Delhi and Lahore pollution

Pollution blows with the wind: South Asia's public health challenge needs harmonized regional action

In the larger South Asia context, air pollution does not follow national boundaries and therefore the solutions for all the airsheds cannot come from any one city or a country. The countries in South Asia – India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan - that share a common airshed are impacted by the transboundary pollution. More than half of the air pollution across major cities in South Asia is not local but transboundary in nature.

South Asia's climate crisis needs a regional response

Regional bodies like the SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, have the potential to foster cooperation on climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and trans-border pollution control. However, geopolitical tensions, particularly between India and Pakistan, hinder progress.

India's Caribbean outreach carries geoeconomic and geopolitical significance

In the years gone by, India was defined by its religious and cultural strengths, but it has now taken Prime Minister Modi, with a new initiative, to give a boost to India-Caribbean ties through a purely development agenda. It is hoped that CARICOM would set up the mechanisms to get this agenda going. Is it that India is now showing its readiness to take on American and Chinese frontiers aimed at becoming a leader of the Global South if not a world power?

Securitization of the South Asian refugee: Where national security trumps human security

While the South Asian states securitize, local politics has often scapegoated refugee populations, turning majority insecurities into electoral capital – a fear that refugees’ encroachment  on physical and political spaces, jobs, land, corner welfare resources meted out by the state and place undue pressures on infrastructure; acase in point the rhetoric against Bangladeshi migrants in India.

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To win war against polio, Pakistan must first win war against extremism

The issue of polio eradication has taken a perilous form in Pakistan due to the deadly mixture of militancy and developmental issues, writes Sanchita Bhattacharya for South Asia Monitor

When Trump comes calling, tech collaboration should be high on agenda

Technology collaboration by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, specifically in the high technology segment, could be great lever of strategic and public policy partnerships for both countries, writes Kumar Deep (@kumar_deep) for South Asia Monitor

Can India enhance foreign investor confidence?

India may have jumped the rankings in The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business but foreign and domestic investors seek improvements in the ease of doing business on the ground, especially in the states, writes N Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor

Modi government balancing structural reforms with ideological commitments

The 'tax charter' ushers India into a new era where the rights of taxpayers in terms of imposition and payment of taxes are recognized for the first time, writes Arun Anand for South Asia Monitor

For India's growth to revive, needed deep-going structural reforms

India Inc’s confidence will certainly be boosted with a more transparent and non-adversarial tax regime and a business-friendly policy framework that improves the conditions for doing business on the ground, especially in the various states, writes N Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor 

For a place at the global high table, India’s maritime strength needs bolstering

The IN has been at the forefront in supporting the country’s security and diplomatic initiatives in the region through extensive bilateral and multilateral interaction, writes Cmdre Anil Jai Singh (retd) for South Asia Monitor

India should take the lead in regional connectivity and integration

If India has to progress towards deeper engagement under the ‘Neighborhood First’ policy, it has to integrate some of the genuine concerns of its strategic regional partners, writes Kumar Deep for South Asia Monitor 

India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy: Need to put money where its mouth is

The enthusiasm Modi has shown towards the neighbourhood, through his numerous visits has not got translated in overall policy during these years, writes Alakh Ranjan  for South Asia Monitor

Popular apathy towards elections a sign of institutional shortcomings in Bangladesh?

Fracturing political institutions like the Election Commission, Parliament and the Judiciary are also responsible for the popular apathy and political decay in Bangladesh, writes Akmal Hossain for South Asia Monitor

Delhi defeat is BJP's fourth successive state loss: Is there a lesson in it for PM Modi?

The BJP may have also harmed itself by its poisonous communalism which cannot but have put off some of the party’s own sensible supporters, not to mention the Left-Liberals, writes Amulya Ganguli for South Asia Monitor

US pullout from Iraq will embolden Taliban in Afghanistan

The US pullout from Iraq, which will be perceived as withdrawal under pressure, will have a fallout in Afghanistan, writes Lt Gen PC Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor

Fate of a film: How Pakistan is stifling creativity at the altar of extremism

In a country like Pakistan, where freedom of expression is strictly curtailed, guaranteeing that everything is in line with an openly orthodox and conservative interpretation of religion will only multiply the problem, writes Sanchita Bhattacharya for South Asia Monitor

TTP leader Ehsan’s escape to Turkey queers Pakistan’s anti-terror stance

How Ehsan could escape high-security detention and how he could reach Turkey, along with his family, remains a mystery that Islamabad is unable or unwilling to answer, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor

The message of the Delhi elections

If the Muslims were indeed considered equal citizens of a secular India, why would government ministers speak so disparagingly, and even scornfully, of anti-CAA protesters who are mainly burqa and hijab-clad women - ranging in ages from the twenties to the eighties - most of whom are out for the first time in the streets, writes Tarun Basu for South Asia Monitor 

Urgent police reforms and regulation required in India, but politicians unwilling

What is required to be done is that all enforcement agencies, like ED, CBI and, at the state level, the police, should be completely insulated from political masters, writes Vinod Aggarwal for South Asia Monitor