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This special section is dedicated to the BASAS conference 2021. The conference coincided with the devastating second wave of Covid-19 in India, which started in March and peaked in May 2021. Case numbers and mortality in South Asian countries were very high and their health systems too struggled to keep up with these unprecedented times. As governments across South Asia appeared to fail their populations, a sense of crisis was shared by conference participants, many of whom were personally affected by this wave. This conference was unique in that it took place after a two-year gap due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in that it was the first fully online BASAS conference. The papers in the special section draw attention to significant areas of research in South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since Beijing has launched its grand transcontinental Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), President Xi's key foreign economic plan has ignited interest of policymakers and academia alike. This paper explores that under the BRI framework, China has invested billions of dollars in infrastructurebuilding in diverse regions across the globe, including South Asia where Beijing has expanded its footprints by implementing projects in various sectors. India, being wary of Chinese ambitions and intentions, has declined to join the venture as it has reservations over Xi's 'project of the century'. In response, India has come up with various initiatives to counter the growing role of Beijing in South Asia and beyond. Key Indian initiatives are examined aimed at rivalling China. For enhancing regional integration and connectivity, India, in partnership with Japan, has launched Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC). International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is another such venture to dwarf the Chinese BRI. In collaboration with the Group of 20 (G20), New Delhi unveiled another connectivity initiative -- India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as an alternative to the BRI. The paper concludes that although India is eager to compete with China, it does not have enough resources to match China's regarding investing and implementing mega infrastructure projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India and Persia have had a strong socio-cultural relationship since the ancient period. There had been a cultural link between the two countries. IndoPersian cultural amalgamation enhanced with the advent of Islam in the Indian subcontinent. The syncretism of these two cultures influenced all aspects of life, including literature, art and architecture. This paper discusses the influence of Persian architecture on Mughal imperial mosques in North India. A review of literature from various scholars on possible influencing factors is presented, accompanied by an observation-based analysis of the architectural features of Persian mosques. Subsequently, the paper identifies and examines various Persian architectural elements existing in Mughal mosques in India. Findings indicate that Persian architecture significantly influenced Mughal mosques in North India and the use of locally available materials made these mosques unique in their architectural styles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In May 1998, the two most important South Asian states overtly conducted their nuclear tests and thus marked the beginning of an era of nuclearisation in the sub-continent. This overt nuclearisation within the region led to a sense of optimism among scholars and policymakers which almost completely ruled out the possibility of an all-out war between India and Pakistan. However, exactly after a year the Kargil War erupts between India and Pakistan- a war that was fought between two 'nuclear power states' and since then has completely changed the equation and definition of 'warfare' between the two most important and strategically volatile states of South Asia. The year 2023 marks the 24th anniversary of the Kargil War, and the present paper makes an attempt to apprise the lesson that both India and Pakistan have learnt in the post Kargil War era, with specific reference to the techniques and modus operandi of warfare. Questioning the very definition of 'war' as developed during the Cold War era, this paper will try to look into pertinent issues how warfare between India and Pakistan has undergone a qualitative change in the post-nuclearisation phase. A closer scrutiny of the nature of war that took place in Kargil points to the fact that there exists a space below the nuclear threshold of both India and Pakistan that can be exploited for conducting a 'Limited War'- a theoretical prism that refutes the claim made by nuclear pessimists that any war between new nuclear nations will escalate to a nuclear level. Using qualitative methodology as its framework, based on the secondary literature and insights of interviews of policy analyst and experts the paper wishes to contribute a new debate within the discourse of India-Pakistan Relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between conflict trajectories and years of schooling in India for girls and boys. It adopts propensity score matching methods on panel data from the India Human Development Survey (2004/05-2011/12) merged with conflict data from the South Asia Terrorism Portal. Conflict is measured according to the dynamic trajectory of Naxal violence-related fatalities at the district level, distinguishing areas of chronic conflict with those experiencing dynamism in conflict intensity over time. ATT estimates indicate that conflict is associated with a reduction in years of schooling for both genders, though relatively high for girls (by a quarter of a year for girls and by 0.16 of a year for boys), driven by large reductions in school accumulation for girls living in areas of chronic conflict. Results are consistent when adopting different methods, alternative measures of conflict fatalities, and accounting for other conflicts and selective migration. Examining transmission mechanisms suggest that household spending on girls' education may be de-prioritised amidst conflict, while conflict may also weaken or destroy school infrastructure. Results suggest that policy responses should prioritise girls' education in areas of chronic conflict, not only in 'fragile states' but in countries where conflict remains a subnational concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to assess and evaluate the condition of existing bridges adequately and accurately is a critical aspect of bridge maintenance and management, which involves condition assessments. Multiple hazards can affect existing bridges, making them vulnerable or risky, and any decision support concerning their management requires special attention. A rational and systematic framework for making practical decisions about the hazards present in a region and the appropriate level of risk is presented in this paper. An analytical hierarchy process (AHP) framework is proposed to rank hazards in hierarchical order based on a region's characteristics and a suitable analysis range, which provides the degree of risk that could jeopardise bridges. The proposed method can assist decision makers in selecting appropriate strategies for improving existing bridges. As a result, bridge inspection costs can be significantly reduced, maintenance and repair funds can be more effectively allocated and the safety, mobility, longevity and reliability of highway transportation assets can be improved. The approach was used in a case study of existing reinforced concrete (RC) bridges in the Barak Valley region in Assam, India. Such an approach is novel to the Indian subcontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical standards of healthcare sector are important to the lives of people because healthcare is a profession that impacts the lives of people, their families and society. Healthcare professionals are inevitably involved in ethical decision-making in their working lives and address a conflict regarding competing values such as personal, organizational, professional, and community values. India is a country in South Asia where people are diverse in ethnicity, religion, and culture. So, revealing commonly accepted ethical standards for resolving ethical conflicts for healthcare professionals becomes more relevant for India. However, the research on this issue is limited. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the link between ethical standards for healthcare professionals in general and Indian cultural values such as Dharma, Nishkama Karma and Jnana. This paper used a scoping review to screen the relevant articles which were selected from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases. The keywords used for searching the research articles were "ethical standard", "ethics", "healthcare ethics", and "Indian cultural values". Then, the constructs of healthcare ethics were identified and the relevant ethical standards for each construct were not only evaluated based on the two key theoretical viewpoints namely deontology and teleology, but also justified by Indian cultural values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The naval build-up of India in contemporary times reflects its major power ambitions. Owing to its development of advanced naval capabilities coupled with its long-standing desire to develop a blue-water navy is a major driver of this build up. These blue water ambitions stir instability in Indian Ocean Region (IOR) affecting Pakistan's threat perceptions. The most important development in the region's stability and security architecture is the addition of second-strike capacity to the sea, which carries serious consequences. Hence, it is pertinent to address the question of strategic stability regarding the development of India's sea based nuclear capabilities. This paper explores Indian naval nuclear developments and their repercussions for the security environment of South Asia. It establishes that nuclearization of Indian Ocean is leading to aggressive arms build-up in South Asia and subsequent risk of nuclear accidents, sabotage and command and control vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using India as a theory building case, this paper puts forward a theoretical framework for understanding countries' responses to global rules and implementation effects across diverse global governance regimes and contexts. The initial premise for this paper is that the strategic structure of implementation dilemmas faced by states and actors within countries need to be understood in addition to design dilemmas. Successful global regimes must not only solve cooperation and uncertainty problems at the initial stages in choosing the right institutional matrix, but also 'require changes in domestic institutions.' The need to change domestic institutions creates certain implementation dilemmas. These dilemmas are a joint product of the institutional design, specific policy issue and the domestic logic of responses after international agreements have been signed. This broader idea helps understand a wide variety of India's interactions across global governance institutions. I also suggest a novel empirical strategy of cross-institutional analysis to assess implementation dilemmas. While we have numerous cross-national studies of how compliance occurs in a wide variety of countries, we lack theory-driven, empirically grounded, comparative studies of a single country or a group of countries across diverse global regimes. Such a framework can help us better understand how countries interact with a variety of global institutions and the reciprocal effects. This framework is then used to understand India's interactions with diverse global regimes in an illustrative manner in this article, and in greater detail by other authors in the section published in this issue of Contemporary South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progress of microfinance outreach can be seen as an effective intervention mechanism to enlarge people's choice, with respect to some basic indicators of human development. The most important choices are considered to be a long and healthy life, to be educated, and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Under the circumstances, attempts have been made in this paper to examine the cross-country variations in outreach of microfinance sector and that of human development in South Asia, and to establish the empirical relationship between them. In addition, the relationship between microfinance outreach and human development across Indian states is of special interest in this paper. Substantial evidence presented in this paper cast doubt on the empirical association between microfinance outreach and human development, especially after the 'microfinance meltdown' in 2008 in South-Asian countries as a whole, and the Indian economy in particular. Therefore, microfinance is not a panacea for achieving human development, rather these semi-formal microfinance institutions can only be a means to promote financial inclusion in low financially inclusive regions which are characterised by the limited presence of formal financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The independence from the British rule was accompanied with partition of the Indian subcontinent on religious lines. Since partition in 1947, the two nation-states India and Pakistan have been hostile toward each other. Communalism has also been a major challenge in both these countries. The current study locates this continued hostility or the "enemy" narrative that the countries harbor not just of each other, but which also shapes the experience of a religious community within their territory. Limiting the inquiry to the Indian side, this paper explores the production of the "enemy" narrative through the discursive knowledge around partition and how it locates Muslims. The paper analyzes textbooks of two education boards in India and argues that the narrative excludes the contribution of Muslims in the nationalist movement, charts out an uncritical history of the demand for partition, and stigmatizes the Muslim community as "communal" and "unpatriotic." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has laid an impact on every sector of the world. Howsoever severe, vaccines have acted as the sole source of a protective guard to prevent the further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this research, the authors broadly focus on the trends in the vaccination drive of India. The paper revolves around a prediction and evaluation approach, which depending on the past and the current trends of daily vaccinations, obtain comparable results using a self-built recurrent neural network of LSTM layers for this study on time series evaluation. Through the neural network, the study predicts the exact vaccination figures likely to be achieved 1 year after vaccine introduction in the Indian subcontinent. The gathered data from January 16, 2021, until September 30, 2021, follow effective visualization of how the model outputs resemble the vaccination numbers for October 2021 and the predictions until January 16, 2022. Finally, the paper follows an extensive data analysis keeping in mind, the analogy of the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths before and after the vaccination system was centralized, to prove how sustainable the framework has been so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral cavity cancers contribute to a majority of cancers in India. Clinical examination alone cannot determine the deeper extent of the disease; therefore, need for cross-sectional imaging including computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging becomes indispensable for pre-treatment evaluation to decide optimal plan of management. Oral cavity squamous cell cancers (OSCC) can be treated with surgery alone, whereas deep muscle, neurovascular, osseous, or nodal involvement on imaging suggests advanced disease that requires a combination of surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy. Because of the complex anatomy of the oral cavity and its surrounding structures, imaging is crucial for locoregional staging and early detection of distant metastases. Imaging plays indispensable role not only in diagnosis but also in planning the management. An optimal guideline paper for developing countries like India is lacking that not only helps standardize the management but will also assist oncologists make reasonable decisions and reduce the unnecessary imaging. This imaging guideline paper will discuss the optimal imaging in diagnosis and management OSCC for Indian subcontinent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's aggressive military doctrine exploits the questionable space for a limited war under a nuclear overhang. This doctrine is designed to dilute, if not fully compromise, the notion of nuclear deterrence. Indian military high command has often boasted about waging a conventional war against Pakistan. India's unilateral decision to repeal Kashmir's special constitutional status has further exacerbated the volatility of the hitherto conflict-prone environment in South Asia. India's doctrine manifests in the offensive deployment of S-400 missile systems along Pakistan's border, further supplemented by the positioning of Dassault Rafale fighter jets. While it might temporarily alter the region's strategic stability equation, Pakistan must rebalance this shift in its strategic stability. There is a need to review the notion of strategic stability as it applies to the region's nuclear balance of power. This paper analyses India's aggressive military doctrine fuelling its desire to wage a limited conventional war against Pakistan, examines the effects of growing military asymmetry, evaluates the impact of the short but swift military action in February 2019, and finally endeavours to determine the stabilizing impact of the nuclear deterrent on South Asia's strategic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As India faced multiple waves of the pandemic, religious responses arose to accommodate and make sense of the situation. In the face of uncertainty, disease and death, people turn not just towards the medical sciences but also religion. The emergence of a new Hindu goddess, Corona Mātā/Coronavirus Mardhinī encapsulates people's fear, faith, and devotion. Although the goddess is new, the tradition of disease goddesses is ancient. The Indian Subcontinent has a long history of mother goddesses who have been protecting their devotees from diseases such as smallpox, fever, plague, etc. This paper attempts to examine the emergence of Corona Mātā in the historical context of these 'protective mothers'. On one hand, historically, these goddesses have emerged as a result of interaction between Brahmanical religion and regional practices. On the other hand, these disease-centred goddesses can also be seen as the result of fear and faith. This paper will analyse the location of Corona Mātā in the ever-evolving pantheon of Hindu deities in the context of a 21st-century pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2005, Bangladesh, India and Nepal agreed to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis (VL) as a public health problem. The approach to this was through improved case detection and treatment, and controlling transmission by the sand fly vector Phlebotomus argentipes, with indoor residual spraying (IRS) of insecticide. Initially, India applied DDT with stirrup pumps for IRS, however, this did not reduce transmission. After 2015 onwards, the pyrethroid alpha-cypermethrin was applied with compression pumps, and entomological surveillance was initiated in 2016. Methods: Eight sentinel sites were established in the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. IRS coverage was monitored by household survey, quality of insecticide application was measured by HPLC, presence and abundance of the VL vector was monitored by CDC light traps, insecticide resistance was measured with WHO diagnostic assays and case incidence was determined from the VL case register KAMIS. Results: Complete treatment of houses with IRS increased across all sites from 57% in 2016 to 70% of houses in 2019, rising to >80% if partial house IRS coverage is included (except West Bengal). The quality of insecticide application has improved compared to previous studies, average doses of insecticide on filters papers ranged from 1.52 times the target dose of 25mg/m2 alpha-cypermethrin in 2019 to 1.67 times in 2018. Resistance to DDT has continued to increase, but the vector was not resistant to carbamates, organophosphates or pyrethroids. The annual and seasonal abundance of P. argentipes declined between 2016 to 2019 with an overall infection rate of 0.03%. This was associated with a decline in VL incidence for the blocks represented by the sentinel sites from 1.16 per 10,000 population in 2016 to 0.51 per 10,000 in 2019. Conclusion: Through effective case detection and management reducing the infection reservoirs for P. argentipes in the human population combined with IRS keeping P. argentipes abundance and infectivity low has reduced VL transmission. This combination of effective case management and vector control has now brought India within reach of the VL elimination targets. Author summary: Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL), also known as kala-azar, is a major parasitic disease in South Asia (Indian subcontinent), with 85% of the disease incidence in India. Historically VL had been controlled and almost eliminated with Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) using dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). However, reinitiating this approach in 2015 failed due to high insecticide resistance in the sand fly vector and poor IRS quality, meaning that VL elimination targets were not met. To improve this the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme changed to an effective insecticide, alpha-cypermethrin and altered the mode of application to compression pumps. Sentinel sites were established to monitor the entomological indicators, these showed the positive impact of these changes from 2016 to 2019. During this period the overall incidence of disease has decreased, and India is now on track to reach it's target incidence for VL of less than 1/1000 people at the sub-district (block) level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Empirically, the official measurement of multidimensional poverty often shows children as the poorest age group. According to Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report, Africa and South Asia bear the highest burden multidimensional child poverty (MCP). Around one-third of children aged 0–4 are multidimensionally poor in India. Policymakers in India must have appropriate information on child poverty to alleviate poverty. The purpose of this paper is to examine MCP trends and track efforts to reduce child poverty at the national level across geographic regions, castes, and religious groups. Methods: We used the Alkire-Foster method to calculate the MCP index (MCPI) among children aged 0–4 using the latest two rounds of National Family Health Survey data (2015–16 and 2019–21). We applied the Shapley decomposition method to analyse the marginal contribution of incidence and intensity that lead to changes in MCPI. Results: In India, the incidence of child poverty reduced by more than 40% between 2015–16 and 2019–21 (46.6–27.4%) and the MCPI reduced by half (24.2–12.6%). The relative decline in MCPI has been largest for urban areas, northern regions, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Hindus. Children from rural areas, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Muslim households are the poor performers. When focusing exclusively on the poor child, we found all the population subgroups and geographic locations reduced the censored headcount ratios in all 14 indicators. Across places of residence, castes, religions, and regions the, indicators like electricity, birth registration, drinking water, assisted delivery, sanitation and cooking fuel made significant improvements between 2015–16 to 2019–21. Conclusion: The study indicates that by studying the MCPI over time, one can identify the priorities in policy development to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After becoming the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi made many efforts to consolidate his dominance in South Asia and expand India's influence in the Indian Ocean. The "neighborhood first policy" was highlighted in India's foreign policy. Based on historical and logical research methods and studies in international relations, the paper aims to examine the implementation of "neighborhood first policy" through bilateral relations between India and its neighboring countries. These relationships have been facing challenges from the more profound influence and interference of China as well as frequent terrorist incidents due to border disputes, which threatened regional security. Although this policy connected India with its neighboring South Asian countries, there were still challenges. It can be seen that the "neighborhood first policy" was Prime Minister Modi's effort to nurture bilateral relationships, enhance regional connectivity, and strengthen and elevate India's position in the region. The progress of the "Neighborhood First" policy is expected to continue more successfully in the next phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Centella asiatica is well known for its miraculous therapeutic properties in various systems of traditional medicine across the world. However, significant variation in its pharmacological activities has been reported due to the unavailability of quality raw material and non-standardized formulations. A number of research papers have been published on the collection of C. asiatica plants from different regions for the identification of a suitable agroclimate with elite germplasms. Efforts have been made to standardize production and post-harvest practices for the availability of quality raw material with a high centelloside content. The ecological niche modeling approach revealed that the Indian subcontinent has high climatic suitability for the production of C. asiatica, and genotypes with a high content of centelloside were predominantly found in the Western Ghats, North East, Eastern Himalaya and Western Himalaya in India. Open cultivation of C. asiatica is more suitable in these agroclimatic zones in India. Cultivation under shade is also suitable in the plains of Central India. Hydroponic and tissue culture of C. asiatica has also been successfully established for the enhanced production of centelloside using supplements and elicitors such as sucrose, auxins, cytokinins, kinetin, methyl jasmonate, etc. Freeze drying has been identified as the most efficient post-harvest method for the high pharmacological activities of C. asiatica extracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diabetes control is poor globally and leads to burdensome microvascular and macrovascular complications. We aimed to assess post hoc between-group differences in sustained risk factor control and macrovascular and microvascular endpoints at 6.5 years in the Center for cArdiovascular Risk Reduction in South Asia (CARRS) randomized trial. Methods and findings: This parallel group individual randomized clinical trial was performed at 10 outpatient diabetes clinics in India and Pakistan from January 2011 through September 2019. A total of 1,146 patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes (HbA1c ≥8% and systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg and/or LDL-cholesterol ≥130 mg/dl) were randomized to a multicomponent quality improvement (QI) strategy (trained nonphysician care coordinator to facilitate care for patients and clinical decision support system for physicians) or usual care. At 2.5 years, compared to usual care, those receiving the QI strategy were significantly more likely to achieve multiple risk factor control. Six clinics continued, while 4 clinics discontinued implementing the QI strategy for an additional 4-year follow-up (overall median 6.5 years follow-up). In this post hoc analysis, using intention-to-treat, we examined between-group differences in multiple risk factor control (HbA1c <7% plus systolic BP <130 mm Hg and/or LDL-cholesterol <100 mg/dl) and first macrovascular endpoints (nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, death, revascularization [angioplasty or coronary artery bypass graft]), which were coprimary outcomes. We also examined secondary outcomes, namely, single risk factor control, first microvascular endpoints (retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy), and composite first macrovascular plus microvascular events (which also included amputation and all-cause mortality) by treatment group and whether QI strategy implementation was continued over 6.5 years. At 6.5 years, assessment data were available for 854 participants (74.5%; n = 417 [intervention]; n = 437 [usual care]). In terms of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, participants in the intervention and usual care groups were similar and participants at sites that continued were no different to participants at sites that discontinued intervention implementation. Patients in the intervention arm were more likely to exhibit sustained multiple risk factor control than usual care (relative risk: 1.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.45, 2.20), p < 0.001. Cumulatively, there were 233 (40.5%) first microvascular and macrovascular events in intervention and 274 (48.0%) in usual care patients (absolute risk reduction: 7.5% [95% CI: −13.2, −1.7], p = 0.01; hazard ratio [HR] = 0.72 [95% CI: 0.61, 0.86]), p < 0.001. Patients in the intervention arm experienced lower incidence of first microvascular endpoints (HR = 0.68 [95% CI: 0.56, 0.83), p < 0.001, but there was no evidence of between-group differences in first macrovascular events. Beneficial effects on microvascular and composite vascular outcomes were observed in sites that continued, but not sites that discontinued the intervention. Conclusions: In urban South Asian clinics, a multicomponent QI strategy led to sustained multiple risk factor control and between-group differences in microvascular, but not macrovascular, endpoints. Between-group reductions in vascular outcomes at 6.5 years were observed only at sites that continued the QI intervention, suggesting that practice change needs to be maintained for better population health of people with diabetes. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.govNCT01212328. Nikhil Tandon and colleagues explore the impact of a quality improvement strategy for patients with type 2 diabetes 6.5 years after its implementation for the CARRS randomised trial. Author summary: Why was this study done?: Data on whether improvements in diabetes care goal achievement can be sustained (>5 years) with quality improvement (QI) strategies are lacking from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Prior studies of QI strategies to improve care goal achievement among people with diabetes from high-income countries reported modest benefits in blood glucose, blood pressure, and lipids, but the effects of these improvements on reducing vascular complications and deaths related to diabetes are unknown. What did the researchers do and find?: In the Center for cArdiovascular Risk Reduction in South Asia (CARRS) randomised trial of 1,146 patients with type 2 diabetes attending 10 diverse diabetes clinics in India and Pakistan, the QI strategy was associated with benefits on diabetes care goals (HbA1c <7% plus systolic BP <130 mm Hg and/or LDL-cholesterol <100 mg/dl) at 2.5 years after randomization. Four clinics discontinued implementation, while 6 clinics continued to implement the QI strategy for an additional 4 years. This report assesses whether benefits were sustained and reduced vascular complications and deaths associated with diabetes at 6.5 years. Patients receiving the QI strategy, compared to those receiving usual care, experienced sustained benefits on diabetes care goals and less microvascular endpoints (eye, kidney, and nerve diseases) at 6.5 years after randomization. Total macrovascular and microvascular events were also lower in those receiving the QI strategy, and this was only observed at sites that continued implementation of the QI strategy for 6.5 years. What do these findings mean?: These findings add to our knowledge of the long-term effects of multicomponent QI strategies in sustaining multiple risk factor control and reducing combined vascular events compared to usual care in resource-limited settings. In view of these findings, clinical decision support and trained nonphysician health workers may be important QI strategies to consider integrating into India's healthcare system to improve diabetes care quality and reduce morbidity and mortality. One limitation of the study is that the tertiary care facilities included in the CARRS trial may not be generalizable across LMICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Handwritten script recognition is a vital application of the machine-learning domain. Applications like automatic license plate detection, pin-code detection, and historical document management increases attention toward handwritten script recognition. English is the most widely spoken language in India; hence, there has been a lot of research into identifying a script using a machine. Devanagari is a popular script that is used by a large number of people on the Indian subcontinent. In this paper, a level-wised efficient transfer-learning approach is presented on the VGG16 model of a convolutional neural network (CNN) for identifying isolated Devanagari handwritten characters. In this work, a new dataset of Devanagari characters is presented and made accessible to the public. This newly created dataset is comprised of 5800 samples for 12 vowels, 36 consonants, and 10 digits. Initially, a simple CNN is implemented and trained on this new small dataset. During the next stage, a transferlearning approach is implemented on the VGG16 model, and during the last stage, the efficient fine-tuned VGG16 model is implemented. The obtained accuracy of the fine-tuned model's training and testing came to 98.16 and 96.47%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the growing importance of age old cultural and mythological tourism with many other related distinctive niches, the purpose of this paper is to contextualize the impacts of Shakti Peetham on such tourism practices in South Asia. This mythological context of Shakti Peetham has several importance in age old cultural tourism to contemporaneous sustainable pilgrimages with issues associated with many niches such as dark tourism, animal sacrifice and typical Tantric rituals in Hinduism etc. This paper discusses about the concentration of those places in and to the Eastern India of South Asia and focusing on upcoming mythological tourism, dark and tantra tourism potentialities with a circuit development approach through Vehicle Routing System (VRS) for sustainable pilgrimage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, China has rapidly increased its influence throughout the South Asian region, using both its hard and soft power tactics. China has succeeded in eclipsing India's influence and emerged as an important player in the region. China is making inroads in South Asia by making huge investments and constructing roads, highways, railways, sea ports, bridges, power grids, dams, and public buildings. China is pursuing a foreign policy that aims to advance its strategic and economic interests while trying to imbalance India's predominant position and contain India within the boundaries of South Asia. This is to prevent the rise of a peer competitor that can challenge or hinder the rise of China as a sole Asian power. This paper argues that the geostrategic situation of South Asian countries is such that they pose threats to India's security by aligning with the extra-regional powers. Hence, China's expanding strategic and security ties with South Asian countries have wider implications for India's security due to the complex and sensitive nature of its relationship with China. The theoretical approach of Power Transition Theory has been utilized to analyze the Sino-India power rivalry and China's growing threat to India's security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to illustrate the relevance and importance of integrated deterrence in one of the most unpredictable regions of the world where India and Pakistan, have inched closer to crossing the nuclear threshold amid crises. Conventional asymmetry, offensive doctrines and the changing character of war impact South Asia's strategic stability. India’s existing doctrinal thinking, technological developments in the military domain and its temptation for a pre-emptive military strike demands a corresponding review of Pakistan’s doctrinal thinking. In this regard, Pakistan's shift towards integrating nuclear and conventional forces, effective diplomacy, and a quest for strong economy are integral for eradicating the probability of limited war in the region. The future of South Asian strategic stability lies in the practical implementation and adaptation of integrated deterrence by Pakistan into its doctrinal thinking and force posture, as this policy shift will help Pakistan develop a more cohesive, robust, and effective conventional response against offensive Indian military posturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic resistance in rice through native traits is an important tactic to manage Brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens Staal (Homoptera: Delphacidae) which is one of the most dreaded pests in the farmer's field causing serious crop losses. Many sources of resistance, both from cultivated and wild accessions, are known with almost 36 resistance genes mapped to different chromosomes through phenotypic and genotypic selections. A majority of resistance genes identified are effective for BPH biotypes prevailing in Southeast Asia and China. For South Asia, very few BPH resistance genes are effective but without their utilization for the development of commercial hybrids and varieties. A new source of resistance HSPP 6417 has been identified in the present paper, which displayed resistance to 11 populations of BPH collected from different rice ecologies of India. The new source HSPP 6417 had an adverse effect on the population dynamics of BPH by inhibiting the population build-up on the plants. The resistance of HSPP 6417 was equivalent to the only source of resistance in India, G7253 used to develop a commercial rice hybrid AZ8433 DT. On crossing HSPP 6417 with other prolific restorer lines of the commercial hybrids, the major genes were found to control its modes of inheritance. Field trials with F4 generation revealed that resistance was stable with good agronomic performance under infestations. The implications of using such a source of resistance for developing BPH resistant hybrids are discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater governance has become an intractable policy issue, which has many implications for the living standards and well-being of millions of rural poor in South Asia. Groundwater governance is complex as it is influenced by various hydrogeological, sociopolitical and socioeconomic factors. Unregulated groundwater extraction rates in South Asia have depleted the aquifers causing a raft of socioeconomic, environmental and human health problems. This paper analyzes de facto rights in groundwater markets and other emerging 'groundwater-sharing institutional arrangements' in India. Using a multi-dimensional property rights model, the paper decomposes de facto groundwater rights while drawing insights and broad policy lessons. The findings indicate that there is much scope for enhancing the 'small group groundwater sharing' governed by social regulatory measures. Moreover, distortionary subsidies for agriculture in general and groundwater development, in particular, have had an adverse impact of the resource use and merit further attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As India and Pakistan embark on developing more warheads, they will require more sophisticated delivery systems to the assigned targets. Since nuclear weapons tests in May 1998 just twenty-four years ago, the South Asian strategic environment has significantly changed. Both India and Pakistan strive for successful completion of their triad deterrent forces with all ranges of delivery systems. This paper explores the changing deterrent force patterns in South Asia and conceptualizes competing counterforce strategies in order to find out how such strategies raise the prospects of serious conflicts between India and Pakistan in general and challenge the South Asian deterrence stability in particular. To this end, the paper concludes that if India and Pakistan convert most of their deterrent nuclear forces while being ready to be deployed for action, the prospects for miscalculation and inadvertence get higher. However, if these South Asian nuclear rivals largely practice nuclear restraint, non-weaponized deterrence, and prevent a bigger Cold War type arms race through the establishment of some form of strategic restraint regime, then the possibility of nuclear conflict gets lower and serious conflicts in turn could likely be prevented in South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coastal population of Indian subcontinent experience a variety of coastal hazards, of which cyclone is the most destructive one. The paper analyses the vulnerability level of the east coastal districts of Bay of Bengal stretching for 1400 km by adopting an innovative approach to estimate vulnerability index through hazard exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability measures. Findings reveal that northern districts located close to the apex of Bay of Bengal are more vulnerable to coastal cyclones as compared to the southern part. Districts with a higher degree of coastal vulnerability experience markedly higher neonatal and under-5 mortality. Prevalence of diarrhoea among children, unimproved sanitation facility and unimproved sources of drinking water are revealingly associated with more neonatal and under-5 mortality across coastal districts. Women, children, elderly and the agrarian population are more sensitive to the cyclone. Lack of infrastructure, education and poor health care system hinder adaptive capacity. The study propagates strong disaster planning and improvement of basic facilities, especially immunization coverages of the vulnerable districts of east coast in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) are traditionally believed to provide assured second-strike capability and stabilize deterrence. This paper contests this classical assumption in South Asia's context and argues that SSBN capability to become secure and credible deterrent depends upon doctrinal issues, command and communication systems, and operational readiness of SSBN force. In a dyad, if both countries have invulnerable second strike capability, there is less incentive to strike first. Whereas invulnerability of one country incentivizes first strike. In South Asian strategic situation, an assured sea-based second-strike capability may contribute to India's aggressive nuclear posture. This paper evaluates New Delhi's induction of SSBNs in light of its stated notion of minimalism, as declared in its nuclear doctrine, and discusses in the context of traditional stability theory associated with the development of SSBN force. This paper primarily considers deterrence stability and crisis stability as two dependent variables to study how India's sea-based nuclear capability affects strategic stability in South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States support transnational insurgents in an important variety of ways, from highly public efforts to transform the status quo to covert backing with limited ambitions. In this paper, we introduce a new theory to help explain variation in these strategies of external support. We argue that the offensive or defensive goals of state sponsors interact with their fears of escalation to shape how they support armed groups. Four strategies of state sponsorship emerge from different combinations of sponsor goals and escalation fears. We empirically investigate this argument with a unique medium- N study of Indian support and nonsupport for insurgents in South Asia. Based on fieldwork, primary sources, and specialized secondary literature, we uncover a rich landscape of links between India and armed groups in its neighborhood. We show a systematic connection between the strategies of support that India chooses with its aims in supporting rebels and its fears of escalation from doing so. However, there are mispredictions between our theory and empirical reality that we use in the conclusion to suggest new directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the intersections of memorialization practices and politics throughout a period of emergent social differentiation during the Neolithic and Iron Age periods in the Deccan region of southern India. Rather than focus on how mortuary architecture and grave assemblages might correlate with the status, rank, or class of the deceased individuals—as has often been suggested—we place emphasis on how mortuary practices and the production of megalithic places contributed to the establishment and maintenance of social collectives among living communities. More specifically, we identify at least two modes of political practice associated with megalithic production in prehistoric South India: one related to the constitution of collectives of labor and shared consumption activities involved in the process of making monuments; and a second related to the material legacy of monuments in constituting cultural and historical places of social affiliation. In making these arguments about the social significance of megalithic places, we also critically consider new materialist and posthumanist theoretical frameworks in archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of South Asia have long known of praśastis, eulogistic verses often composed in the transregional Sanskrit language on copperplates, stone slabs, and temple walls, from the early centuries of the Common Era. They have traditionally sieved these documents to recover dynastic histories and have supposed that as a genre, it faded away in the second millennium CE when Islamic polities were established across the subcontinent and new genres of history writing were popularized. In making this supposition they have overlooked the fact that praśastis continued to be frequently composed and written. Yet, their appearance was neither in public spaces nor in public documents, but frequently at the ends of palm-leaf and paper manuscripts. In this paper, I carefully analyze a corpus of hitherto un-translated praśastis and other scribal remarks written at the end of oft illustrated sumptuous Jaina manuscripts prepared between c. 1000 – 1600 in western India. This was a period during which manuscript culture and literary production burgeoned in the region. Through my close reading of these genealogical micro histories, I shed new light on the emergence of new power elites, literati associations, centers of manuscript production, the rise of professional authors and scribes, and formation of kinship. I also consider the aesthetics and poetics of patronage in the region and ask why patrons in the early centuries of the second millennium CE sought to legitimize their family histories using an archaic genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-9/11 dynamic global political developments and the growing Indo-US strategic partnership has compelled Pakistan to seek strategic partnership with China and geared at maintaining the balance of power in South Asia. India is maximising its resources under the umbrella of Indo-US strategic partnership and working with the US on various sectors such as security, defence and energy to pursue its aspirations to be a regionally dominant power and to possess a blue water navy. Pakistan unaided and alone cannot counterbalance India's regional ambitions. Thus, Pakistan with China established a strategic partnership to counter India's hegemonic ambitions in the South Asian region. This paper will raise some questions about the latest contours of this partnership. Prime amongst them is: what kind of role is this partnership playing in South Asia? The paper argues that a China-Pakistan strategic partnership built around the development of Gwadar Port and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is playing the role of a balancer against India's regional ambitions in South Asia. India has some serious security concerns about these mega development projects apprehending their geostrategic importance not only for both countries but also for the entire region. A neo-realist theoretical approach is used to describe both countries 'strategic partnership' in this paper. The paper further argues that India's claim that the corridor route passes through the disputed territory of Northern Pakistan will not stop China and Pakistan from continuing the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indus River is one of the largest river basins in the world and is a lifeline for regional economies. Owing to its essential economic value and potential, the sharing of Indus river water remained a chronic source of disputes between its users for decade. In 1947 after the partition of British India was the prelude for the water dispute between newly created India and Pakistan. It was finally mediated by the World Bank through the instrument of Indus Water Treaty in 1960. The enactment of the Indus Water Treaty brought peace and benefited two countries to expand their agriculture around areas of Indus River system. The paper analyzes the key issues and conciliation process, which led to the successful Treaty, its understanding, development in economies and political atmosphere the two countries. The paper also attempts to highlight the new issues and claims put forward by the shareholders of Indus Rivers system, which is the cause of new areas of concern. Lastly, the paper suggests ideas for resolving the dispute and relations viz-a-viz water in the light of past experience, knowledge and successful history of Indus Water Treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In all global challenges such as climate change, pandemic, nuclear proliferation etc, scientific and technological cooperation is playing a vital role in addressing these multilateral problems. Recent years have witnessed the formidable presence of science, technology and innovation in international relations. In pursuant to this, Science Diplomacy is gaining remarkable attention in international relations and solving global problems. The EIR Of orum in European Union, e-ASIA JRP in South East Asia, African Scientific Institute in Africa and the Arctic Council in the Arctic region have promoted science diplomacy among the member countries while addressing the emerging global challenges. However, these efforts of scientific diplomacy and a comprehensive multilateral mechanism is a distant reality in South Asia. Despite the incongruities, India has taken up several steps - from launching the SAARC satellite to facilitating COVID Vaccine - to promote its science diplomacy in recent years. With the increasing GDP, India's R&D budget took a parallel upsurge from mere Rs. 5000 crore in 1995-96 to Rs. 1, 23,847.71 crore in 2018-19. However, its engagement in south asia raises more skepticism and denouncement. In this context, the present paper intended to analyse the evolution, nature and extent of science diplomacy in South Asia. Further, the paper aims to highlight India's science diplomacy programme in South Asia given its unique political settings and geostrategic implication in shaping South Asian cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the underground cistern in South Asia, through Western India, offers a fascinating case study of knowledge migration and technological transfers between West and South Asia. It addresses the question of past hydraulic technologies used in the Western Indian cities and the modalities of a fundamental shift in the relationship to water during the 16th century. The present paper is based on my surveys and architectural studies of underground cisterns (tānkā) in Ahmedabad, urbs prima of Gujarat from 1411 onwards. It describes the tānkā system and its archaeological characteristics, with a special focus on the early reservoir of the Shāh Vajihudin Alvi khānqāh. This study, compared with evidences in other urban centres of Western India, brings to light the emergence of underground cisterns in the urban context from the late 16th century onwards. It also shows the pioneering role played by the large cistern built in the Shāh Vajihudin Alvi khānqāh. Beyond this archaeological work, the paper discusses the causes of this radical technological change, and addresses the issue of cultural and religious continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'indigeneity' and 'ethnicity' are often used interchangeably. Both tend to represent a group of people, who claim common identity based on the basis of shared experiences of marginalization, oppression and exclusion. They also tend to represent people or communities engaged in varying degrees of self-assertion, power struggle and demand for autonomy or independence. However, some ethnic minority communities in India who already enjoy a distinct ethnic identity, autonomy and rights over resources go on to claim indigeneity. Why would recognized ethnic minorities feel the need to be identified as indigenous people? What is the difference in their claim as ethnic minorities and indigenous communities? This paper closely examines the categories 'indigenous people' and 'ethnic minority'. Using case studies from South Asia, in particular Northeast India, it explores the context in which such claims are made. Finally, it argues that although these terms share conceptual similarities their usage in practice makes them distinct entities for community and individual agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the presence of market discipline in the banking sectors of India and Pakistan, using the CAMEL approach and the stringent calculations of liquidity and capital as per Basel II. It employs a fixed effects model to market discipline as reflected in the capital adequacy, asset quality profitability, management and liquidity of banks, with bank size and changes and GDP as control variables, for the years 2008 to 2017. The results show varying degrees of market discipline in both India and Pakistan, which manifest through different variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyzes the welfare implications of the unequal distribution of wealth amongst the social and religious groups by studying the segregation of these groups across different occupations. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use measures suggested by Alonso-Villar and Río (2017) and del Río and Alonso-Villar (2018) to compute the well-being of social groups (based on caste system prevalent in the Indian subcontinent) and religious groups due to their segregation across different regions (urban and rural) and occupations and social welfare loss of the society due to the segregation. Here social groups comprise of ST: Scheduled Tribe, SC: Scheduled Caste, OBC: Other Backward Caste and Others: other remaining castes; while, religious groups comprise of followers of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and other religious groups. Findings: The result shows that SC and ST groups are worse; while, the "others" group is better off due to the segregation of social groups across both regions and occupation. Similarly, in the case of religious groups, the analysis reveals that followers of Christianity are better off due to the segregation across region and occupation. It further shows that followers of Hinduism are negatively impacted while followers of Islam and other religious groups were better off due to the segregation across the regions. Originality/value: Various researchers have studied the wealth inequality and unequal distribution in India over the years but did not dive further into the welfare implications of segregation of social and religious groups from wealth perspectives in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of disaster politics debate how far natural hazards cause or catalyse political change. This paper builds on recent scholarship on tipping points and social contracts to argue that two case studies of historical earthquakes in 1930s British‐colonised India invite a focus on the dynamics of cooperation and conflict between state and non‐state actors. Officials of the colonial state and its nationalist rivals cooperated after one earthquake even though they otherwise bitterly opposed each other. Cooperation broke down after the second event, just one year later. Yet, in both cases, officials and nationalist leaders shared a broad vision for Indian society, which pushed both sides actively to seek to recover the social and economic status quo ante, preventing potential tipping points from crystallising. These case studies reveal how and why highly fraught social contracts can survive major disasters. The colonial state's transient and reactive approach to disaster governance continued to impact on post‐independence India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION People with severe mental illness (SMI) tend to die early due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, which may be linked to tobacco use. There is limited information on tobacco use in people with SMI in low- and middle-income countries where most tobacco users reside. We present novel data on tobacco use in people with SMI and their access to tobacco cessation advice in South Asia. METHODS We conducted a multi-country survey of adults with SMI attending mental health facilities in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Using data collected with a standardized WHO STEPS survey tool, we estimated the prevalence and distribution of tobacco use and assessed receipt of tobacco cessation advice. RESULTS We recruited 3874 participants with SMI; 46.8% and 15.0% of men and women consumed tobacco, respectively. Smoking prevalence in men varied by country (Bangladesh 42.8%, India 20.1% and Pakistan 31.7%); <4% of women reported smoking in each country. Smokeless tobacco use in men also varied by country (Bangladesh 16.2%, India 18.2% and Pakistan 40.8%); for women, it was higher in Bangladesh (19.1%), but similar in India (9.9%) and Pakistan (9.1%). Just over a third of tobacco users (38.4%) had received advice to quit tobacco. Among smokers, 29.1% (n=244) made at least one quit attempt in the past year. There was strong evidence for the association between tobacco use and the severity of depression (OR=1.29; 95% CI: 1.12-1.48) and anxiety (OR=1.29; 95% CI: 1.12-1.49). CONCLUSIONS As observed in high-income countries, we found higher tobacco use in people with SMI, particularly in men compared with rates reported for the general population in South Asia. Tobacco cessation support within mental health services offers an opportunity to close the gap in life expectancy between SMI and the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the social fever of MBBS (undergraduate medical) aspiration in India. It analyzes interviews conducted with 139 pharmacy graduates and 37 currently enrolled students in the western Indian state of Gujarat, of whom 147 pursued but failed to get admission to medical college. Respondents include graduates from the 1970s onwards. 51% are female. 28 respondents are from Socially and Educationally Backward Classes, 9 from the Scheduled Castes, and 13 from the Scheduled Tribes. The methodological foregrounding of failed aspirations gives a unique perspective on the cultural production of merit, which activates aspiration across social differences. The analysis suggests that institutional structures which narrowed the meaning of merit to programs located outside the university system; local interpretations of medical-engineering study as more valuable than that of the basic sciences, humanities, or social sciences; collective imaginations of meritorious students as necessarily pursuing MBBS study; and the enactment of pedagogic care within these cultural imaginaries produced widespread aspirations for high school science and subsequent medical-engineering study. Within this overdetermined world, respondents narrated their selves in diverse ways. The terrain of aspiration included substantive, ambivalent, and even hostile affects. Meanwhile, non-elites who did not pursue MBBS posit aspirational marginality as an effect of social marginalization. Unlike in the US or UK contexts, where researchers lament the paucity of science aspiration and consider family science capital to be a key determinant of student interest in science, in India, the strict limiting of academic value to medical-engineering has massified science aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cinema is one of the important popular medium of communications in the modern world and India becomes one of the leading cinema producing countries in it. India used to make an average of nearly one thousand films every year. The rich diversified regional, linguistic and cultural variations of the Indian subcontinent lead to the different cinema industries within the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil cinema industry is one among them that is popularly known as Kollywood. Tamil cinema has always functioned as a medium of political communication and reflected the political scenario of the respective periods. It represents an ideological discourse through their cinemas, wherever the technicians dominated the screen. The content of Tamil cinema changed its discourse from time to time. It depends on the political climate of Indian society, especially Tamil society. In this context, this particular paper will trace and discuss the evolution of thematic contents/trends of the Tamil cinemas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I propose a different classificatory lens to analyse the collective action of civil rights groups in India. To date, this collective action has been variously classified as 'non-party groups,' 'macro initiatives' for grassroots groups, 'action groups or support groups,' as part of an emergent new left citizen's initiatives, but mostly as a 'social movement' or 'human rights movement.' These differences in classification are not due to a considered disagreement; but because this activism is acutely understudied. Examining the history of such groups and the activist interviews I conducted, I argue for a re-classification of civil rights activism as ally activism i.e. they are allies of several, rather than a party to any particular social movement. Ally activism needs to be understood on its own terms to reveal their role in democratic deepening within South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is a multi-religious and multiethnic society, the rise of Hindutva in the country's politics has polarised it in an unprecedented way. The state's inclination towards Hindutva is evident from the plight of Indian Muslims, who constitute one of the largest minority communities anywhere in the world. In today's globalised world, analysing Muslim minority's socioeconomic conditions is imperative especially in the context of the United Nations Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals. This paper primarily examines the post-globalisation socio-economic and political status of the Muslim minority in India. The study focuses on the changing social and political dynamic of Indian society and repercussions for Muslims under the BJP's government. The findings bring forward an alarming situation by highlighting that Muslims minority in India is systematically deprived and by implication, lagging behind vis-à-vis other communities in a state that claims to abide by liberal, secular and democratic norms. Economic and political deprivation, communal riots, prevailing illiteracy, poor health and social conditions are the main characteristics of the Muslim community of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assists in understanding contesting technological capabilities and doctrinal modification between India and Pakistan that are drifting South Asia towards instability, leaving the nuclear deterrence in a dark abyss. Hawks on both sides of the nuclear armed rivals are unprecedentedly chanting threats of nuclear war. More bothersome is the indications of shifting the Indian policy of No First Use (NFU), calls for doctrinal modifications and counterforce temptations. An Indian quest for escalation dominance and Pakistani quest for stability against India is in fact a mutual struggle beyond 'minimum credible' to 'assured second strike' capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersectionality of various analytical issues related to the trafficking of women from India, South Asia, to the United States. Addressing the oppressive pathways and their intersectionality, this conceptual framework provides a deeper understanding of the interrelationships of nationality, gender, ethnicity, religion, class, caste, immigration process, immigration status, social support in the United States, and language barriers that influence migrating women's vulnerability to human trafficking in the process of immigration from India, South Asia, to the United States. The primary purpose of this paper is to advocate for a binary perspective of intersectionality in conducting research in international human trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued by policymakers and practitioners that instability in South Asia has exacerbated since Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) coming into power in India. Its policymaking is impacted by the influence of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). BJP is known as the political brand-name of RSS. There is a perceptible increase in RSS expansion and dominance of Hindutva ideology in domestic, foreign, and security policies of India. RSS is following the grand policy of greater India with the establishment of Hindu hegemony in India and Hindustan's (India's) hegemony in South Asia. Empirical evidence suggests that a well-choreographed use of communal violence and Pakistanbashing have been employed by BJP for the attainment of its objectives. BJP's revoking of Articles 370 and 35-A to forcibly absorb Indian Occupied Kashmir and enactment of Citizen Amendment Act are the most recent manifestation of RSS long-term design. Following the mixed research method, this paper will be developed around the central argument that the rise of RSS influence on Indian policymaking has impacted its domestic and external policies which bear implications for South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]