REMAKING SOUTH ASIA : MAJOR TRENDS AND IMPERATIVES

This article maps the structural shifts reshaping South Asia in the early 1990s. It highlights economic liberalization, demographic momentum, urbanization and technological diffusion as long-wave forces that interact with enduring security rivalries. The analysis argues that trade and connectivity can generate positive-sum gains, yet unresolved disputes, water-sharing stresses and cross-border insurgencies impose coordination costs. It surveys policy experiments in tariff rationalization, exchange-rate reforms and private investment regimes, and shows how these moves altered comparative advantage and regional value chains. A parallel section examines institution-building, with SAARC’s incrementalism contrasted against functional cooperation in energy, public health and disaster management. The article concludes that remaking South Asia requires credible commitments to openness, conflict management mechanisms and social compacts that distribute reform dividends broadly enough to sustain political support.

The body first develops an economic baseline: fiscal consolidation efforts, inflation control and the gradual shift from import substitution to export orientation. Case vignettes illustrate port modernization, telecom deregulation and fertilizer market reforms that increased productivity. A second section explores human capital—primary education, maternal health and skills—arguing that demographic dividends materialize only with sustained investment and female labor-force participation. The security section addresses nuclear opacity, border skirmishes and maritime competition, assessing confidence-building measures and hotlines. Environmental interdependence is treated through river-basin governance and monsoon variability, linking hydropolitics to agricultural resilience. The governance discussion emphasizes corruption control, local government empowerment and judicial capacity as preconditions for credible regional deals. The conclusion sets out practical imperatives: harmonize standards, digitize customs, expand cross-border power trade, and embed dispute-settlement norms. Together these steps can lower transaction costs and unlock inclusive growth while dampening security externalities.