South Asia spans countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and their neighbors. This archive gathers progress stories from the region — covering public health, education, climate adaptation, economic inclusion, and more.
According to health experts, Bangladesh has achieved unprecedented success in every health index in the last 50 years since independence, including infant and maternal mortality rates.
The country’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) witnessed a decline by 6 points at 97 per lakh live births in 2018-2020, from 130 in 2014-16.
According to a recent study for estimating the prevalence of blindness and visual impairment in the Indian population, more than one fourth of people in India aged 50 years and above are visually impaired.
Ever since India’s performance in the 2017 Women’s ODI World Cup in England, where they lost to the hosts in the final, the popularity of women’s cricket has seen an unprecedented rise in the country.
The money will be used to help implement the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026 and will be focused particularly on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Germany’s new program will support Afghans suffering persecution at the hands of the Taliban, including women’s and human rights advocates and people who have persecuted because of their religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
A law dating from 1971 had limited the procedure to married women, divorcees, widows, minors, “disabled and mentally ill women” and survivors of sexual assault or rape.
Blue whales off Sri Lanka finally have a powerful ally in their corner. The world’s largest container shipping company voluntarily rerouted its vessels away from waters where pygmy blue whales live and feed — without any regulatory requirement to do so. Scientists estimate a 15-nautical-mile route adjustment could reduce fatal collisions by up to 95% for this resident population. The hope now is that MSC’s move pressures international maritime authorities to make the change binding for all ships. When industry leaders act ahead of regulation, it shows that targeted, science-based advocacy can protect wildlife at a genuinely global scale.
Droupadi Murmu became India’s first president from a Scheduled Tribe community when she took office in July 2022, representing roughly 104 million people whose voices have rarely reached the country’s highest institutions. Born in a small Santali village in Odisha, she was the first girl from her village to attend college and began her career as a schoolteacher and government clerk before entering politics in 1997. She later served two terms in the state legislature and as Governor of Jharkhand. While the presidency is largely ceremonial, who holds it shapes how India tells its own story — and her rise sends a powerful signal about belonging in public life, echoing far beyond India for every community still waiting to see itself reflected at the top.
The country generates around four million tons of plastic waste per year, about a third of which is not recycled and ends up in waterways and landfills that regularly catch fire and exacerbate air pollution.
