Bangladesh: Dozens of children killed in protests – Unicef

By:
On:
In: Asia
Getty Images Protesters hold placards during the demonstration outside the High Court building demanding justice for the victims arrested and killed in the recent countrywide violenceGetty Images

At least 32 children have died during scholar protests that engulfed Bangladesh last month, the UN’s children’s company has said.

According to a Unicef director, the youngest child who died was still in his fifth year of birth, adding that the majority of the victims were spectators.

According to statistics provided by BBC Bangla, they were one of more than 200 individuals who were killed in civil service demonstrations against work restrictions.

The quota system has now been scaled back by the government following a Supreme Court ruling, but students have continued protesting – now demanding justice for those who died or have been injured or detained.

The state is struggling to contain the rising tide of rage over how it first handled the demonstrations, despite the smaller scale of the protests.

Why are our boys buried in the murders ‘ yards and the murders hiding out? asked a group which had gathered outside the largest dome in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, following Friday prayer, according to the AFP news agency.

According to Reuters news organization, safety makes responded to the tens of thousands of people strewn with rubber bullets and tear gas. It reported that at least 20 people were injured.

Unicef’s regional director for southern Asia, Sanjay Wijesekera, acknowledged that he had been informed of information of children being detained while on a trip to Bangladesh this year.

He continued, claiming that the organization had declared” a horrible reduction” of the 32 deaths.

One child under five and one infant between six and twelve were among the most fatalities, according to a UN agency spokesperson.

” Kids must be protected at all times”, Mr Wijesekera said. ” That is one’s duty”.

Mohammad Ali Arafat, the government’s young information minister, responded that there is no data on the death toll from Unicef.

” We do n’t know where they] Unicef ] got the numbers from”, he told the BBC, adding:” Our position is clear: Whoever has been killed, we are going to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book”.

According to specialists who spoke to the BBC, many of the dead and injured suffered gunshot wounds as a result of security forces ‘ use of excessive force to halt the first protests.

However, the government has attributed the unrest to political critics, who have claimed a number of police officers were killed as well.

On Thursday, it banned the government’s major Islamist gathering- Jamaat-e-Islami and its student aircraft, Islami Chhatra Shibir- which it claimed was behind some of the violence.

” We have proof that they have participated in the deaths and in the loss of government and private parameters”, Anisul Huq, Bagladesh’s law secretary, told the BBC.

The opposition group’s chief described the proceed as “illegal, illegal and unconstitutional”.

EPA Bangladeshi police detain a protester during a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 31 July.EPA

According to officials, the scholar protest’s leaders were also taken for a week for their own safety. However, their discharge on Thursday has done much to soften the anger.

The kids questioned the conditions of their confinement in a mutual statement released on Friday.

The group alleged “harassment, rape and crisis” towards them and their families during their seven nights of confinement.

The statement called on people to continue taking to the streets and said,” No one is safe in the prison of those who kill armed students and individuals.”

Since the authorities began cracking down on the rallies, apparently, almost 10,000 people have been detained.

However, the student officials’ statements Mr. Arafat refrained from refuting.

He claimed that because the government was conscious of a possible threat to their lives, the authorities were forced to detain the scholar leaders.

” Their defense became our best priority”, he added.

Continue Reading

The ‘flying rivers’ causing devastating floods in India

By:
On:
In: Asia
Getty Images People rescue their cattle in a flood-affected area after a breach in river Beas in Sultanpur Lodhi on August 18, 2023, following heavy monsoon rains in India's state of Himachal Pradesh.Getty Images

Heavy rains and floods have affected several parts of India in recent weeks, killing scores of people and displacing thousands of others.

Floods are not uncommon in the country – or South Asia – at this time of the year, when the region receives most of its rainfall.

But climate change has made monsoon rains more erratic, with massive rainfall in a short span of time followed by prolonged periods of dryness.

Now scientists say that a type of storm, known as an atmospheric river, is making things worse with a significant increase in moisture because of global warming.

Also known as “flying rivers”, these storms are huge, invisible ribbons of water vapour that are born in warm oceans as seawater evaporates.

The water vapour forms a band or a column in the lower part of the atmosphere which moves from the tropics to the cooler latitudes and comes down as rain or snow, devastating enough to cause floods or deadly avalanches.

These “rivers in the sky” carry some 90% of the total water vapour that moves across the Earth’s mid-latitudes and, on an average, have about twice the regular flow of the Amazon, the world’s largest river by the discharge volume of water.

As the earth warms up faster, scientists say these atmospheric rivers have become longer, wider and more intense, putting hundreds of millions of people worldwide at risk from flooding.

In India, meteorologists say the warming of the Indian Ocean has created “flying rivers” that are influencing monsoon rains between June and September.

Atmospheric river graphic

A study published in the scientific journal Nature in 2023 showed a total of 574 atmospheric rivers occurred in the monsoon season in India between 1951 and 2020, with the frequency of such extreme weather events increasing over time.

“In the last two decades, nearly 80% of the most severe atmospheric rivers caused floods in India,” it said.

A team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of California, who were involved in the study, also found that seven of India’s 10 most severe floods in the monsoon seasons between 1985 and 2020 were associated with atmospheric rivers.

The study said evaporation from the Indian Ocean had significantly increased in recent decades and the frequency of atmospheric rivers and floods caused by them has increased recently as the climate has warmed.

“There is an increase in the variability [more fluctuations] in the moisture transported towards the Indian subcontinent during the monsoon season,” Dr Roxy Matthew Koll, an atmospheric scientist with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, told the BBC.

“As a result, there are short spells when all that moisture from the warm seas is dumped by the atmospheric rivers in a few hours to a few days. This has led to increased landslides and flash floods across the country.”

A woman holding an umbrella walks on a street flooded with water due to heavy rain in Mumbai.

An average atmospheric river is about 2,000km (1,242 miles) long, 500km wide and nearly 3km deep – although they are now getting wider and longer, with some more than 5,000km long.

And yet, they are invisible to the human eye.

“They can be seen with infrared and microwave frequencies,” says Brian Kahn, an atmospheric researcher with Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“That is why satellite observations can be so useful for observing water vapour and atmospheric rivers around the world,” Mr Kahn added.

There are other weather systems like westerly disturbances, monsoon and cyclones that can cause floods as well.

But global studies have shown that atmospheric water vapour has increased by up to 20% since the 1960s.

Scientists have associated atmospheric rivers with up to 56% of extreme precipitation (rainfall and snowfall) in South Asia, although there are limited studies on the region.

In neighbouring Southeast Asia, there have been more detailed studies on the links between atmospheric rivers and monsoon-related heavy rains.

A 2021 study, published by the American Geophysical Union, found that up to 80% of heavy rainfall events in eastern China, Korea and western Japan during early monsoon season (March and April) are associated with atmospheric rivers.

“In East Asia there has been a significant increase in frequency of atmospheric rivers since 1940,” says Sara M Vallejo-Bernal, a researcher with the University of Potsdam in Germany, who led a separate study.

“We found that they have become more intense over Madagascar, Australia and Japan ever since.”

Getty Images Impacts of atmospheric rivers in West coast of the USGetty Images

Meteorologists in other regions have been able to link a few recent major floods to atmospheric rivers.

In April 2023, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Jordan were all hit by catastrophic flooding after intense thunder, hailstorms and exceptional rainfall. Meteorologists later found that the skies across the region were carrying a record amount of moisture, surpassing a similar event in 2005.

Two months later, Chile was hit by 500mm of rain in just three days – the sky dumped so much water that it also melted snow on some parts of the Andes mountain, unleashing massive floods that destroyed roads, bridges, and water supplies.

A year earlier parts of Australia had been hit by what politicians called a “rain-bomb”, with more than 20 people killed and thousands evacuated.

Given the risks of catastrophic floods and landslides they can trigger, atmospheric rivers have been categorised into five types based on their size and strength – just like hurricanes.

Not all of them are damaging though, especially if they are of low intensity.

Some can be beneficial if they land in places that have suffered from prolonged droughts.

But the phenomenon is an important reminder of a rapidly warming atmosphere that holds much more moisture than in the past.

At the moment, the storm is relatively under-studied in South Asia, compared to other weather events like western disturbances or Indian cyclones that are the other major causes of floods and landslides.

“Effective collaborative efforts among meteorologists, hydrologists and climate scientists is currently challenging as the concept is new in this region and difficult to introduce,” said Rosa V Lyngwa, a research scholar at IIT Indore.

But as heavy rains continue to pummel parts of India, it’s become more important to study this storm and its potential devastating impact, she adds.

Read more on this story

Continue Reading

India through the eyes of foreign artists

By:
On:
In: Asia

16 hours earlier

By Sudha G Tilak, Delhi

DAG Raja Jowaher Singh and Attendants Wood engraving on paper, 1858vDAG

A recent exhibition in Delhi that features rare works by German artists provides insight into how the British ruled the nation.

Called Destination India: Foreign Artists in India, 1857-1947, the exhibit focuses on artists who travelled to imperial India from around the globe.

In an entry to the present, Indian MP and artist Shashi Tharoor says that the picture of India through the German and British artists has “long been a subject of intrigue and exploration.”

” The fascination with India’s unique scenery, magnificent statues, attractive practices and rich history has drawn many to its shores, seeking to capture the essence of this multifaceted state”.

Mr Tharoor notes that the present is “refreshing and important” as it explores the less-explored, but a powerful phase of the late 19th and early 20th generations, rather than just the first pioneers.

The museum showcases sculptures, including from American actor William Carpenter, that give flashes into not only the royal authorities, but also daily lifestyle in the Empire.

DAG William Carpenter Delhi. A Street at back of Jumma Masjid Wood engraving on paper, 1857DAG

Carpenter usually did watercolour, but this 1857 artwork, pictured above, is wood engraving on paper that depicts the busy back streets of Delhi’s Jama Masjid ( mosque ).

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, countless well-known artists from Europe and England came to India. They were primarily traditional artists producing works of art in various print media, including oil and paint.

” They were attracted to the people, and not just to the grandees, but to ordinary people in the streets. If there was still a sense of the picturesque, Ashish Anand, managing director of DAG, a renowned craft company that produced the present, says it was a more personal and active variation of that aesthetic.

” In their functions, if we can put it this way, we find an India that we can hear and smell as well,” they say.

DAG William Simpson's Jama MasjidDAG

William Simpson painted another colour of the Jama Masjid in 1864, the same as the one above.

Simpson, who was primarily a war artist, was sent to India in 1859 by a publishing firm to depict the repercussions of the harsh rebellion two years prior. American warriors, known as colonists, had in 1857 set off a revolt against the English law, often referred to as the initial war of independence.

Simpson’s job halted when the printing company went bankrupt. He referred to it as the “biggest hazard of my living.” However, he continued travelling and sketching his excursions across the sub-continent.

DAG Olinto Ghilardi Portrait of Elderly Indians Pastel on paper, 1900 21.0 x 28.3 in.DAG

This is a 1900 beige portrait of old Indians by Olinto Ghilardi, an European designer.

A major German musician, Ghilardi shaped contemporary Indian art in the first 20th Century.

He oversaw the development of the Bengal School of Art, which is the ancestor of contemporary American painting, Abanindranath Tagore, brother of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Ghilardi encouraged him to experiment with watercolours, acrylic, and hues, which he thoroughly used afterward in his job.

Ghilardi also held the position of vice principal at the Government School of Art in Calcutta ( now Kolkata ).

DAG Head of a young woman, 1896DAG

This 1896 mural of a young American girl was even made by Ghilardi.

Before he arrived in Kolkata, there was not much information about the European painter’s career. His connection with Tagore indicates his understanding as a performer among Kolkata’s wealthy Bengalis.

Many later, in 1911, Ghilardi became a popular part of an avant-garde group of European designers.

DAG Carlton Alfred Smith Street Scene, India Watercolour on paper pasted on board 9.2 x 14.5 in.DAG

Unofficial colour painting of an Indian city landscape by American artist Carlton Alfred Smith.

Smith lived in India between 1916 and 1923. He frequently combined portraiture with surroundings to create portraits of people.

Smith, a intensive who emigrated from Camden Town in London to paint in the late Victorian period, first pursuing a career as a lithographer. He is a member of the Royal Academy of Art and is renowned for his drawings of the designs of houses and the British countryside.

DAG George Strahan Wular Lake (Jammu and Kashmir) Watercolour on paper, 1894 DAG

This is a 1894 colour decoration of Kashmir’s Wular Lake by George Strahan, a European military expert and designer.

Strahan, a talented scholar from Surrey, enlisted in the army and left for India in 1860, working in Roorkee and Haridwar.

He began mapping northern India, Rajasthan, and the Himalayas two years later when he joined the Topographical Survey of India.

In 1888, he became supervisor of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, which mapped the Indian continent.

At the Survey, Strahan drew comfort maps before color producing was introduced.

After retirement, he lived in the highlands of Dehradun and travelled to Kashmir every summers.

DAG Woldemar Friedrich Hyderabad Watercolour on handmade paper pasted on mountboard, 1887DAG

This colour of Hyderabad in southeastern India was created in 1887 by European designer Woldemar Friedrich.

A traditional painter and designer, Friedrich spent much of his profession teaching at renowned German artwork academies. In the late 1880s, he travelled to India and created a series of landscapes and images, published in the 1893 text” Six Month in India”.

DAG William Carpenter Benaras Wood engraving on paper, 1857 Print size: 8.7 x 12.5 in. Paper size: 9.7 x 14.0 in.DAG

Carpenter’s 1857 wood carving on paper painting on Benaras ( above ) shows Varanasi- one of the nation’s oldest towns and and India’s religious capital- teeming with life.

Carpenter studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London before establishing himself as a well-known portrait and landscape artist in the 19th century.

Arriving in India in 1850, he travelled extensively, painting rulers, street scenes, landscapes, and locals across Bombay ( now Mumbai ), Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Kashmir, Lahore, Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ), and Afghanistan.

DAG Charles William Bartlett The Golden Temple, Amritsar Kokka woodblock print on paper, c. 1919DAG

This is British designer Charles William Bartlett’s 1919 woodcut printing on paper version of Punjab’s Golden Temple, a spiritual shrine for Sikhs.

Dover-born Bartlett was one of the world’s leading Chinese block painting, and afterward switched to fine arts.

In 1913, he travelled to India, Indonesia and China. From 1916 to 1925, he produced 38 woodblock designs for his Chinese publication, many of which feature views from his walks in South Asia.

DAG cowDAG

British musician Edwin Lord Weeks painted this bright oil on canvas of a bullock-cart in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, in 1882.

Weeks was one of the first British artists to travel to India, having been born in Boston to a powerful family. His company family supported his creative endeavours.

Weeks second travelled to India between 1882 and 1883, painting places largely in Rajasthan. He returned in 1886, when he visited at least seven places. Weeks also wrote a travelogue account of his travels through Persia ( present-day Iran ) and India in 1896. He is renowned for his realist style and attention to detail.

Continue Reading

Bangladesh student protests: Why is the government facing public anger?

By:
On:
In: Asia

11 days before

By Anbarasan Ethirajan, South Asia Regional Editor

Getty Images Smoke rises from the burning vehicles after protesters set them on fire near the Disaster Management Directorate office, during the ongoing anti-quota protest in Dhaka on July 18, 2024Getty Images

Bangladesh is in tumult.

This West Asian country of 170 million people has not always experienced street protests, but recent rallies have been characterized as the worst in living memory.

For weeks, thousands of college students have voiced their opposition to a limit method for government jobs.

Veterans of the nation’s 1971 liberation struggle are the subjects of a third of the open sector’s jobs.

The kids are arguing that the system is unfair, and are asking for selection based on merit.

What started as peaceful protests on college campuses has now turned into turmoil across the country.

Protest organizers claim that police and the student organization of the ruling Awami League, also known as the Bangladesh Chhatra League, have been brutally beating quiet demonstrators, causing widespread outcry.

The federal denies these claims.

Since next Monday, there have been altercations. The most fatal morning of crime since protests started this month on Thursday was when at least 25 people were killed.

At least 32 people have died in full.

Unheard of internet access has been blocked and phone services are revoked by the state.

” It’s not individuals nowadays, it seems that people from all walks of life have joined the opposition motion”, Dr Samina Luthfa, associate professor of sociology in the University of Dhaka, tells the BBC.

The rallies have taken a long time to start. Although Bangladesh has one of the world’s fastest-growing economy, experts contend that college graduates ‘ employment has not increased as a result.

Around 18 million fresh Bangladeshis are looking for employment, according to projections. Higher levels of unemployment are experienced by school alumni compared to their less educated peers.

Bangladesh has become a superpower of ready-to-wear clothes exports. The nation exports clothing worth about$ 40 billion to the world market.

The industry employs more than four million people, many of them women. However, the younger generation’s desire to succeed is never enough.

Getty Images Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh HasinaGetty Images

Under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year law, Bangladesh has transformed itself by building new bridges, roads, businesses and perhaps a rail road in the investment Dhaka.

Its per-capita income has increased by three to ten dollars per year, and according to the World Bank, more than 25 million individuals have been rescued from hunger in the past 20 years.

However, many claim that some of this growth is just enhancing those who are close to Ms. Hasina’s Awami League.

Dr Luthfa says:” We are witnessing but little problem. particularly those who are close to the ruling group. Fraud has been persisted for a long time without being punished.

New conversations about corruption allegations against some of Ms. Hasina’s former top officials, including a former army captain, former police chief, senior revenue officers, and express selection officers, have been the focus of social media in Bangladesh.

Ms Hasina last week said she was taking action against corruption, and that it was a long-standing problem.

She claimed at the same press conference in Dhaka that she had taken legal action against a household assistant ( or peon ) after he allegedly amassed$ 34 million.

” He ca n’t move without a helicopter. How does he make so much money? I immediately took action as soon as I became aware of this”.

She did not identify the individual.

The Bangladeshi media reported that this much money could only have been obtained by lobbying for government contracts, corruption, or bribery.

Former police chief Benazir Ahmed, who was once seen as a close ally of Ms. Hasina, has been the subject of an investigation by the anti-corruption commission in Bangladesh after allegedly amassing millions of dollars through illegal means. He denies the allegations.

The country’s typical citizens who are struggling with the rising cost of living did n’t escape this news.

Many rights activists point out that over the past 15 years, there have n’t been as many opportunities for democratic activity as there are for corruption allegations.

” For three consecutive elections, there has been no credible free and fair polling process”, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told the BBC.

Ms. Ganguly said,” [Ms. Hasina ] has perhaps underestimated the level of dissatisfaction people had with being denied the most fundamental democratic right to choose their own leader.”

MONIRUL ALAM/EPA An injured woman gets help MONIRUL ALAM/EPA

The main opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party ( BNP ), staged elections in 2014 and 2024, protesting the results of their election boycotts, claiming that free and fair elections were impossible under Ms. Hasina and that they wanted the elections to be conducted under a neutral caretaker administration.

This demand has always been rejected by Ms. Hasina.

Rights groups also say more than 80 people, many of them government critics, have disappeared in the past 15 years, and that their families have no information on them.

In light of concerns that Sheikh Hasina has become more autocratic over the years, the government is accused of stifling dissent and the media. But ministers deny the charges.

According to Dr. Luthfa,” the anger against the government and the ruling party has been accumulating for a long time.”

” People are now expressing their anger. People use protest if they have no other options left.

Ms. Hasina’s ministers claim that despite what they perceive as provocative actions by protesters, the government has shown extreme restraint.

They claim that Islamist parties, who they claim sparked the violence, have infiltrated demonstrations and that their political opposition has led to the violence.

Anisul Huq, the government’s attorney, stated that the government was ready to discuss the issues.

The government has been contacting student protesters, the statement read. When there is a reasonable argument, we are willing to listen”, Mr Huq told the BBC earlier this week.

The student protests are probably Ms. Hasina’s biggest challenge since January 2009.

How they are resolved will depend on how she handles the unrest and, most importantly, how she addresses the public’s growing anger.

Continue Reading

Observe riparian law, West Bengal – Asia Times

By:
On:
In: Asia

Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, and Narendra Modi, her Indian counterpart, just signed 10 notes of knowledge, including three new ones, and three renewed ones, to further strengthen the relationship between the two neighbors. But, Sheikh Hasina’s four-day visit to India ended without a milestone in the pending Teesta Water Sharing Treaty.

However, Narendra Modi stated in a press release that” a technical staff will quickly explore Bangladesh to explore protection and control of the Teesta River in Bangladesh.” Sheikh Hasina, on the other hand, has expressed her assumption about the Teesta River as she said,” We hope that all remarkable issues, including the Teesta Water-Sharing Treaty, may be concluded at an early time”.

These two prime minister’s remarks indicate that the agreement will be the subject of serious discussions between Delhi and Dhaka.

Although the past of Teesta negotiations, which began in 1947, just after the separation, has not yet been successful due to India’s non-cooperation, this period the political situation in South Asia compels India to join the table.

India has expressed its interest in financing the Teesta River job, mainly to counter China’s growing effect in Bangladesh. By investing in this task, India aims to reduce Bangladesh’s dependent on Chinese opportunities, thus maintaining its regional hegemony and strengthening diplomatic relations with Bangladesh.

Although both China and India are interested in funding the Teesta River task, India’s dedication to a water-sharing agreement with Bangladesh may enhance both India’s strategic and political standing in the region by ensuring local stability and preventing Chinese influence. Because it addresses longtime local water problems, India’s involvement is more significant than China’s, which directly affects both countries ‘ agricultural and financial stability. Also, as the Teesta is a transnational valley between India and Bangladesh, effective management of the Teesta will not be achievable without India’s assistance.

Amid the positive expectation of the Teesta water-sharing convention, Mamata Banerjee, the deputy minister of West Bengal, in a text expressed her “deep pain” over her country’s being excluded from ongoing conversations with Dhaka regarding the Teesta water-sharing deal.

Mamata urged Bangladesh to sign a Teesta water sharing agreement in a letter to Narendra Modi, saying that” the Teesta has seen a decrease in water flowing over the years.” If Bangladesh receives any more water, it is estimated that crore [hundreds of thousands ] of people in North Bengal may be severely impacted by the lack of water water. Teesta waters is also required to supply North Bengal’s having water needs. Thus, it is impossible to discuss Teesta lakes with Bangladesh.

This position has raised concerns that Mamata is preventing cooperation between the two nations by preventing Bangladesh from using Teesta waters in an equitable and reasonable manner, as required by international waters rules. Her weight echoes past obstacles, somewhat in September 2011 when a proposed deal allocating 37.5 percentage of Teesta lakes to Bangladesh was blocked by Mamata’s concerns, prioritizing West Bengal’s needs over Bangladesh’s legitimate communicate.

The Teesta has been clean in Bangladesh during the dry season, causing severe pain for the farmers in Northern Bangladesh who rely on its water because of Mamata’s persistent resistance and the canal’s drainage through the Teesta-Mahananda hyperlink canal in addition to climate change and hydropower projects.

However, excessive release of water during rainy season creates severe flooding in Northern Bangladesh, severely affecting the economy, lives, and communities and causing damage of crops. India has responded to Bangladesh’s persistent and urgent pleas for the finalization of the long-awaited Teesta River water-sharing treaty with an indifferent and dismissive response.

Mamata’s steadfast commitment to not share any water with Bangladesh and refrain from entering any agreement threatens to undermine diplomatic efforts and upcoming international law compliance with equitable water-sharing and cooperation at a time when the central government of India seeks to advance positively toward the Teesta water-sharing treaty.

The Teesta water-sharing treaty is a significant threat to the fundamentals of international water law due to Mamata’s unwavering opposition to it, which could stifle Bangladesh’s human rights and efforts to promote regional cohesion and stability.

All riparian states must have equal access to shared water resources in accordance with the principle of equitable and reasonable use. This rule is regarded as customary international law, reflecting a state-wide consensus regarding transboundary watercourse management and fairness and sustainability.

The statement made by Mamata Banerjee that” It is not feasible to share Teesta water with Bangladesh because the people of the northern region of West Bengal need the water for irrigation and drinking” is contrary to this principle, obstructing Bangladesh’s right to an equitable share of the Teesta waters. Her stance undermines the need for a balanced and equitable water distribution, which is required by international standards, by placing West Bengal’s needs before Bangladesh’s needs. This cooperative approach risks going against the customary practice of just and equitable use, which seeks to avoid significant harm and ensure the interests of all involved riparian states.

Mamata’s steadfast defense of not participating in the Teesta water-sharing treaty with Bangladesh is in stark violation of international water law’s principle of cooperation. Riparian states are required to work together to manage shared water resources in an equitable and sustainable manner under the guidance of this principle. This kind of cooperation requires active participation in discussions and the exchange of information, which are necessary to avoid and settle disputes.

This obligation is essential to sustainable water management and regional stability. By prioritizing West Bengal’s interests over Bangladesh’s, Banerjee obstructs the necessary dialogue for mutual understanding and compromise. Her stance encourages unilateral actions that go against the IWL’s fundamental requirement of good faith cooperation. This jeopardizes regional harmony and sustainable development as well as severing the legal framework. Thus, Mamata’s position undermines the core principles of international water diplomacy, threatening both equitable resource management and regional stability.

The Teesta Water-Shared Treaty offers India a number of strategic advantages in addition to fulfilling its obligations under international law.

From a geopolitical perspective, India must consider the growing influence of China in Bangladesh. China has been actively investing in Bangladesh’s infrastructure, including the Teesta River project, under its Belt and Road Initiative. By entering into a water-sharing treaty with Bangladesh, India can counterbalance China’s influence, strengthening its strategic position in South Asia. This action would strengthen India’s reputation as a trustworthy regional partner and show its commitment to diplomatic and cooperative resolution of long-standing bilateral disputes.

India must weigh its geopolitical considerations and broader strategic interests in the face of this domestic opposition in order to move forward.

Md. The University of Dhaka’s Department of Law is where Jahid-Al-Mamun teaches.

Continue Reading

Nepal searches for 63 missing after highway landslide

By:
On:
In: Asia

Three passengers managed to escape and received treatment at a nearby hospital, according to city official Khimananda Bhusal, who told AFP on Friday that the trucks had between them at least 66 people. The crash happened before sun along the Narayanghat-Mugling bridge, around 100km east of Kathmandu. One van wasContinue Reading

More than 60 missing as Nepal landslide sweeps buses into river

By:
On:
In: Asia

After two buses were swept into a valley by a large landslide, volunteers are searching for more than 60 missing individuals in Nepal.

Some described their agonizing suffering as” thrown out of the windows of the vehicle into the river.”

Only three persons appeared to had survived the crash, which occurred on Friday morning.

Authorities claimed the flood was caused by heavy rains.

Nepal and other elements of South Asia are currently experiencing heavy rain in recent days, which has caused floods and landslides that have affected millions of people.

The accident took place at 03: 30 local time ( 21: 45 GMT Thursday ) on Friday in Chitwan along the Narayanghat-Mugling highway, about 100km ( 60 miles ) from the capital Kathmandu.

The vehicle had been traveling on the road for about an hour and a half when it” started rolling down all of a sudden into the creek,” a victim told the BBC’s Nepali Service. I was concerned that I would pass away.

Even though it was “very dark at night,” he claimed he was able to float to health. The river was full of some big boulders and some greenery, as I discovered.

We swam, swam, and swam while chanting God’s title. God saved us.

I was not sure whether I was heading inward or outward, but I finally made it to the lender. Therefore I began escalating the slope.

He claimed that he and another victim were on the same lanes at the same time and that a third man soon followed them. They managed to get support from a pilot, who called the police.

The vehicle was” trembling and overturning four or five times before plunging into the creek,” according to Jogishwar Raya, a second victim.

He claimed he was able to get out of the vehicle, but his family people were still missing.

” My child, daughter-in-law, nephew, and a daughter were on the same vehicle. Out of five family people, I was only to survive, the remainder vanished”, he said.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the prime minister of Nepal, has urged all authorities organizations to participate in the search and rescue operation.

Numerous people are said to have died during the monsoon time, with some major routes blocked and some bridge swept away by swollen rivers.

Officials have urged people to stay alert as the Koshi valley, which passes through Nepal and India, is flowing above the dangerous levels.

Nepal frequently experiences fatal accidents as a result of careless driving and ill maintained roads.

Continue Reading

Why global uncertainty won’t undermine transition goals | FinanceAsia

By:
On:
In: Asia, Finance, South-East Asia

When FinanceAsia editorial board member, Sunil Veetil, took on his Singapore-based leadership role as head of Commercial Banking Sustainability for Apac at HSBC back in summer 2022, Asia was in the throes of pandemic uncertainty. Market to market, the approach of each governing authority proved to be heavily nuanced: Singapore had not long lifted restrictions to social gatherings and would soon abandon the mask mandate; while Hong Kong’s decision makers would deliberate for a further seven months before considering any such easing.

Yet, with hindsight being 20/20 (some may recoil at reference to the fateful numerical sequence), there was a sense of steadiness – albeit slow – in the unravelling of pandemic protocol which sits in stark contrast to today’s atmosphere of fast-paced-but-frequently-wavering global political and socioeconomic uncertainty. With over half of the world going to the polls this year – and a lot riding on upcoming election outcomes including France’s hung parliament and the final months of campaigning in the US; geopolitical complexities and tensions are pervading all market developments, not least the macroeconomic and inflationary outlook.

Reassuringly, however, Veetil is resolute in his resolve that global climate aspirations will forge ahead in spite of current conditions. “When you talk climate, you have to look long term,” he told FA. “Whilst there are short-term disruptions and changes – some of which have been positive; for example, the supply chain dispersion that has been taking place across the Asian region – it’s important to view climate from a longer perspective.”

He pointed to the outcomes of last November’s COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai, which served as a global stocktake of progress achieved by key economies towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, at the halfway point to their ultimate delivery by 2030. While the event publicly affirmed failure in capacity to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century; for the first time, it achieved consensus among all 196 heads of state and government officials to sanction the “beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era, with efforts to eradicate their use by 2050. The conference laid the ground for a “swift, just and equitable transition, underpinned by deep emissions cuts and scaled-up finance”, a strategy which complements HSBC’s own ambitions to align its financing portfolio to net zero by 2050, as announced by the bank in 2020.

Climate management, Veetil explained, involves tackling a “perfect triangle” of challenges: politics, climate and the overall socio-economic picture. “The socio-economic impact of climate upon people is becoming all the more evident as we proceed… and to bring this all together, is the flow of capital.” He noted that while a lot of climate policy frameworks and trendsetting comes from Europe, the impact – “where the rubber hits the road” – is in Asia “and this is where the complexity is.”

Expanding on his comments for FA’s analysis of Asia’s debt capital market (DCM) activity, in which sustainable transactions were highlighted as playing an increasingly significant role within regional DCM dealmaking, Veetil said that typically, it continues to be the larger regional entities who lead the way in terms of raising significant capital to support sustainability aims. “The large tickets will always be driven by the sovereigns; and then it’s usually state-owned-enterprises (SOEs) or those large-cap private operators active in oil and gas or power and utilities, who are signing the big-ticket transactions.”

This seems to have been the case in 2024 so far, with Asia’s main players pioneering innovative climate transactions. In February, Japan followed up on its 2021 introduction of a transition finance framework by auctioning the world’s first sovereign climate transition bonds as a financing tool to support market growth alongside industry decarbonisation; while during the same month, HSBC participated in the first global multi-currency digital green bond offering, issued in Hong Kong.

“However, we are seeing green loans and sustainability-linked loans (SLLs) pick up at the mid-level and below this, in response to sustainable supply chain requirements. Of course, Asia is a supplier to the world.”

Veetil noted how European and North American buyers have become accustomed to outsourcing their emissions to Asia and that this had contributed some positive social and economic repercussions across the region, including an overall rise in income levels. With increasing pressure to report on and regulate sustainability, he explained that Asia-based manufacturers are not only on top of scope 3 metrics, but are pushing for capital expenditure (capex) to contribute to longer-term sustainability: to counteract those emissions that extend beyond the products themselves such as packaging, as well as manufacturing machinery. 

“Take a textile manufacturer that supplies to one of the big fashion brands. It’s not just that they want a sustainable supply chain and a robust working capital requirement; they’re also looking at how to install a wastewater treatment plant or rooftop solar. They are actively seeking capex investment plus working capital that is sustainable.”

Additionally, he highlighted the emergence of a circular economy to facilitate long-term sustainability, as being a growing trend: “Look at the battery ecosystem for example, a huge industry is developing around the recycling of batteries – additionally the recycling of solar panels, turbines and so forth is being considered. The recycling industry is becoming larger as ultimately, unless there is a circular economy around it, resources will be wasted. New action is being taken to develop a fully circular product lifecycle.”

The role of tech

Veetil emphasised various strides made across the field of technology, as being key to the future direction of the sustainability market. He commended Japan’s move to funnel over 55% of the proceeds from its recent climate transition issuance into research and development (R&D). “The future impact of investment going into research is set to be significant,” he said, noting the market’s action to invest in and develop domestic hydrogen production.

“Hydrogen has real potential to drive transition across hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, construction and aviation. But currently the market is ‘grey’ as it requires coal power to extract it from H2O.” He added that China and India are also investing heavily in the development of hydrogen. “It’s a space to watch.”

Climate-related research and technology is one of the areas which HSBC’s New Economy initiative aims to support. Since June last year, the bank has launched two fundraising strategies in Asia to invest in early-stage high-growth and tech-focussed businesses, to promote regional innovation. The first strategy, a $3 billion New Economy Fund (NEF) targets opportunities in Hong Kong and the surrounding Greater Bay Area (GBA), while a more recently launched $200 million vehicle targets investment across Singapore and Southeast Asia. Last month, the latter signed its first dedicated social loan to support Vietnamese venture-backed biotech start-up, Gene Solutions, which aims to enhance the accessibility and affordability of essential healthcare services across Southeast Asia. Another recent contribution included a $30 million green and social loan to Indonesia’s acquaculture and intelligence start-up, eFishery, which works to empower smallholder fish and shrimp farmers through tech, by increasing feed efficiency and reducing waste.

Veetil agreed that there is a strong socio-economic angle to sustainability developments in Southeast Asia, offering the example of electronic vehicle (EV) two-wheelers: “In certain areas in Southeast Asia (such as Vietnam and Indonesia) – as well as India, the majority of the population can’t afford to buy cars. We are going to see EV two-wheelers becoming more prevalent, popular and impactful… In fact, this is already happening and will continue to do so in the short- to medium-term.”

He added that the technologies emerging around carbon capture also offer real potential, but they “haven’t yet reached a sweet spot for mass adoption.”

Regulatory developments

But perhaps the most influential factor set to shape the sustainability landscape to come, is regulatory development and with it, clarity around how to deliver and enact a shared vision.

“What I am monitoring most closely on the regulatory side of things, is progress around the development of a country taxonomy,” Veetil disclosed.

“Reporting requirements are evolving quickly. Markets such as Hong Kong and Singapore have been very much at the forefront of this, but huge strides are also being made in geographies such as China and India, with new reporting requirements being introduced for listed companies.”

Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Authority (Acra) together with Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) have mandated that listed companies start disclosing their climate impact in a phased manner, from financial year 2025.

“Over the next three years, most companies based in Singapore will report their climate data, which will certainly have an impact on the corporate mindset operating in the region,” Veetil said.

“Similarly, regulation being introduced elsewhere, such as in Europe, is taking effect globally. Take for example the new European deforestation regulation that has been published; as well as the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), which will soon take effect.”

“This is where we need a unified body to monitor and manage the direction of shared sustainability efforts. Currently this is something that is missing.”

Veetil suggested that various international entities are exploring options; and he proposed that efficacy could be found through a consortium of international central banks; or an governmental body such as the United Nations (UN) forming a platform involving corporates and financial institutions.

“We live in a very seamless economy, regulations in one country will definitely have an impact on the other.”

 


¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

Continue Reading