SAARC has had the thankless task of bringing together countries that are quite disparate in size, economic scale and geopolitical clout, and to give them a sense unity and direction.
They had gathered on 2 April to announce to the press the formation of a new grouping for regional cooperation. But their dilemma was that they did not want to
The success or failure of SAARC in advancing regional cooperation is dependent upon the inescapable fact that it is an inter-governmental organization. Even within the areas of cooperation that have
South Asian governments should lift trade barriers, get out of the way, and let markets grow smoothly.
Despite the dangers of generalisation, it is fair to assert that most countries
India and Pakistan together boast a market of more than a billion consumers, but their trade relations have always been overshadowed by political tension. Overt and legitimate trade between the
The basic premise on which SAARC was founded is clearly showing signs of validation. While shaping the SAARC initiative during the early 1980s, it was assumed that by activating cooperative
Small nations are generally afraid of big ones, but there are occasions when the big begin to take note of the small and even develop apprehensions about them. In the
Sri Lanka's economy in 1996 was pounded by soaring defence spending, power cuts and political unrest. Why, then, are the planners bullish about the coming year.
Planners in
With improved bilateral relations and some positive trends in commerce between the two countries, Sri Lanka and India together might just show the way to the brave new world of
Conscious of strong employee resistance to privatisation of state-owned commercial enterprises, Sri Lanka´s former United National Party (UNP) government thought of an imaginative way to sugar coat the pill—
Living with a Bane
Regular parliamentary elections based on universal adult franchise have been a constant feature of independent Sri Lanka, continued from the inauguration in 1931 of the Donoughmore
Forty-five minutes on a flight out of Madras, the southern tip of India comes into view below the right wing. On the other side, a yellow sliver of land snakes
