South Asian Digests
2 pilots killed in military helicopter crash...
September 25, 2020
Kashmiri lawyer Babar Qadri shot dead in Srin...
September 25, 2020
Diplomats visit Line of Control to assess sit...
September 25, 2020
200 Bangladeshi workers repatriated from Mald...
September 25, 2020
Bhutan issues first sovereign bond to meet in...
September 24, 2020
Bangladesh to set up 73 modern BOPs to enhanc...
September 23, 2020
Sri Lankan PM visits Chinese-built Colombo po...
September 23, 2020
Nepal set to welcome foreign tourists from Oc...
September 23, 2020
Top News
Indian TV channels in vanguard of movement to demonize Muslims
September 24, 2020
| By: Peerzada Ummer
Last month, the unthinkable happened in the history of Indian television. A man in his late 40s donning a saffron waistcoat scorched the screen of a news channel- known as Sudarshan TV. He was Suresh Khanderao Chavhanke, chairman, managing director, and editor-in-chief of Sudarshan News.
Known for its right-wing leanings and open support to the Hindu extremist ideology since its inception in 2007, the news channel hogged the headlines in newspapers when its owner announced...
South Asian Brief
India Sets Coronavirus Record
Welcome to South Asia Brief, the weekly newsletter that keeps you up to date on a region that is home to one-fourth of humanity. Today: India sets a worldwide record for the most coronavirus cases in a single day, Pakistanis express outrage over rape, Bangladesh...
Reports
China, India send in supplies for thousands of b...
September 25, 2020
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By: Minnie Chan
The Chinese and Indian militaries, locked in their worst border stand-off in decades, have shifted focus to logistical support as both sides race to bring in supplies for the thousands of troops in the remote Himalayan region before the brutal winter sets in.
Senior military...
Integrity of Myanmar polls questioned amid confl...
September 25, 2020
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By: SAM Staff
Tens of thousands of minorities in Myanmar remain without the right to vote, while access to information has been hampered due to internet restrictions and the coronavirus lockdown, rights groups told the United Nations in Geneva on Wednesday, saying the situation raises questions about the...
Pillar number 11 along Nepal-China border in Hum...
September 25, 2020
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By: SAM Staff
Pillar number 11 along the Nepal-China border in Humla district, which was said to have been missing, has been found.
According to Bishnu Bahadur Lama, chief of Namkha Rural Municipality, an inspection team, led by Humla Chief District Officer Chiranjibi Giri, “found” pillar number 11...
Israel Aerospace Industries got undue benefit fr...
September 25, 2020
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By: Amrita Nayak Dutta
A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament Wednesday pointed out irregularities in the purchase of aero engines for Unmanned Aero Vehicles (UAVs) by the Indian Air Force from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
The report states that the IAI gained undue benefits of...
SAM Special
DHA Karachi and CBC disparaged wrongly
September 24, 2020
| By: Ikram Sehgal
The Pakistan Meteorological Department has confirmed that Karachi received the heaviest rain in a single day in 90 years when 231 mm fell in just 12 hours on August 27. The Hub Dam water level crossed 338.5 feet, the highest in 13 years. During August 2020 alone, Karachi received 484 mm (19 inches) rain. With rainwater and overflowed water from nullahs and drains flooding most of the main roads and streets in residential areas, people’s...
Issues
China’s Sri Lanka foothold a dilemma for India
September 25, 2020
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By: M. K. Bhadrakumar
There are three categories of statesmen: those addicted to Twitter (Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Javad Zarif, et al); those who shun it (Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, Xi Jinping, et al); and those with selective uses for the micro-blogging app.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa...
India braces for mass protests over contentious...
September 25, 2020
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By: Kiran Sharma
India's latest agriculture reforms, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi says will help double farmers' income, have sparked a massive uproar, with opposition parties and growers calling them "anti-peasant."
Amid protests by farmers, mainly in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, Parliament this week cleared...
Nepal should stop selling its youth to the India...
September 25, 2020
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By: Arun Budhathoki
The Battle of Plassey was the precursor to colonialism in India, which taught modern India how the East India Company took advantage of a domestic power tussle in Bengal and ruled the country for the next 200 years.
India’s transition to independence and democracy still...
The India-China Ladakh crisis: Why so silent, wo...
September 25, 2020
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By: Abhijnan Rej
Toward the end of last week, a Western analyst who specializes in East Asian strategic affairs messaged me to discuss the latest turn in the ongoing India-China military standoff in Ladakh, as we have periodically done over the last few months. But this time around,...
Opinion
India's stubborn stance an obstacle to China-I...
September 24, 2020
| By: Xie Chao
Defence
Indian Army’s artillery barrel hit: Concerns o...
September 25, 2020
| By: Shishir Arya
India tests laser guided anti-tank missile
September 25, 2020
| By: SAM Staff
Editor`s Choice
India’s silenced parliament
By: Shashi Tharoor
After a nearly six-month hiatus, the Indian parliament will reconvene in mid-September at a time of deepening national crisis. But I fear that it may...
The making of a Hindu India
By: Uday Chandra
On August 5, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for a Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya. This fulfilled the...
Why US Indo-Pacific strategy will fail
By: Ken Moak
Since Donald Trump was elected to the US presidency, he has expanded the Asia-Pacific region to include the Indian Ocean, renaming the enlarged area “Indo-Pacific”...
Focus
India
What the death of a Bollywood star says about life in Modi's India
September 24, 2020
| By: Charukesi Ramadurai
India crossed another grim milestone last Wednesday, surpassing five million total COVID-19 cases, less than two weeks after exceeding the four million-mark. On the same day, the death toll reached 82,066 with 1,290 new fatalities, the biggest single-day spike.
Mounting aggression on the country's border, rising farmer suicides, record unemployment, and a collapsing economy only added to the sense of despair.
But instead of focusing their attention on such of issues of great consequence, India's...
If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC.
New BBC director general Tim Davie on social media.
Video
South Asian Monitor news headlines 25 September 2020 September 25, 2020
Demonstration Project of Teesta River Comprehensive Manageme... September 2, 2020
Childhood in Kashmir: In the face of gun barrels July 9, 2020
Pakistan's centuries-old boat village faces d...
September 25, 2020
Turkish Nobel laureate focuses on the collabo...
September 21, 2020
The sighs and solitude of a despairing city:...
September 13, 2020
Nepali Afghanistan and Iraq victims seek comp...
September 1, 2020
Pranabda rose to be Indian President but the...
September 1, 2020
After seven decades, the children of Partitio...
August 30, 2020
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Tiger
August 29, 2020
Travel bug: Why tourism in Asia will never be...
August 28, 2020