Apart from the substantial loss in revenue, international students, especially from India who are aspiring to study abroad, are seeking out alternative destinations that are more welcoming, such as Germany, Japan, Ireland, Israel and Russia.
Some analysts are of the view that Sri Lanka’s differential access — full executive level for India versus foreign ministry level for China — may reflect Sri Lanka’s carefully calibrated foreign policy. Sri Lanka is leveraging India for urgent, high-impact assistance and wider policy coordination and engaging China for strategic reassurance and medium-to-long-term cooperative alignment that is less intertwined with immediate executive decisions.
India’s challenge, and opportunity, lies in mastering torque rather than seeking a mythical centre of gravity. In a world defined by flux, leverage matters more than alignment, and agility matters more than allegiance. Strategic autonomy will not be preserved through rigid doctrines, but through continuous recalibration anchored in national interest, economic resilience, and confidence in India’s civilisational depth.
India’s response to Iran’s crisis illustrates the dilemmas facing middle powers navigating a polarised global order. While reaffirming principles of sovereignty, non-intervention and dialogue, New Delhi has largely confined itself to cautious diplomacy. For a country that positions itself as a voice of the Global South and a defender of strategic autonomy, such restraint invites scrutiny. Silence at moments of legal strain is never neutral. It contributes to the gradual normalisation of coercive precedent.
If Washington persists down this path, the response from the Global South will not be submission. It will be coordination. China, Russia, Brazil, India, and others have every incentive to deepen trade, energy, and financial cooperation—not out of ideological unity, but out of defensive necessity. Ironically, Trump’s economic nationalism may succeed in what decades of rhetoric could not - forging a more cohesive Global South.
Apart from the substantial loss in revenue, international students, especially from India who are aspiring to study abroad, are seeking out alternative destinations that are more welcoming, such as Germany, Japan, Ireland, Israel and Russia.
Just twenty years ago, India's neighboring countries, apart from Pakistan, were solely dependent on India. But now all the small countries except Bhutan are trying to identify themselves as neutral countries in the India-China rivalry.
Even so, Bhansali’s project has evoked considerable interest in Pakistan since the word went out that he was once considering casting Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan, two of the top stars who have acted in Bollywood films. “Then, politics entered,” one of them rued.
Despite the myriad challenges faced by Western journalists in covering South Asia, maintaining journalistic integrity is non-negotiable. This entails a rigorous commitment to fact-checking, corroborating information from diverse sources, and challenging ingrained biases.
India and China represent the future, America (West) the present, and Europe the past; Islam has a long way to go.
The growing camaraderie between Pakistan’s military and the ISK poses a threat to the entire South Asian region.
The encampments in Cox's Bazar have metamorphosed into hotbeds of militant activities, underpinned by the infusion of funds from the Middle East, Pakistan, and other nations, which are cynically utilized to perpetrate a nexus of militancy within these precincts.
The revival of trade relations with old friend Russia is the turning point in India’s oil dependency on the Arab world. This has strengthened India’s resilience to oil shock to a considerable extent.
All in all, the issues on the agenda are very different from the issues that the BJP thought would be on the agenda. The finals could go down to the wire and there will be many lessons learned once the votes are counted and the results are declared.
India, which found itself quite behind the curve like the US in gauging the rapidly changing political dynamics, first shut down its consulates and then its embassy just as the Afghan Republic collapsed on August 15, 2021. But once it realised it would be foolhardy to expect the revival of the Republic, it tacitly started mending fences with the Taliban, sending what it called a "technical team" to Kabul, resumed humanitarian aid, and discontinued diplomatic support to the embassy in New Delhi that was in the hands of representatives of the ousted Ghani government
Before visiting Sri Lanka, Raisi visited Pakistan as part of his South Asian tour, and it is a salient factor that both Pakistan and China are equally important to the BRI as the Chinese have invested millions of dollars in both countries.
This nerve centre of protests proved to be a fertile ground for new ideas and creative approaches to digital activism and served as a beacon of hope for many Sri Lankans seeking positive change.
The sense of being ‘South Asian’ has seeped into the consciousness of artists and designers trained in Lahore. They find common linkages long after they have left when they find themselves co-exhibiting in art fairs, galleries, and museums.
Most importantly, does the rise, arming, and free hand given to Arambai Tenggol signal the arrival of private political armies in India?
As it stands today, Maldives is going to be drawn deeper into China’s strategic sphere. Chinese presence in Maldives is set to increase.