Public management in South Asia: dimensions and directions of change

The chapter introduces the book that highlights various challenges and opportunities for water management and cooperation in South Asia. Taking into consideration the increasing urbanization and development in the region and related pressure on water resources, the various chapters investigate water conflictual and cooperative attitudes and gestures between countries and regions, analyse management trade-offs between nature, agriculture and urban uses, and look into water sustainable management and related policies. The chapter highlights the increasing importance of South Asia, alerts for the constraining impacts of water scarcity, and indicates challenges for improved sustainable water management. The chapter concludes with synopses of each part of the book and of the chapters that compose them.

Public management in South Asia has had a chequered history. Emerging out of a past influenced by foreign domination, the countries of the region were recognized as separate nations after the conclusion of the Second War. Independence brought new challenges and responsibilities, and the region found it extremely difficult to make a complete break from the past, and establish a sound system of governance upon the existing practices and institutions for public management. Political, social, economic and ethnic problems posed formidable obstacles in the way of establishing and reforming institutions, refining processes and strategies of management, and guiding the region toward a more efficient and effective system. Considering the aims and objectives of good governance, this paper establishes the importance of public management as an essential tool in the process. Faced with a variety of political, economic and social problems, the governments of South Asia are striving to keep up with the trend of establishing a system of good governance. This is usually done by streamlining the structure of public management and developing a collaborative relationship between the political leadership and the civil service.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management in South Asia represents one of the most pressing urban governance challenges, shaped by rapid urbanization, institutional fragmentation, and weak integration of circular economy principles. This paper undertakes a decade-long systematic and bibliometric review (2015–2025) of 592 peer-reviewed studies retrieved from Scopus applying PRISMA guidelines. The bibliometric analysis demonstrates a steep rise in scholarly output, from fewer than 30 papers in 2015 to over 130 in 2024, with India and Bangladesh accounting for the majority of contributions, while smaller states such as Bhutan, Maldives, and Afghanistan remain underrepresented. Research is concentrated in engineering and environmental sciences, with keyword clusters shifting from traditional waste disposal and landfilling toward circular economy, recycling, and governance integration. Across the systematic evidence base, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan generate over 80% of South Asia’s MSW yet recycle less than 25%, highlighting systemic deficiencies in policy coherence, financing, and informal sector recognition. This study contributes uniquely by benchmarking governance frameworks across eight South Asian countries, aligning technological and policy innovations with sustainability pathways, and advancing a regional roadmap for inclusive, circular, and resilient MSW governance.

Energy management in South Asia

South Asia, with its burgeoning population density and poverty on the one hand, and rapid urbanization and industrialization on the other, seems to be facing an impending water crisis. This crisis is not due to water shortage, but due to conflicts over water use at various levels. The governments in the region have neglected the knowledge base needed to research water systems management and deal with these conflicts. The paper stresses that only a transdisciplinary approach, including the engineering and medical sciences, along with social, political, and economic expertise, can help in poverty alleviation and development. Eventually, the paper traces the knowledge gaps in water systems management in South Asia and sets forth a research agenda based on the emergent paradigm of integrated water resources management.

The structure of income inequality in Puerto Rico

Agriculture in South Asia is largely dependent on rainfall, where about two-thirds of the cultivable lands lack irrigation facilities. In recent years, increasing frequency and severity of droughts have had a severe impact on rainfed agriculture and livelihood of millions of farmers in the region. There are numerous drought adaptation and mitigation options available for rainfed agriculture. A seed bank is one of those options that can play an important role in minimizing the effect of droughts on crop production. This paper assesses the need for seed banks in rainfed/partially irrigated areas of South Asia for the purpose of drought risk management. The need for additional seeds of the main crops or suitable alternative crops for re-sowing/planting after drought-induced losses of the main crop was assessed by using long-term gridded rainfall data and crop information. Results show that very limited rainfed areas in South Asia require additional seeds of main or alternative crops for drought risk management once in five to seven years’ drought return period. About 90 percent of such areas in South Asia may require additional seeds for drought risk management once in 10 years or more. The timing and severity of droughts during cropping season and cost/benefits of seed bank maintenance play a major role in choosing additional seeds for the main crops and/or alternate crops for maintenance in the large seed banks. This study shows that, despite the large investment requirement, maintenance of large seed banks for drought risks management is economically viable for the limited areas in South Asia.

South Asia represents the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. South Asia covers about 5.1 million km2, which is 11.51% of the Asian continent or 3.4% of the world’s land surface area. The region is home to about 39.5% of Asia’s population and over 24% of the world’s population, making it both the most populous and the most densely populated geographical region in the world. The important rivers of South Asia are Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra. These rivers have contributed to the rise and prosperity of some of the earliest civilizations in history and today are the source of livelihood for millions. The South Asian river basins, most of which have their source in the Himalayas, support rich ecosystems and irrigate millions of hectares of fields, thereby supporting some of the highest population densities in the world.

The article reviews the state of M&E in South Asia, and makes a case for building capacity in the field, without which the discipline will remain underdeveloped, and accountability for government spending not improve. We suggest that almost none of the South Asian countries have yet managed to develop an M&E ‘system’, though all have mechanisms in place. The article discusses the MIS and evaluation systems, tools in use by governments in South Asia, budgets for evaluation, and the role of civil society organizations. It highlights two cases in South Asia (India and Sri Lanka) where the concept of Performance Management has gathered momentum, even though outcome budgeting has barely taken off in any country of the sub-region. It examines plans for improving implementation of evaluation, but finds many areas suffering from capacity weaknesses. The article closes by recommending ways to address the capacity weaknesses.

Water Academy for Youth (WAY) is Global Water Partnership’s (GWP’s) flagship Youth Programmes launched by aiming to promote leadership, mentorship, fellowships/internships, networking, and intergenerational dialogues among regional youth. The South Asia edition of the programme was coordinated by GWP South Asia (GWP SAS) held in an online format for a duration of 9 weeks between 26th September and 30th November 2022. The programme was facilitated in close collaboration with Waterlution, Water Science Policy, and GWP Southeast Asia. Young professionals and experts were also connected to decision makers, practitioners, and senior water leaders for mentorship, inter-generational dialogues, to network and act on SDG implementation focused on riverscapes and riverine ecosystems in South Asia. At the end of the programme, participants joined ‘Youth and Young Water Professionals Platform (YYPP),’ a body that functions as a pool of knowledgeable youth working to support improved water management in South Asia. This resource book is a public recognition of the commitment of the cohort of WAY programme members from across South Asia, highlights youth contributions towards water action, and supports the dissemination of findings. Furthermore, it validates the value of creating youth opportunities to empower them as agents of change while sharing knowledge and experiences related to water in their respective countries

Today the state of the agricultural sector in most economies in transition is disappointing and caused by unresolved social and economic contradictions in its development, which in the transformations only worsened. Therefore, to develop effective agricultural policies to address the existing contradictions in the agricultural sector, it is needed to find their nature and causes and development. This is what will resolve current contradictions and predict the natural course of development of agrarian relations in the future. The subject of the investigation – nature and causes of economic and social contradictions of the agrarian sector in transitional economies. To clarify these issues there were used methods such as dialectic, systemic and structural, analysis and synthesis, unity logical and historical approaches, induction and deduction, etc. The aim is to find out the nature of economic and social contradictions of the agricultural sector, their causes and development in transitional economies. Based on these methods, it is found that a contradiction is an internal source of development, and causes of changes and development of the contradictions are inherent within it. That means that the contradiction is a process that is changing, evolving itself, as its domestic activity and through interaction with the struggle of opposites. Accordingly, the economic and social contradictions in the development of the agricultural sector are of objective nature. Mistakes in the actions of agrarian relations do not generate new conflicts, but only reinforce the negative side of contradictions inhibiting its solution. This is due to the fact that every contradiction has its objective course of development and natural solutions through new quality reproduction with the peculiar contradictions of development. The subjective factor can only help or hinder solving contradictions, lead to a partial solution of contradictions. Errors are mostly subjective and complicate the process of identifying and resolving contradictions. Reasons for contradictions in the agricultural sector can be divided into two groups: objective (generated by the struggle of opposites) leading to the solution of contradictions of the previous system and the emergence of new contradictions inherent in the future system; objective and subjective, which because of the dominance of the subjective factor at the stage of resolving contradictions lead to the preservation of the previous system contradictions, increase their negative side, and to the emergence of problems and difficulties in resolving existing contradictions. The development of the agricultural sector is determined by imperatives (conditions and directions of action of agrarian relations), which can be divided into the following groups: social, economic, national, historical, technological, informational, cultural, international, religious, political. Development of contradictions is inextricably linked with the development of economic systems and elements of the structure. After all elements of the economic system and its structure are the opposite, being in contradiction with itself and with each other. In developing economies, as well as the development of contradictions, stages of development are taken place. There are two common stages in the development of economic systems caused by cyclicity – rising stage of development (from the emergence to the peak) and the descending phase of development (from the peak to its decay). Rising stage of the life cycle stage of the economic system includes the origin, formation stage and stage performance. The downward phase is defined by stages of destruction of an integrated economic system, collapse and disappearance. These stages of development of economic systems are in close contact with the stages, phases of contradictions. Transitions from one state to another economic system are based on the transformation processes that change the internal state of the system. Transformation processes can occur both evolutionary (accumulating changes that are in the process of transformation) and revolutionary (under the influence of subjective factors) through reforms, which are the adjustment of individual elements of the system without changing its foundations.

A high-fat diet is a risk factor for the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in humans. Deoxycholate (DOC) is increased in the colonic contents in response to a high-fat diet. Thus, an elevated level of DOC in the colonic lumen may play a role in the natural course of development of IBD. Wild-type B6.129 mice were fed an AIN-93G diet, either supplemented with 0.2% DOC or unsupplemented and sacrificed at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 4 months, and 8 months. Colon samples were assessed by histopathological, immunohistochemical, and cDNA microarray analyses. Mice fed the DOC-supplemented diet developed focal areas of colonic inflammation associated with increases in angiogenesis, nitrosative stress, DNA/RNA damage, and proliferation. Genes that play a central role in inflammation and angiogenesis and other related processes such as epithelial barrier function, oxidative stress, apoptosis, cell proliferation/cell cycle/DNA repair, membrane transport, and the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway showed altered expression in the DOC-fed mice compared with the control mice. Changes in expression of individual genes (increases or reductions) correlated over time. These changes were greatest 1 month after the start of DOC feeding. The results suggest that exposure of the colonic mucosa to DOC may be a key etiologic factor in IBD. The DOC-fed mouse model may reflect the natural course of development of colitis/IBD in humans, and thus may be useful for determining new preventive strategies and lifestyle changes in affected individuals.

Snake bite is one of the most neglected public health issues in poor rural communities living in the tropics. Because of serious misreporting, the true worldwide burden of snake bite is not known. South Asia is the world's most heavily affected region, due to its high population density, widespread agricultural activities, numerous venomous snake species and lack of functional snake bite control programs. Despite increasing knowledge of snake venoms' composition and mode of action, good understanding of clinical features of envenoming and sufficient production of antivenom by Indian manufacturers, snake bite management remains unsatisfactory in this region. Field diagnostic tests for snake species identification do not exist and treatment mainly relies on the administration of antivenoms that do not cover all of the important venomous snakes of the region. Care-givers need better training and supervision, and national guidelines should be fed by evidence-based data generated by well-designed research studies. Poorly informed rural populations often apply inappropriate first-aid measures and vital time is lost before the victim is transported to a treatment centre, where cost of treatment can constitute an additional hurdle. The deficiency of snake bite management in South Asia is multi-causal and requires joint collaborative efforts from researchers, antivenom manufacturers, policy makers, public health authorities and international funders.

Watershed management in South Asia: A synoptic review

Background: Globally, the number of people living with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) has increased by four-folds since 1980. South Asia houses one-fifth of the world’s population living with diabetes and it was the 8th leading cause of deaths in 2013 for South Asians. Aim: To review and discuss the context of diabetes in South Asia with a particular focus on a) contributing factors and impact; b) national health policies around non-communicable diseases in the region and; c) to offer recommendations for prevention and management of diabetes. Method: We assessed relevant publications using PubMed, Scopus and OvidSP. Similarly, the World health Organization (WHO) and relevant ministries of each South Asian country were searched for reports and policy documents. Results: Emerging evidence supports that the prevalence of diabetes (ranges from 3.3% in Nepal up to 8.7% in India) in South Asia follows the global trend over the past decades. Urban populations in the region demonstrate a higher prevalence of diabetes although is also a public health concern for rural areas. Changes in the pattern and types of diet along with increasingly sedentary lifestyles are major causes for diabetes. Overall agenda of health promotion to prevent diabetes has not yet been established in the region and majority of the countries in the region are inadequately prepared for the therapeutic services for diabetes. Conclusion: The early onset of the diabetes, longevity of morbidity and early mortality may have a significant impact on people's health expenditure and health system as well as on the region's demographic composition. There is an urgent need to reduce the diabetes prevalence in the region through evidence-based interventions ranging from prevention and early detection to appropriate treatment and care. We suggest that a multi-sectorial collaboration across all stakeholders is necessary to raise awareness about diabetes, its prevention, treatment and care in the region.