South Asia, battered by three years of upheaval from the COVID-19 pandemic and spillovers from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, faces a combination of good and bad news for its economies. On the…

Jiemin Ren, Zoe Leiyu Xie |

Sipu-Naya Basti is a village in Uttarakhand in India, too high and remote for roads and internet but often the first stop for heavy rains and cloud bursts. In this Himalayan hamlet, Sameera, an…

Atishay Abbhi |

In August 2022, a harmful invasive species, the Giant African Snail, started spreading uncontrollably in India's southern state of Kerala, causing damage to crops and posing a risk to human…

Dr Bhagyasree A R, Dr Ajan Maheswaran Jaya, Deepika Chaudhery |

Digital public infrastructure can enable essential society-wide functions and services such as identification, payments, and data exchange.

Vyjayanti T Desai, Jonathan Marskell, Georgina Marin, Minita Varghese |

In the summer of 2022, unusually intense monsoon rains – exacerbated by climate change - caused a super flood that submerged one-third of Pakistan, affecting some 33 million people. While all four…

Anne T. Kuriakose, Thomas Kerr |

As the dust settles on the road to the Dawki Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Meghalaya, near the India-Bangladesh border, a winding queue of some 750 trucks can be seen lined up on the side. The…

Cecile Fruman |

Even though migration is critical to South Asia’s recovery and resilience to future shocks, the region faces several barriers in labor mobility, with high costs and frictions in credit and labor…

S. Amer Ahmed, Jean Nahrae Lee, Moritz Meyer |

A new World Bank study finds that collaboration across borders could slash the cost of tackling air pollution, while delivering better results

Martin Raiser |

The Maldives is a small island nation with a vibrant marine ecosystem and an abundance of marine protected areas. Sadly, it also stands out as particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate…

Aminath Shauna, Faris Hadad-Zervos |