However, a balanced assessment suggests that India’s superpower trajectory could also generate opportunities for Bangladesh. Enhanced regional connectivity, expanded market access, greater investment flows, and improved regional stability could benefit Dhaka—provided cooperation and mutual respect remain central to bilateral engagement. Ultimately, the impact on Bangladesh will depend not only on India’s power trajectory but also on how both countries manage diplomacy, trust-building, and regional cooperation in an evolving geopolitical landscape.
Today, in 2026, India stands at a historic moment in its healthcare and technological evolution. The convergence of biotechnology, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, and entrepreneurship has created unprecedented opportunities. India’s strengths in scientific talent, digital infrastructure, and cost-efficient innovation position it to become one of the world’s most important centres for healthcare innovation. However, sustained leadership will require continued investment, regulatory reform, and strategic vision.
Yunus paved the way for this election with his credibility as interim administrator intact, but his economic legacy will now be under scrutiny. The man who brought microcredit to the world’s poor — a model replicated across dozens of countries — has struggled to arrest the decline of Bangladesh’s industrial base. Between August 2024 and July 2025, nearly 245 factories closed, displacing approximately 100,000 workers.
Bangladesh’s centrality to South Asia is grounded as much in material realities as in symbolic politics. As one of the region’s fastest-growing economies and a strategic gateway to the Bay of Bengal, Dhaka plays a pivotal role in initiatives such as BBIN and BIMSTEC. Its ports and transport corridors provide critical access for landlocked neighbors, while its manufacturing sector integrates regional supply chains. Cross‑border electricity trade with India and Nepal, along with prospective hydropower cooperation with Bhutan, highlights Bangladesh’s emerging role as an energy and connectivity hub.
South Asians account for 15 million workers in these countries. The prospect now is for return migration back to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka which can only deepen the existing economic gloom in the region, writes N Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
One of Jaswant Singh's finest meetings was with the New York Times editorial board, where members extensively asked about the Indian nuclear programme and why India wasn’t signing the Non-Proliferation Treaty. He patiently and firmly placed India’s position, writes Sanjoy Hazarika for South Asia Monitor
The energy situation in South Asia has been that it is primarily energy fuel deficient as all countries in the region are dependent on substantial imports of fuel, including coal, oil, and natural gas, to meet their growing energy needs, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor
Even as India has marked 70 years of the Republic in January, the closure of the 150th birth anniversary of Bapu reveals the degree to which the nation has moved away from the Gandhian spirit and ethos, writes C Uday Bhaskar for South Asia Monitor
In the past few years, radical extremists have countered Mahatma Gandhi and his teaching and his preaching with acts of ‘war,’ ‘hate,’ and ‘violence,’ writes Frank F. Islam for South Asia Monitor
Gandhi said, means are foreseeable, ends are not. Thus, means can be controlled, managed and guaranteed, writes Ram Krishna Sinha for South Asia Monitor
Churails reflects the voice of Pakistani women against the repressive traditional patriarchal societal norms, writes Azeemah Saleem for South Asia Monitor
If India is to defend its turf against China in the SAARC region, it must contribute to greater flows of intra-regional trade and investments by accepting “asymmetrical responsibilities” in opening its market to neighbours without insisting on reciprocity, writes N Chandra Mohan for South Asia Monitor
While there is a common belief that the tit-for-tat game that India is playing with China is petty and self-destructive, this strategy has been proven to be pretty useful in the current faceoff, writes Akshat MIttal for South Asia Monitor
The Cabinet Division of Bangladesh, the executive office of the Prime Minister, has included kaizen in the annual performance agreement (APA) with the allocation of some weightage, writes Dr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim for South Asia Monitor
What is needed between the two countries is close cooperation and not a competition – this is obligatory in the Nepal-India relationship – and of course, no confrontation both at political and people-to-people relations, as this will lead to a catastrophic, writes Maj. Gen. Binoj Basnyat (retd) for South Asia Monitor
The dilemma of growing COVID-19 cases and reviving economic activity is crucial at this juncture which the leadership in the South Asia region will have to resolve and, herein, lies the challenge for it, writes Partha Pratim Mitra for South Asia Monitor
Pakistani cinema industry, even as it fears being swamped by Bollywood, realises the need for films from India that, given the common culture, resonate well with the cinegoers, writes Mahendra Ved for South Asia Monitor
In view of the unprecedented tension between the Indian Army and the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army on the Line of Actual Control since early May 2020, it is vitally important for ordnance factories to be able to meet large requirements of arms, ammunition, vehicles, and various equipment, writes Col Anil Bhat (retd) for South Asia Monitor
The scourge of the COVID pandemic has radically altered the nature of the challenge cum dangers lurking in the maritime sector for South Asia as related to the Indian Ocean and the surrounding seas, writes C Uday Bhaskar for South Asia Monitor
