Escalation around Iran narrows diplomatic manoeuvring room across South Asia. India has cultivated strong defence ties with Israel, expanded strategic cooperation with Washington and maintained pragmatic engagement with Tehran, particularly in connectivity and energy sectors. A widening US–Iran confrontation complicates this balancing act.
There is a darker side to AI, it is now seen. Firms have established that AI can manipulate, blackmail and threaten. Findings by Anthropic have revealed that advanced AI systems can resort to blackmailing and threatening human users to achieve assigned goals or ensure their survival. As AI writes better versions of itself and big business powers it to seek new frontiers to occupy, will India re-skill and re-arm to keep its independence or run the risk of becoming a digitised colony?
Bangladesh has previously demonstrated its ability to decisively dismantle militant infrastructures. The question now is whether that momentum can be sustained amid shifting political and regional dynamics. If left unchecked, Islamic State Bengal’s evolving model - family cells, criminal financing, cross-border sanctuaries, and technical bomb-making sophistication - could reintroduce a phase of asymmetric violence not only within Bangladesh but across parts of South Asia.
The killing of Ayatollah Ai Khamenei is not an isolated headline; it is a defining chapter in the evolving story of Middle Eastern and regional geopolitics. It forces a reckoning with questions of power, legality, and consequence. Whether this moment becomes the spark of broader conflict or a catalyst for renewed diplomatic urgency will depend on decisions made now, in Tehran, in Jerusalem, in Washington, and beyond. One era has undeniably ended. What begins next will shape the region for years to come.
More importantly, the South Asia region needs to realise that workers and farmers have a key role to play in promoting sustainable consumption as they are both the end consumers as well as the producers at the start of the supply chain, writes George Cheriyan & Simi T.B. for South Asia Monitor
But it is interesting to note that 49 years hence, there seems to be no change in how the nation views the civil war and a bloody separation of its eastern province, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
The ‘uncultured’ state of Pakistan has not apologized yet for the 1971 genocide. It should be compelled, writes Farabi Bin Zahir for South Asia Monitor
New Delhi also needs to recognize that the rules of diplomacy are changing and that country, especially the US under Biden, would not hesitate to make remarks about human rights violations or on communal tensions and certainly, the changes in the status of Jammu and Kashmir. None of these would qualify, for Biden’s Administration, as being ‘internal matters,’ writes Amb Amit Dasgupta (retd) for South Asia Monitor
On this International Migrants Day, it is worth noting that not every migrant succeeds in an adopted land. For evidence, one need not go beyond the Indian American community. While the community’s many successes and accomplishments have been well-documented, a less-publicized fact is the plight of hundreds of thousands of Indian nationals in the United States, writes Frank Islam for South Asia Monitor
What the BJP may have realized, therefore, from these sporadic eruptions of protests is that electoral success is not the be-all and end-all of politics, writes Amulya Ganguli for South Asia Monitor
Many people want to know why the ruling Awami League is perpetuating this "sculpture politics". Why is this issue being given so much importance so as to forget the numerous other challenges Bangladesh is facing? writes Akmal Hossain for South Asia Monitor
India for the time being has chosen to call for an adjournment on the multidimensional chessboard of multilateral trade/strategic agreements which can be seen as a wise move, writes Kumardeep Banerjee for South Asia Monitor
Little help has been extended to Bangladesh to resolve the Rohingya problem. Even in international forums like the UN, no one voted for Bangladesh when it brought a resolution condemning human rights violations in Myanmar, particularly against Rohingya Muslims, writes Swadesh Roy for South Asia Monitor
China’s aim of building these new villages along the LAC with India is multiple. These helped populate Han Chinese closer to the border areas, overwhelming the Tibetan population demographically since the invasion and occupation of Tibet in 1959-51, writes Lt Gen Prakash Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor
India is forecast to be the biggest contributor to the ‘new normal’ doubling its renewable additions in 2021. Wind and solar additions are expected to jump by 30 percent in both the US and China, writes Rajendra Shende for South Asia Monitor
In the course of his advisory duties, Yeager had made good friends in the higher echelons of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), and within a short period, he fell prey to an affliction, known, amongst diplomats, as ‘localitis,’ i.e, a deep sympathy, verging on identification, with the host country and its people, writes Admiral Arun Prakash (retd) for South Asia Monitor
Would it be appropriate to suggest that the Modi government defer the construction of a new parliament building in Delhi, and use the funds (approximately Rs. 971 crores) to create a corpus for post-COVID South Asian rebuilding? writes Cmde C Uday Bhaskar (retd) for South Asia Monitor
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought in additional challenges to tackle amidst the technological disparities within Asia. There is a digital divide witnessed in the economies of South Asia, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor
Pitching for her exiled father, Maryam has become a veteran. But she appeared to yield space to Aseefa, the surprise debutante, in terms of public response and social media fervour that followed this Multan rally, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
