Neighborhood Studies looks at the range of cross-cutting issues such as political developments, economic activities, cross-border activities and foreign affairs related issues and security surfacing in its immediate neighbors – India and China – in addition to its extended neighbors such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives. The study focuses to explore and identify emerging priorities in the neighborhood and generate evidence and analysis.
India has already earned a good reputation for groundbreaking developments in the pharmaceutical sector. An increased focus on collaborative research in this field between educational institutions in India and Nepal would open the floodgates for easier access to pharmaceuticals and traditional medicines in the near future ...
While India has been considered better at bilateral relations than multilateral ones, in the past few years, India has also made sincere efforts towards increasing its engagements with multilateral institutions ...
Government should come with effective plans to protect the economy from collapsing. It should speed up the testing process so that it can isolate the affected for treatment, and normalize the economic activities at the earliest ...
China is attempting to cast a new international order out of the COVID-19 catastrophe. However, countries in the Indo-Pacific are committed to maintain defense and they have also stepped up their cooperation to fight the pandemic ...
The SAARC Centre for Disaster Management and Preparedness, SAARC Coastal Zone Management Centre and SAARC Meteorological Research Centre should be entrusted to work together with member countries implementing the framework in context of regional cooperation within the mandate of the respective Regional Centre ...
China has structured a successful paradiplomatic model. Beijing alone has entered into sister-cities agreement with 55 other cities/ states. It is in a desperate need of a facelift, post the considerable erosion of public opinion due to the debacle of the virus spreading out of Wuhan. To this end, Chinese government, media houses and others are strategically using this relationship to highlight the humanitarian side of the country. ...
India-Japan relations post-COVID would develop in leaps and bounds with the help of new technologies and solutions supporting the two countries, the Indo-Pacific region and the world at large. India should also prepare itself for such opportunities by reforming the legal system to attract FDI and making flexible labour laws. ...
The governments, along with the activists, should put the safety of blue collared workers in the Gulf on priority. Similarly, in the long run, a plan needs to be drawn out for rehabilitation of workers, who want to return to South Asia ...
For strengthening the cybersecurity in Nepal, the guidelines governing the data protection, intellectual property, privacy, cybercrime and cyber terrorism should be established and revised in the judicial body. Besides, user awareness education and cyber insurance can complement technical mitigation strategies to reduce cyber threats in Nepal ...
COVID-19 and SAARC: Need of Women in Decision-Making
There are two ways in which the SAARC can be more inclusive, first, by placing more women in the SAARC Ministerial-level group, and secondly, by going beyond targeting individual women and regularly consulting with women’s organizations who are at the front line of the COVID-19 response ...