Can BBIN work as antidote to failures of SAARC? (Amitava Mukherjee, South Asia Monitor)

As Pakistan is now aiming for a greater South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) with China and the Central Asian states in its fold, the importance of the emerging Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) grouping has become more important for not only Indian diplomatic initiatives but for economic progress of landlocked countries like Nepal and Bhutan. It is better to admit that not much thought was given behind the conceptualization of the SAARC in the mid 1980s and sub-regional initiatives like the BBIN may work as an antidote to much of the maladies that afflict South Asia now.

http://southasiamonitor.org/news/can-bbin-work-as-antidote-to-failures-of-saarc-/sl/19934

Bangladesh: Awami League needs to choose between religious or linguistic nationalism (Amitava Mukherjee, South Asia Monitor)

Hasina Wazed, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the President of the Awami League(AL), needs to look inwards and ask herself some searching questions before she can really think of eradicating terrorism in her country. It is a fact that at this hour of crisis she is the best bet against fundamentalist politics in Bangladesh but some uncomfortable facts have cropped up which have put her style of governance under serious cloud.

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=sl&nid=18122

Playing it big or a proxy?: Bangladesh’s growing closeness to China (Amitava Mukherjee, South Asia Monitor)

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=sl&nid=17815

Greater economic interaction can keep SAARC afloat (Amitava Mukherjee, South Asia Monitor)

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=sl&nid=17583

India needs to keep its eyes open, lest it loses Myanmar to China (Amitava Mukherjee, South Asia Monitor)

China is now all set to gain a major advantage in the strategic scenario of South Asia as Myanmar has awarded contracts to a China-led consortium for constructing a deep-sea port and a special economic zone(SEZ) in a place called Kyaukphyu which is situated right on the Bay of Bengal. The above mentioned six member consortium will be led by the Citic group of China and the only non-Chinese member of it will be the Charoen Phokphand of Thailand

http://southasiamonitor.org/detail.php?type=sl&nid=17302