For India, the failure is particularly significant as its presidency was an opportunity to translate “strategic autonomy”, the current buzzword in foreign policy circles, into multilateral leadership. True, its response is shaped by structural constraints. The country imports more than 85% of its crude oil, much of it from West Asia and Russia. Some nine million of its citizens live in the Gulf. The United States is its largest trading partner. Iran anchors the Chabahar port project and India’s access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Each relationship is too consequential to risk.
A key consideration for Delhi is Bhutan’s occasional denial or downplay of any Chinese encroachment on its territory, even when satellite data suggests otherwise. This is coupled with a growing perception within Bhutan that India is preventing it from completing its border negotiations with China. Although Thimphu remains closely aligned with Delhi, there is growing interest in expanding its engagement with China.
For India, the opportunity is significant as its robust digital infrastructure and large demographic dividend can create a significant opportunity for adoption and deployment of Artificial Intelligence across sectors, particularly in the care economy. There is an ample room for the development of age-friendly products and services using AI innovation which are of scalable commercial value.
South Asia's higher education ecosystem — with over 1,500 universities and 60 million enrolled learners — is uniquely positioned to absorb and scale new models: work-integrated degrees, on-demand micro-credentials, lifelong learning. The Global South — Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East — shares the same structural challenges. The solutions that work at scale in India, Bangladesh or Nepal will travel naturally to these geographies.
With the spectacular achievements of the Indian Navy in the 1971 war under the daring and decisive leadership of Admiral Nanda, he could well have been considered for being made Admiral of the Fleet. As this involves rectifying past oversights, there are already precedents.
The absence of a strong opposition can potentially pave the way for the ascendancy of authoritarian, dictatorial, or undemocratic forces within the country's political sphere.
Both DPI and AI are data-driven and integral to future human development. In 2024, India and the EU are looking to formulate a unified approach towards these two cutting-edge aspects of technology.
The large number of independent candidates winning in this election has shown new thinking in Bangladesh's politics. And the time may have come for political parties to rethink their candidate selection process.
The judiciary, media, human rights activists and Baloch nationalist parties have almost exhausted their efforts in trying to persuade international institutions to intervene and end the sustained atrocities against the people of Balochistan.
India’s mainland is endowed with a long coastline of over 5500 km. All the areas situated near this coastline can get clean drinking water through dew condensation.
State-sponsored terrorism is often employed by smaller or weaker states to weaken bigger or stronger nations as it is more cost effective than traditional war. One of the most prominent examples of this could be the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan
The drone attacks in the Arabian Sea recently are an indication of the high-tech means available to the non-state actors and it won’t take much time for them to acquire deadly underwater drones with explosives to carry out unimaginable attacks in a politically volatile IOR
The South Asian region has much to learn from the ASEAN experience in integrating investment, trade and movement of labour which includes a skilled workforce
The word ‘just transition’ is not just about the historic climate injustice done to developing countries, but it also secures the rights and livelihood of workers working on old energy systems that would change to new systems
Bangladesh and other low-income industrialised nations shouldn't be forced to transition to a non-carbon (net zero) economy on the same timelines. The international community should give Bangladesh, the country most affected by climate change, a high priority in receiving financial resources for both adaptation and mitigation.
Even today the situation is no different. Most of the manufacturers make the rickshaw bodies here and fit them with imported motors, etc. from China. This is how e-rickshaw manufacturing has proliferated in India.
There is an interesting development of note in the US, which casts a shadow on free speech and political asylum in the Western world, with a direct bearing on the alleged covert intelligence operations by India in the North American continent.
The upcoming election will also define Bangladesh’s relations with great powers, namely the USA, India, and China
No other country in the world comes close to the hydro-hegemony that China has established. From Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to Myanmar’s troubled Kachin and Shan states, China has widened its dam building to disputed or insurgency-torn areas despite local opposition.
