International investment law regionalism in Asia: the tale of South Asia

South Asian countries have been experiencing frequent drought incidents recently, and due to this reason, many scientific studies have been carried out to explore drought in South Asia. In this context, we review scientific studies related to drought in South Asia. The study initially identifies the importance of drought-related studies and discusses drought types for South Asian regions. The representative examples of drought events, severity, frequency, and duration in South Asian countries are identified. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was mostly adopted in South Asian countries to quantify and monitor droughts. Nevertheless, the absence of drought quantification studies in Bhutan and the Maldives is of great concern. Future studies to generate a combined drought severity map for the South Asian region are required. Moreover, the drought prediction and projection in the regions is rarely studied. Furthermore, the teleconnection between drought and large-scale atmospheric circulations in the South Asia has not been discussed in detail in most of the scientific literature. Therefore, as a take-home message, there is an urgent need for scientific studies related to drought quantification for some regions in South Asia, prediction and projection of drought for an individual country (or as a region), and drought teleconnection to atmospheric circulation.

Mitochondrial diseases in South Asia – A systematic review

The present paper looks at the challenges to feminism in the 21st century and gives a south Asian perspective. All over the world there has been a close link between the women’s movement and feminism, each inspiring and enriching the other. While the women’s movement is a much earlier phenomenon, the term Feminism is a modern one. Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and equal rights for women. The present paper looks at the challenges to feminism in the South Asian region, with a special focus on India. These can be referred to as the three G’s - the attitude towards, Girl child, Gender violence and Globalization. South Asia is home to around a fifth of world population. Though today this region is characterized by high economic growth for the past 10-15 years yet poverty is also a reality along with illiteracy, backwardness and a large population. In the absence of a State support structure, the family plays a major role in this culture and this affects women more than men. All South Asian cultures are patriarchal. There is a lot of value placed on the birth of a son and one of the major problems facing the family today is the declining sex ratio. Gender-based violence is a universal reality of the South Asian region regardless of income, class and culture. The liberalization of the economy in the wake of Globalization in many South Asian countries has vastly diminished traditional livelihood means for the poor. The dominance of rich nations, multinational corporations and international capital over markets, resources and labour in the developing countries through trade, aid and technology transfer has greatly weakened the capacity of nation states and governments to promote human development and offer protection to the poor people. The paper concludes by stating that feminism is as relevant as ever before and the biggest challenge of 21st century feminism as to how do we integrate difference with an interdependent world.

Introduction The inability of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to broker a multilateral trading system acceptable to all its members has sparked a rising interest in regionalism. The first wave of regionalism in the 1960s was divided along North-North and South-South trading arrangements. In the 1980s, the second regionalism wave evolved into a North-South trading arrangement. (1) However, in a post-Cold War setting, regional groupings have responded to the volatility of the multilateral trading system by increasing regional cooperation and trade and various trade-driven groupings emerged such as the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the European Union (EU). While South Asia has lagged behind other regions in creating a regional trade grouping, the formation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in 1985 is a step towards this direction. However, for economic and political reasons, SAARC has made relatively slow progress on expanding intraregional trade. The South Asian region contains a range of ethnic groups, religions and languages but governance has often centralized political power among a small elite, creating tensions by discounting the interests of the majority. (2) Various economic explanations have been presented to account for the inability of South Asian countries to trade more with one another. These range from South Asian economies producing similar types of goods, to government interference in economic development through the implementation of import substitution industrialization (ISI) policies and highly regulated economic policies. (3) The diversity of economies in terms of their size and complexities of using preferential trading policies has also contributed to slow intraregional South Asian trade. (4) Although cooperation among SAARC countries was supposed to be based on areas of mutual cooperation, with the exclusion of bilateral and contentious issues, it is the latter that have derailed SAARC meetings. The problem of Kashmir, present since the partition of British India into the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1947, has been one of the main obstacles preventing the SAARC region from achieving its full economic potential as a regional grouping. (5) For example, the postponement of the SAARC Heads of State Summit in 1999 followed renewed tensions between India and Pakistan. Similarly, both countries' preferential imports from each other declined significantly from 1996 to 1998 following the nuclear tests in 1998 and the Kargil conflict in 1999. (6) The way forward for SAARC to achieve greater regional economic cooperation will mean dealing with bilateral and contentious issues such as the Kashmir dispute. This paper attempts to examine the process of rapprochement between India and Pakistan over the divisive issue of Kashmir and what this would mean for SAARC as well as Pakistan's ambitions to strengthen its ties with ASEAN. In this context, political will and a change of mindset is crucial to resolve economic obstacles like the Kashmir dispute if the SAARC region does not wish to fall further behind economically. The changing mindset among South Asia's policy-makers was reflected by India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who pointed out that the increasing economic globalization has been accompanied by the consolidation and emergence of vast new economic groupings (7) such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). India being the largest and most influential economy in South Asia has encouraged the economic integration of SAARC by providing greater concessions but the slow progress of a South Asia Preferential Trading Arrangment (SAPTA) has seen a shift in focus towards bilateral trading agreements between SAARC member countries. (8) India has also kept its options open by being willing to conclude bilateral Free Trade Arrangements with those countries within the region intent on moving ahead faster. …

Sino-Saarc Trade Relations: Commentary and Analysis

China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative has attracted worldwide attention, and a solid foundation for the initiative has been laid at home and in the neighbouring regions of Southeast Asia. While many countries may not have imagined the possibility of reviving the Silk Route, China has not only coined the term OBOR but also taken steps to bring it close to reality. Despite the various challenges posed by the initiative to their national strategies and to the regional security order, developing countries along the OBOR have an opportunity to improve connectivity and transform their economic conditions by exploring complementarities through trade, investment and greater people-to-people exchanges. From the South Asian point of view, OBOR presents multiple opportunities as well as dilemmas. The puzzles need to be addressed to shape the connectivity agenda of the region and to harness the benefits of integration, which may require joint development and sharing of responsibility among economically stronger countries. Greater cooperation among South Asian countries will be critical in shaping the connectivity agenda, through OBOR or otherwise, in the South Asian region.

The study demonstrates how the security of the south Asian region, specifically within the context of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, is an epistemological question. This is especially so in how cultural and political identities are structured, how the politics and power nexus works in the region by distinguishing 'We' and 'They', and in how hegemonic power is a concern in establishing any security concept in the region. The thesis examines contemporary discourses of identity, danger, threat, and imagined community as part of a broader discussion of critical geopolitics, specifically popular geopolitics. Discourse analysis acts as a method for studying how identities are formed and transformed in a historical context, how danger and threats are securitized and how 'the other' is used to construct security concepts from South Asian perspectives. Foreign policies and security narratives are not only indispensable for examining South Asian security concepts; images and other forms of representation are also important in shaping the patterns of security, identity, security integration and social order. Popular culture and visual media, such as films and cartoons, are deeply rooted in geopolitical discourse. They can reinforce or contest geopolitical images and representations, and are able to provide a framework for interpreting and understanding geo-historical and contemporary events. Visual media are involved with learning and social mobilization and they may influence and inspire national and regional institutions to reshape the traditional structure of security in the South Asian region. The study seeks to rethink the discourses of security community and regional security integration from a critical perspective, laying down an analysis of critical security approaches to show that a broader security agenda necessitates the inclusion of various dimensions (economic, environmental, military and societal aspects) for the South Asian region. Finally, the research contributes to the field of the geographical dimensions of security emphasizing that the role of popular geopolitics is indispensable to understanding the essentially contested concept of security in South Asia.

An increasing concentration of nitrous oxide (N2O) in the global atmosphere can perturb the ecological balance, affecting the climate and human life. South Asia, one of the world’s most populous regions, is a hotspot for N2O emission. Although agriculture traditionally dominated the region, economic activities are rapidly shifting towards industry and energy services. These activites may become the largest emitters of N2O in future. Yet, few attempts have been made to estimate long-term direct N2O emission from fuel combustion for the different energy-consuming sectors in the South Asian region. Therefore, the present study developed a comprehensive sectoral N2O emission inventory for South Asian countries for the time period of 1990–2017, with projections till 2041. It revealed that the average N2O emission from fuel combustion in the South Asia region is about 40.96 Gg yr−1 with a possible uncertainty of ±12 Gg yr−1, showing an increase of more than 100% from 1990 to 2017. Although India is the major contributor, with an average of 34 Gg yr−1 of N2O emissions, in terms of growth, small countries like Bhutan and Maldives are dominating other South Asian countries. Sector-wise, the residential sector contributed a maximum emission of 14.52 Gg yr−1 of N2O but this is projected to reduce by more than 50% by 2041. This is because of the successful promotion of cleaner fuels like liquefied petroleum gas over more polluting fuelwood. Power generation contributed 9.43 Gg yr−1of N2O emissions, exhibiting a maximum growth of 395%, followed by road transport (289%) and industry (231%). Future N2O emissions from transport, power and industry are projected to rise by 2.8, 3.3, and 23.9 times their 2017 estimates, respectively, due to the incapability of current policies to combat rising fossil fuel consumption. Mitigation options, such as replacing diesel and compressed natural gas vehicles with electricity-driven vehicles, can decelerate N2O emissions to 45% by 2041 for road transport. A 41% reduction is possible by displacing coal with renewables in the power and industry sectors. Overall, the South Asian contribution to global N2O emissions has enlarged from 2.7% in 1990 to 5.7% in 2007–2016, meaning there is an urgent need for N2O emission mitigation in the region.

The South and Southeast Asia region has the second-highest number of people living with HIV globally. Despite progress in reducing HIV incidence and AIDS-related deaths, the region still has a long way to go in achieving the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) 95-95-95 HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression targets. HIV self-testing (HIVST) is recommended by the World Health Organization as an additional approach to HIV testing. This paper provides a commentary on the implementation status, benefits, barriers and recommendations for HIVST implementation in South and Southeast Asia. Additionally, it presents perspectives from HIV testing service experts from 11 countries in the region to put forth recommendations to accelerate the implementation of HIVST in South and Southeast Asia. There is uneven progress in national HIVST policy development and implementation across the region. HIVST, as an additional testing approach, can help to enhance testing coverage, frequency and demand for follow-up HIV services among key populations. Key factors influencing the implementation and scale-up of HIVST include the degree of awareness of HIVST among general and key populations, the development and implementation of supportive national HIVST policies and the availability of public funding for HIVST. To address barriers and leverage enablers to HIVST implementation, generating evidence on cost-effectiveness and budget impact, developing multisectoral partnerships for market shaping, promoting differentiated and decentralized delivery models, and optimizing linkage to further testing and care are recommended. It is crucial to accelerate the implementation and scale-up of HIVST to differentiate and decentralize the delivery of HIV testing services in South and Southeast Asian countries. Sharing experiences among country experts is vital to foster the adoption of best practices and facilitate the trial-and-error process of HIVST implementation. Such collaborative approaches can help South and Southeast Asian countries attain the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, especially the first 95 on HIV diagnosis, and play a significant role in ending the global AIDS epidemic.

This chapter introduces the Handbook on Education Systems in South Asia, a Major Reference Work in the Springer series on Global Education Systems. The chapter begins with a review of discussions about the South Asian region and provides a rationale for including, in the Handbook, ten countries as part of South Asia. The chapter proceeds to highlight the socio-cultural characteristics as well as the demographic and development features of these ten South Asian countries through internal comparisons and also through the identification of common development challenges that South Asia on the whole faces. The second section presents an overview of education in South Asia and locates the significance of the Handbook in the need for contextualized comparative understanding of educational systems in the region. Thereafter, the chapter introduces the eight sections of the Handbook spanning indigenous education traditions, history of education, school and higher education, political economy of education, knowledge and curriculum, teachers and teacher education, as well as learner diversities and educational marginality in South Asia. The chapter concludes by drawing attention to the challenges involved in efforts that seek to comprehensively map education systems in South Asia and suggests possibilities for shaping future research in this direction.

The study focuses on FDI inflows to South Asian countries between pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods and the relationship between FDI inflows and good governance in South Asian countries over the period of 1990 to 2021. T test, panel co-integration test and dynamic panel data analysis are employed to accomplish the objectives of the study. The impact of COVID-19 on South Asia’s FDI inflows is found to be significant and particularly inflow of FDIs has experienced a significant drop in all other South Asian countries, except India during the pandemic period. Additionally, the study confirms a positive relationship between good governance and inflow of FDIs in South Asian countries. Hence, the present study strongly recommends improving infrastructure facilities while ensuring a higher level of good governance to attract more FDI to the countries in South Asian region.

In the process of development, beginning with the initial conceptualizations that involve any disturbance or alteration to the natural environment, it is mandatory to consider sustainability, a concept which includes a set of considerations that immerged to reduce global environmental threats. Since detrimental effects of rapid development are not confined to the immediate context of application, this consideration takes on ever greater urgency. Although rapid growths of economies have been achieved in the South Asian region, the development patterns that are observable are not conducive to either human society or to the natural environment. This paper proposes a sustainable circular economic model for a South Asian city by extending a case study done for a selected demographic and ecological boundary in Sri Lanka. The model is based on the contemporary illustration of ‘strong sustainability’ as three nested circles, which is different to the traditional illustration of sustainability that uses the Venn diagram: the confluence of the three pillars indicated by three circles. This concept paper, which elaborates the afore-mentioned model, provides a basic guideline for further development of cities in contexts rich in natural resources and habitats in South Asia, allowing for the preservation or refinement of natural settings. The output of the research, the Circular Economic Model applied to a Sri Lankan city, will serve as a model to support the reduction of indiscreet development that is taking place, and allow the user to envision appropriate routes towards sustainable development in the South Asian region.

Comparative Environmental Constitutionalism in South Asia

The Asian security crisis vis-a-vis Afghanistan and the unravelling regional dynamics are undoubtedly security concerns for the South Asian (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka) region. This is leading to a future, predicting intensifying geopolitical strife and emerging uncertainties causing crucial dynamics for South Asia. Re-emergence of the Taliban with the rebooting of its fanatic and orthodox ideologies may severely impact the South Asian region. Taliban’s handholding with Al-Qaeda and other fundamental terrorist organisations in the region will breathe more life to the radical groups and the separatists inspiring them to be more dominant in the region. The porous and the disputed borders with the ethnic connections within the region will make it easy to establish a robust mechanism, for the growth of the Taliban’s fundamentalist ideologies across South Asian countries. Another significant and the most crucial dynamic is Afghanistan and Pakistan’s coupling that has been the most dreaded confluence over the decades. This relation has been highly convoluted and has been the facilitator of various terrorist organisations in the past. In the recent perspective, this fusion will be giving more drastic leverages to the militant organisations posing a severe threat before South Asian countries. The bond between the Taliban factions and the active terrorist outfits in Kashmir in India will vigorously facilitate resources in the form of more recruits and weapons providing more power to these groups. The proposed study will be divided into two parts the first part will explore India’s posture in ensuring peace and stability in the region and the second part will deal with a probe into New Delhi’s recalibration of strategies vis-a-vis Afghanistan in the present context.

A growing body of recent empirical and theoretical research has discussed how social work practitioners of South Asia engaged themselves in meeting the challenges of environmental disasters. South Asia is a dynamic and diverse region highly vulnerable to disasters. With diverse backgrounds and rich history of education and practice, social work knowledge in two south Asian countries (India and Nepal) toward reducing disaster risks and vulnerabilities and increasing communities’ resilience has continued to evolve. Although governments, through regional cooperation and the international aid agencies, are investing in disaster resilience infrastructure, hazard governance in South Asian countries remains fragmented and warrants further critical review and model building. Provided this background, this chapter reviews how social work practice, especially green social work approaches, has been applied in the recovery and rehabilitation of communities facing environmental disasters in India and Nepal in the last ten years. The chapter makes a case for the critical needs for revisiting social work practices and the need for introducing green social work practices to nurture disaster resilience communities in the South Asian region. Additionally, the chapter discusses the approaches, challenges, and opportunities for green social work practices in the region. We argue that by decolonizing social work education and practices and ensuring human rights of the disaster-prone communities through achieving both environmental and social justice, South Asian social work can contribute to building disaster-resilient communities in the region.