In a report released last week by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Pakistan was pinpointed as “one of the most water-stressed countries in the world, not far from being classified, ‘water-scarce’.” As water demand exceeds supply in the South Asian country, more and more water is being withdrawn from the nation’s reservoirs, leaving them in a critically […]
By South Asian standards, politics in Bhutan remains exceptionally clean and gentle. The electoral commission forbids even serving beer or yak cheese, chili and rice at campaign meetings. Each night the sole national television channel shows respectful debates between candidates. Policy differences are slight, and parties vie in their adoration for the monarchy. Read Here […]
Southeast Asia, so long a byway of the world economy, has become a well-worn path for foreign investors seeking refuge from the continuing after-effects of the global financial crisis. They have come because the region has been surging ahead over the last few years, even as the West slumped, China readjusted and India stuttered. Read […]
When it comes to labor rights and working conditions, Bangladesh is the new China. And not in a good way. The South Asian nation has been the scene of two major industrial disasters in the past six months. In November, a fire in a factory left 112 garment workers dead; in April, a factory collapsed, […]
Recent newspaper reports of China having entered into a secret agreement with Pakistan for constructing a third 1000 megawatt nuclear reactor at Chashma in Punjab province has stirred up a sense of urgency in Washington and New Delhi’s diplomatic circle to find suitable ways and means of preventing any breach of international protocol concerning nuclear […]
There is something about the number five in Sino-Indian relations. Asia’s two giants have long defined their relationship in terms of the famous Pancha Sheela: mutual respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty; mutual non-aggression; mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful co-existence. Read Here – Project Syndicate
Instead of continuing their endless battling, the United States and Pakistan should acknowledge that their interests simply do not converge enough to make them strong partners. Giving up the fiction of an alliance would free up Washington to explore new ways of achieving its goals in South Asia. And it would allow Islamabad to finally […]
Russia’s missiles may still be trained on the United States but it is the nuclear arms race between India and Pakistan that worries Russian experts more than American nukes. Scholars gathered at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (Imemo), a top-rated Russian think-tank advising the Kremlin, rang alarm bells about the threat of […]
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and President Zardari, made his first major public speech on Thursday to vast crowds gathered in Garhi Khuda Baksh to mark the fifth anniversary of his mother’s assassination. Hundreds of thousands of people, including Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s (PPP) workers, supporters and the party’s top leadership, had congregated […]
What is it with South Asia’s strongmen and top judges? Only five years ago General Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan found he had bitten off more than he could chew when he tried to sack Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary. Now President Mahinda Rajapaksa wants Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice out, but like her Pakistani counterpart, Shirani Bandaranayake […]
looking beyond borders 