In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

More than 75 percent of Asia-Pacific countries lack water security, according to a new report released last week by the Asian Development Bank. Compared to other regions, South Asia is a hot spot where inequity of access to water is the highest. The region supports more than 21 percent of the world’s population, but has access to just over 8 percent of global water resources. As rapid population growth and urbanization increase demand, water is increasingly a scarce and precious resource in South Asia. Even as the complex environmental consequences of climate change, deteriorating river ecology, and growing urbanization continue to unfold new challenges for the region, South Asia’s water woes could be significantly mitigated through improved water governance…

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India’s online community has been buzzing since the arrest of two young women by the Mumbai police last month for posting comments on Facebook criticizing the city’s shutdown following the death of veteran Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray. The arrests of Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan sparked public outrage across the country, and drew criticism from civil society, media, and the government. Telecom Minister Kabil Sibal described the arrests as “unfortunate,” and renowned Indian personalities, such as author Shobha De, anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal, and others, expressed their dismay on Twitter.

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Moviegoers in India were disappointed this month when producers of the critically acclaimed Hollywood film “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” cancelled the film’s release in India. The decision followed demands by the Indian Censor Board to cut scenes that were deemed “unsuitable for public viewing in their unadulterated form.”…

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Global economic recovery in 2012 remains tenuous, with the World Bank recently downgrading its forecast for this year’s global growth from 3.6 percent to 2.5 percent. This slide in expectations and persistently high unemployment rates in many countries has sparked a resurgence of protectionist tendencies toward trade. These tendencies are couched in the language of “bringing jobs back,” while tariffs are euphemistically coined as “flexibility” needed to protect domestic producers. South Asia has suffered for decades from a low level of intraregional cooperation, both politically and economically.

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September 28 is celebrated internationally as Right to Know Day, highlighting the critical importance of people’s right to access information held by their governments. In India, following a nationwide campaign led by grassroots and civil society organizations…

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India was gripped by election fever this spring as voting kicked off in the states of Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal. After months of suspense and conjecture, the results are finally in. In West Bengal, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee…

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Last Saturday, Mumbai played host to the biggest party on the planet as a record-breaking 67.6 million people tuned in to watch India’s victory over Sri Lanka in the ICC World Cup Championship. For the last six weeks, the country has been gripped by cricket fever with the home team battling it out for a place in the world tournament. Following tough encounters with rivals Australia and Pakistan in the quarter and semi-finals, India – for only the 3rd time in its cricket history – made it to the final round of the mega event.

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