Farwa Aamer

Wrapped up a packed month with May looking even busier. Subscribe to the South Asia Snapshot for all the key regional developments and why they matter: asiasociety.org/policy-institu…

A major India-UAE engagement amid the shifting regional dynamics and energy supply disruptions. During PM Modi's recent visit, the two sides "agreed to the framework for ‌a strategic defence partnership...as they seek to deepen ties amid the Iran war." reuters.com/world/india/in…

"New Delhi released a chair’s statement instead of a joint communique, citing differences among members over the situation in the Middle East."

A divided BRICS meet coincides with the big Trump-Xi meet. The Iran conflict features in both.

Director of South Asia Initiatives, @faamer, unpacks key takeaways from last month's Islamabad Talks, Pakistan's mediator role, and India's hedging in practice. For more insights on South Asia, make sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter, South Asia Snapshot: asiasociety.org/policy-institu…

Rubio to visit India for bilateral talks and Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting May 24-26, expected to address a public reception on 250yr US independence celebrations in Delhi. Reporting @the_hindu thehindu.com/news/national/…

India and Vietnam agree on energy, minerals, rare earth ties s.nikkei.com/4neskOo

Don't miss the upcoming issue: asiasociety.org/policy-institu…

Insightful discussion; glad to have been a part @UAEMissionToUN #BCSCNY

Copper is critical for energy. South Asian economies offer great potential here. India is already part of Pax Silica &can benefit from upstream development and Pakistan has massive untapped resources (not a part of Pax Silica yet). Industrial and partner countries offer win wins.

"Japan is categorized by Bangladesh as a "nontraditional" market for its garment exports. Though previously not a top customer, Japan has emerged in recent years as the fifth-largest destination for Bangladesh-made clothes."

@GhoshArunabha Excellent @GhoshArunabha ! 👏🏻

Twelve years ago at CEEW, we asked a fundamental question: how do we make climate science useful to a district administrator? Salient for an investor? Insightful for an insurer? Relevant for a journalist on deadline? Today, we have an answer. CRAVIS—the Climate Resilience Analytics and Visualisation Intelligence System—launches as the first tool of its kind from the Global South. AI-powered. Built on validated public data. Designed for every Indian district. Three things make it different. First, nothing like this exists from the Global South yet. CRAVIS is built for India's geographies, India's data, India's decision-makers. That gap is the one we set out to close. Secondly, it is genuinely AI-powered. Not as a marketing label, but as a query layer. Our Agentic AI platform queries validated datasets—IMD, IITM Pune, CEA, FSI, IIT Delhi, Hydrosense Labs—and returns source-attributed answers. Thirdly, it is a tool like no other for climate data: 279 indicators, 40+ years of information, projections to 2070. Designed as an open, interoperable digital public good, CRAVIS makes district-level climate risk data usable, trusted, and embedded in everyday planning, across sectors and scales. From early global efforts in 2014-15 to more granular, city-level analyses such as our work in Amaravati or mapping risks across all districts, to now creating a dynamic, AI-enabled system to strengthen resilience—this is what more than a decade of climate resilience work at @CEEWIndia has been building toward. A public asset that moves climate intelligence from models to people. Like all good public infrastructure, CRAVIS is built to grow with the people who use it. We welcome partners to bring their datasets and their expertise into it. High-resolution data, visualisation, and a conversational AI layer—all in one. cravis.ai #AskCRAVIS something about your district. Tell us what surprised you.

Good to see this policy attention toward the exacerbating water crisis in Pakistan.

"China supplies 43% of India’s electronics imports, 40% of machinery and computer imports, and 44% of organic chemicals, according to the GTRI report. These imports are critical to at least two of India’s five largest goods exports — namely phones and pharmaceuticals."

Nothing is an isolated event with isolated impacts and policy making needs to fast catch up.

Summer is fast approaching and projections of heatwaves are already sending alarm bells ringing across South Asia as well as Southeast Asia. If environmental stresses weren’t enough, this summer is looking to be far worse given the energy crisis due to the ongoing conflict.

Islamabad round 2!

Big thanks to @AsiaPolicy for convening a great conversation this week on the actions, choices and agency of middle powers. I enjoyed the discussion with fellow panelists @SatuLimaye, Sayuri Romei, @faamer, and Emma Chanlett-Avery.

@Ali_Wyne Thank you @Ali_Wyne

.@faamer and Emma Chanlett-Avery’s excellent paper makes this key temporal point: “Policies that blur distinctions between allies and adversaries may generate short-term leverage but accelerate long-term diversification away from U.S.-centric systems.” asiasociety.org/policy-institu…