Monday, May 29, 2017

FEATURE

FEATURE
Featured posts

All aboard India’s new affordable luxury train

SAM Staff
India's passenger trains are notorious for being rickety and spartan, but the government is hoping to change all that with a new "luxury" service. The popular... More

Google Doodle Honors Bangladeshi Engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan

SAM Staff
THE GENIUS engineer behind the Sears Tower and Chicago’s John Hancock Centre has been celebrated with a Google Doodle.  Pioneering architect Fazlur Rahman Khan would have... More

Iconic Ambassador on modern roads!

SAM Staff
The iconic image of yesteryear; the Ambassador car, seen as the four wheel lord of the roads of India for more than 50 years much... More

Abdul Sattar Edhi: Why Google honours him today

SAM Staff
Abdul Sattar Edhi founded the world's largest volunteer ambulance network in Pakistan, the Edhi Foundation. Unlike wealthy individuals that fund charities in their names, Edhi dedicated... More

Mehboob Khan, Pakistan’s Chef with a mission

Frances Bulathsinghala, Colombo
En route to the Pakistani food festival in Colombo last month, a Tamil Brahmin friend tags along unwillingly, vowing that he will starve.  He visualizes... More

Kolkata’s other side of midnight

Sutirtha Gupta, Kolkata
With sundown, Kolkata and its suburbs undergo a radical change. While peace and tranquility prevails as most of Kolkata prepares to doze off, a large... More

Electrofishing causes extinction of ‘Smiling’ Irrawaddy dolphins

SAM Staff
Loved for generations for corralling the catch into fishermen’s nets, the‘smiling’ Irrawaddy dolphins are being killed in record numbers by rogue gangs who use car... More

Careem introduces women drivers in Pakistan

SAM Staff
Taxi-hailing service Careem introduced seven women drivers in Pakistan, a rare initiative in a country where women account for only 22% of the workforce. Careem, which... More

World’s largest jade stone in Myanmar

SAM Staff
Myanmar is the source of nearly all of the world's finest jadeite (a near-translucent green stone), is also the home of world’s largest jade stone... More

Underground ocean found on Pluto

SAM Staff
HOUSTON: Scientists have found evidence that tiny, distant Pluto harbors a hidden ocean beneath the frozen surface of its heart-shaped central plain containing as much... More

Burma’s Misguided Peace Process Needs a Fresh Start

BERTIL LINTNER
On Saturday in Rangoon, activists from 27 civil society organizations staged a protest against continued fighting between the Burma Army and ethnic armed groups. (Photo: Myo Min... More

COLUMN

CONFLICT DIARIES
Salman Rafi

What will the jihadist takeover of Kashmir...

Who would the world blame if Kashmir, a disputed territory between Pakistan and India, falls a prey to jihadist radicalization and turn into a battle ground between competing religious ideologies, outshining the erstwhile fervor for national independence and emancipation from decades of suppression?  This is a question... More


Ikram Sehgal

Naked ambition

India’s newly annunciated "Joint Armed Forces Doctrine" envisaging force projection beyond its borders mandates that the three services, Army, Navy and Air Force will fight as an integrated force. Calling for cooperation and inter-operability of goals, services, techniques, command structure and logistics as opposed to fighting independently... More

BANGLADESH TODAY
Afsan Chowdhury

AL-BNP in mood swings while voters hope...

In the last couple of months, the AL-BNP conflict situation has become a bit intriguing. From a state of high confidence, the ruling party Awami League seems to be taking the Opposition party BNP more seriously as an opponent. But BNP’s organizational frame is in shambles and... More

MYANMAR CABLE
Larry Jagan

Myanmar’s fragile peace process set to unravel

Myanmar’s peace process is slowly unraveling as the discussions between the government and the ethnic groups involved remains marred by confusion, indecision and division. Days away from the next round of the 21st Century Panglong or national peace conference, there is still no clear idea of who... More

CONFLICT DIARIES
Salman Rafi

Why kicking itself out of OBOR was...

While India stopped short of attending the last week held summit of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in China, otherwise known as ‘One Belt One Road’ vision, the decision should not be confused with, despite India’s allusions to the violation of its territory and sovereignty, the possibility... More

EDITOR'S CHOICE

 Sri Lanka in a balancing act over China’s One Belt, One...

Pradeep Ramanayake

While participating in last week’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) forum in Beijing, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe walked a tight rope: seeking economic and other benefits from China while maintaining close relations... More

China is working on the largest infrastructure endeavor in human history

Patrick Winn

No great power is complete without troops, warships and missiles sprinkled around the planet. Now China is squeaking into an exclusive club — joining America, Russia, France, and few others in operating at least one... More

Why Major Gogoi is wrong

Omar Abdullah

  On April 9, the day of the election to the vacant Srinagar parliamentary seat, a cornered paramilitary unit in Budgam district called the army for assistance to secure a polling booth they were afraid... More

Resolving the National Question: Where is the key?

Sumanasiri Liyanage

"We all know the old joke about a guy looking for his lost key under the street light; when asked where he lost it, he admits that it was in a dark corner. So... More

MOST POPULAR

READER'S VIEW

Reaction to “Behind Hasina’s RAW tirade”

David Bergman

David Bergman, British investigative journalist based in Bangladesh, commented on a recently published column of South Asian Monitor titled "SOUTHERN EYE: Behind Hasina’s RAW tirade" in his facebook profile. "This is a fascinating and detailed article... More

Contact us: [email protected]

© south asian monitor 2016

Sign up for South Asian Monitor:

Enter your email and stay on top of things

Subscribe!