs, endowment and expectations. In the closest proximity as ours, should there be difficult or sensitive issues, those can – and ought to be – addressed forthright in all sincerity and candour, be in trade, security or sharing natural resources.
The conflict in Iran, in this context, is acting as the moment of revelation. It is showing us what kinds of energy systems are still structurally dependent on distant chokepoints, and what kinds of energy systems are starting to build the foundations for resiliency much closer to home. The trajectory of the Pakistani experience, while still in its early stages, may represent the beginnings of an alternative model, one in which decentralization and renewables are key to managing global instability.
Sri Lanka’s political debate has long revolved around spy narratives, often casting suspicion on India and the United States. Yet, this fixation risks obscuring a more pressing reality. CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report identifies Chinese espionage agencies as the most active worldwide, surpassing even the CIA. In 2024, China’s cyber operations expanded by 150 percent, while attacks on financial services, media, manufacturing, and industrial sectors surged by 200 to 300 percent compared to the previous year.
