Sagar Prasai

Customers stand in designated spots to keep social distance in Nepal 

Back-to-Back Spikes of Covid Wrack India, Nepal

April 28, 2021

Blog

In the three years before the pandemic, South Asia registered the world’s highest rate of economic growth. Now, as a ruinous second wave of Covid-19 sweeps through the region, all of that appears to be undone.

 

The Best InAsia Podcasts and Posts of 2020

January 7, 2021

Blog

The year of the pandemic was a long, discontented winter that the glorious sun forgot. But it was a year we dug deep into the voices and ideas of our colleagues across Asia in our new InAsia Podcast.

construction equipment and half-built structures in Nepal mountains 

The Day the Workers Started Walking Home

May 13, 2020

Blog

When Nepal abruptly shut down in late March, it triggered an exodus of Nepali workers from the cities. A rapid assessment survey shows that Nepal can still put its once-promising economy back together, but only if things are handled right.

 

The Price of Power: The Political Economy of Electricity Trade and Hydropower in Eastern South Asia

August 15, 2018

Blog

Grand experiments in geopolitics often begin by cautiously testing new ways of doing things. Sovereign states calibrate and then recalibrate their visions by expanding and aligning interests with their neighbors, with the hope that the sum of what is achieved is greater than its parts. Recent actions indicate that this is underway in South Asia’s n… Read more

 

The Price of Power: The Political Economy of Electricity Trade and Hydropower in Eastern South Asia

July 31, 2018

South Asia, generally described as “the least integrated region in the world,” has made remarkable progress in power trading and cooperation on resources over the last two decades. Regional power cooperation has come a long way from exchanges of power between small border towns and early ideas for an energy ring. By 2025, trade could be powered by… Read more

 

Expanding the Benefits of Trade to Women in the BBIN Region

March 6, 2018

This report scopes out key programming challenges and opportunities in expanding the benefits of trade to women in the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal) region. The analyses and recommendations of this report focus on trade facilitation measures and do not extend to general provisions of the regional trade agreements and country-level tra… Read more

Commuters travel through one of New Delhi's 146 metro stations. 

Eye on South Asia: Challenges to Development and Democracy

Berkeley, Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Events

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm University of California Berkeley Faculty Club, Seaborg Room Home to 1.7 billion people, South Asia was the world’s fastest growing economic region in 2016, and is expected to hold this spot in 2017. However, South Asian countries continue to face daunting challenges of persistent poverty, widening inequality, and growing instabil… Read more

ATM lines in India 

Q&A: Understanding India’s Cash Crisis

February 1, 2017

Blog

Nearly three months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a ban on its highest-denomination currency to curb corruption and tax evasion, the country is still reeling from the move, with millions struggling from a cash shortage in an overwhelmingly cash-dependent economy. In Asia editor Alma Freeman spoke with The Asia Foundation’s cou… Read more