India and Bangladesh have welcomed initiatives to strengthen their maritime security partnership. A MoU for the establishment of a coastal surveillance radar system in Bangladesh’s Chittagong and Mongla ports has been inked.
Jaish-e-Mohammed's Female Brigade: ISI-Backed New Jihadi Units Intensify Counterterrorism Challenges in South Asia
Unlike earlier jihadist cells dominated by Pakistani nationals, this unit deliberately recruits women from Indonesia, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, and other foreign countries. Reason behind recruiting non-Pakistani nationals serves a dual purpose: it complicates attribution and shields Pakistan’s security apparatus from direct accountability. Such operational sophistication reflects ISI’s continued role not merely as a passive enabler but as an active architect of jihadist adaptation.
Securing The Digital Frontier: A Unified Call For Cybersecurity In South Asia
South Asia has the potential to be a global digital leader. It has a young population and a booming tech industry. However, this potential will only be realized if the region is secure. We must treat cybersecurity as a pillar of national security, just like border defense. This requires better technology, smarter laws, and stronger regional ties. The digital threats of 2026 are fast and complex. To meet them, South Asia must be faster and more united. The time to build a collective digital shield is now, before the next major crisis occurs.
Aid, Ports, And The Limits of Incrementalism: What India’s Budget Says About Its Foreign Policy
Yet the strategic costs are real. Reduced engagement in Bangladesh risks ceding influence at a moment when Dhaka is actively diversifying its partnerships. Hesitation over Chabahar weakens India’s leverage in Iran and Central Asia and underscores its vulnerability to US pressure even as it seeks a more multipolar foreign policy. The 2026–27 Budget does not signal a dramatic shift in Indian foreign policy. There is no abandonment of neighbours-first rhetoric or of connectivity-led diplomacy. What it reveals instead is a narrowing circle of feasible economic action.
Mob Rule As Political Strategy: Reshaping Bangladesh's Secular Memory And Pluralistic Bengali Culture
The ideals of 1971 represent inclusivity, human dignity, and resistance to oppression. Baul and Sufi traditions reject radical views and promote humanism and coexistence. Islam in Bengal arrived largely through Sufis—from Persia, Arabia, and Central Asia—who emphasized spirituality, tolerance, and accommodation. These traditions resonated with local Hindu practices and gave rise to syncretic forms such as Baul philosophy. Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam embodied this civilizational synthesis.
More on Spotlight
South Asian youth raise a collective voice for climate justice across borders
The event platformed youth environmental activists and entrepreneurs from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who have been working to educate, mobilise and organise people to combat climate change, obtain climate justice and move relevant policy regimes to these ends.
Will China have its way in Bhutan?
The question is whether Bhutan can ward off the Chinese pressure, given the dynamics of South Asia, chances of which don’t appear bright.
Trouble in paradise: Bhutan's little talked about political prisoners and minority discrimination
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, said, “The long-term imprisonment and mistreatment of political prisoners remains a blight on Bhutan’s human rights record. Bhutanese authorities should release these prisoners and embark on reforms to end torture in custody, unfair trials and poor prison conditions.”
India and Bangladesh transit agreement holds promise for both countries and the region
Bangladeshi products like clothing, cement, and food can be sold directly in Nepal and Bhutan via India. In the future, Bangladesh will also find it simpler to ship goods to Myanmar.
Taliban's war on women: International community must not remain a mute spectator
In a brazen on-camera interview, Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s acting interior minister, said in response to a question on how Afghan women feel unsafe to leave homes under the Taliban rule, “We keep naughty women at home.”
China poses no threat to the multi-faceted India-Bangladesh partnership
The accompanying data and graphs indicate that random charges about Bangladesh tilting toward China are just hype and with no basis in facts. Unlike Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh has conducted prudent macroeconomic management in order to avoid overdependence on China.
Helpless pawns in a bilateral dispute: No relief in sight for poor Indian and Pakistani fishermen
The current process shows the insensitivity of our systems and highlights how fishermen and others are of the lowest priority as they remain incarcerated without reason in the other country's prisons.
The Rohingya refugee dilemma: Does a sustainable solution lie in their integration into Bangladesh?
While the Rohingya issue remains complex and multi-faceted, the potential for the coming generations to integrate into Bangladesh seems natural and realistic. As we move into a seventh year since their major influx, it's evident that repatriation efforts have made limited headway.
Six years later, Bangladesh's Rohingya refugee crisis sees no signs of resolution
Declining funds, deteriorating camp conditions, growing insecurity, and the adverse impact of the refugees on the host community have made Bangladesh a desperate host looking to reduce the burden. This crisis is also destabilizing regional security.
Rivers as network: Towards a pluriverse South Asia
The Indus, the Brahmaputra, and the Ganges, as well as the Kabul river basin, which is interconnected to South Asian nations, are perennial rivers that have shaped and influenced South Asia's history, politics, culture, economy, and civilizations for many millennia on a shared basis.
Will BRICS create a new balance in the global order?
If BRICS can truly identify issues of larger common interest and move forward on the basis of consensus, it can become the new leader of the post-Western world order where the NDB will be the primary competitor of the World Bank and IMF.
Why despite few returns India remains invested in Afghanistan
A few months back the members of the Taliban regime in Kabul attended a four-day ‘India immersion’ online course offered by the Ministry of External Affairs through IIM Kozhikode. The course was part of the capacity-building assistance through the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programme to developing countries, including Afghanistan.
Can a Modi-Xi meeting at Johannesburg break the border standoff?
The Major General-level talks (initially described as confidence building) apparently aim for a conducive atmosphere when Modi comes face to face with Xi at Johannesburg for the BRICS summit August 22-24.
Will Bangladesh benefit by joining the RCEP? The pros outweigh the cons
If Bangladesh applies to join this year, it can be a member of RCEP from 2025 onward. Apart from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are also reportedly eager to join the China-led trade bloc.
