South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation Nations Research Articles

Performance analysis of PVSyst based grid connected photovoltaic systems in Pakistan compared to SAARC countries

Electricity demand increasing day by day with the passage of time, fossil fuels and traditional electricity sources are becoming obsolete. The possibility of dealing with a power deficit and importing oil and gas for electricity generation exists for developing nations like Pakistan. One of the most accessible and affordable sources of renewable energy in the world is solar power generating. Photovoltaic (PV) cell performance is influenced by the environment and the technology used to capture the available energy. The Islamabad region of Pakistan is blessed with an average of 300 days of sunshine a year due to its location in the solar band at 33.7215°N latitude and 73.0433°E longitude. The current study compares and contrasts how Pakistan and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries generate electricity using solar systems. Choosing one geographical place from all SAARC nations, PVSyst software is used to develop and estimate the performance study for solar model cell Panasonic 320Wp, 48V and 1.5 kW Inverter Fronius for a 9.6 kWp load. Energy supplied into the grid is studied together with various losses that occur in the system, with the choice of PV arrays and other factors remaining the same for comparison study of all SAARC countries. The approach to minimize losses through the utilization of an adjustable tilt angle has been implemented. This study will be useful in estimating and planning the solar energy output in all SAARC nations for the same photovoltaic system, and it will be simple to trade all PV system components in the region.

Audit committee characteristics, external audit quality, board diversity and firm performance: evidence from SAARC nation

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between three corporate governance (CG) idiosyncrasies, namely audit committee characteristics, external audit quality (AQ), board diversity and firm performance (FP) in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations.Design/methodology/approach The study used a sample of 200 listed nonfinancial firms in the SAARC nations from 2012 to 2021. The System Generalized Method of Moment model was applied to the data consisting of 2000 firm-year observations. The Generalized Estimating Equation population-averaged model was also employed for added robustness. The study employed Tobin's Q as the measure of FP.Findings The findings revealed that amongst the CG variables tested, external AQ exhibited a significantly positive relationship with Tobin's Q. Significant negative influences on FP have been demonstrated by the variables of audit committee meeting and board's independence. Furthermore, gender diversity, CEO duality, audit committee strength and independence failed to record any significant association.Originality/value This study is one of the first to investigate the association between CG idiosyncrasies and FP in the SAARC nations. The study findings have important implications for policymakers and regulators in the region.

Do Indian banks perform better in corporate governance than other SAARC nations? An empirical analysis

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance on the bank profitability of Indian banks vis-à-vis South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations. Design/methodology/approach For the Corporate Governance Index, the authors examined board accountability, transparency and disclosure and audit committee, while Tobin’s Q, return on equity and return on assets are used to measure the bank’s profitability. The study used a two-stage analysis based on balanced panel data for robust findings. Sample of this study consists of 60 commercial banks from India and 60 banks from SAARC nations for the period of 2009–2021. This study used panel regression and a generalized method of moment approach using the CAMELS framework on banking industry-specific variables to determine their respective impacts. Findings The findings of this study suggest that board accountability is positive and significantly affects the profitability of banks as indicated by return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q. In contrast, the audit committee has a positive and insignificant impact on return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q, while transparency and disclosure have a negative and significant impact on these metrics. Furthermore, the country dummy result shows a significant positive impact on all the bank performance parameters, implying that Indian banks have the highest degree of convergence with corporate governance as compared to other SAARC nations. Research limitations/implications This study provides insight to the regulators, policymakers and financial institutions to evaluate the role of corporate governance in emerging economies. However, the findings of the study should be interpreted with caution, as the results are sensitive to the disparity between India and other SAARC nations' government policies, climatic circumstances and cultural or religious traditions. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to gauge the performance of Indian banks vis-à-vis SAARC nations using the CAMELS framework approach. Further, findings of this study suggest some novel evidence tying corporate governance quality with the profitability of banks among SAARC nations.

A tale of online learning during COVID-19: A reflection from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the higher education industry around the world. The battle that was fought by institutions and their faculty members to move classes and programs from a face-to-face environment to an online one has resulted in a new set of challenges for them to overcome. In the context of online education, academics working in less developed countries are confronted with quite different realities than their peers working in more developed economies. This article investigates the effect that COVID-19 had on the higher education systems of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, three of the most important SAARC nations at a time when these countries were struggling with limited resources, unreliable infrastructure, and a pronounced “digital divide” in higher education. The literature review and in-depth interviews conducted for the purpose of this study uncovered six primary challenges. These challenges were identified as facilitating conditions, technology readiness, learning experience, mental health, concerns regarding performance improvement and sustainability. The findings presented here highlight the necessity for more government intervention and investment in order to: firstly, improve the quality of teaching and learning; and secondly, close the digital divide. Several recommendations are stated in this paper for future research to consider.

INDIA’S TRADE RELATIONS WITH OTHER SAARC NATIONS: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON TRENDS FROM 2014 TO 2021

In terms of South Asian institutions, SAARC is crucial. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is a political and economic group in the region. It is founding members-Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan-made it the largest regional organization on December 8, 1985. It has played a significant part in fostering closer ties between its member countries by organizing summits and conferences at a variety of levels. India plays a significant role as a SAARC member. Geographically and economically, India controls 70 percent of the SAARC region, while the other six member nations share borders only with India. In this study researcher highlights Indias trade relations with other SAARC economies. Researcher also examines India commercial ties to the other SAARC nations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data used in this article was collected from yearly reports made public by SAARC secretaries, which included numerical data acquired from those reports. The results indicate that during the Covid-19 outbreak, trade between India with the other SAARC members fall. The research indicates that the future has opportunities that are favorable for the progress of nations. KEYWORDS: SAARC Countries, South Asia, Covid-19, SAARC secretaries.

Managing the Pandemic in the South Asian (SAARC) Countries

This paper explores the coronavirus pandemic response from a South Asian perspective. When their case numbers were still relatively low, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries adopted lockdowns at the same time or before India did. On 24 March 2020, when there were just two confirmed cases, Nepal went into lockdown, and Sri Lanka locked down on 22 March, when there were 78 cases. India locked down the day after Nepal, with all countries imposing some form of restrictions on people’s movement. This paper draws its data from the first year of the pandemic that loomed in the SAARC nations. The regional cooperation provided by SAARC has allowed the sharing of resources and a strengthening of the region’s self-reliance. Notably, the commitment made by India to ensure its neighbours are supplied with vaccines, many of these donated. The eight-member SAARC states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This paper draws on the knowledge and perceptions of academics and social workers in the SAARC countries. It provides insight into the responses, impacts, vulnerabilities, and challenges faced by the region and in each specific country since the beginning of COVID-19. This paper also offers a discussion on vaccines, PPE, as well as the role of cooperation across the region. The relationship between India and the SAARC countries and its ‘neighbourhood first’ policy are also discussed.

A Comparative Study on Percentage of Women (Age 15–49) Attending at Least One Antenatal Care by Skilled Health Personnel in SAARC Countries (2015-2030)

Background: Antenatal care (ANC) plays an important role in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and political organization of eight countries in South Asia. There is an unacceptably high burden of neonatal mortality and stillbirths in the SAARC region. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to estimate the percentage of at least one ANC visit from 2015 to 2030 from previously available data and to compare the progress among SAARC nations. Methodology: This is a secondary analysis study. Data indicating percentages of women attending at least one ANC by skilled health personnel in SAARC countries Maternal and newborn health coverage dataset-May 2021 by United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was used. Regression Coefficient was used first to check the strength of the relationship for prediction at a 5 % significance level. Then, the percentages of ANC visits were predicted. To compare the percentages among countries, non-Parametric correlation Kendall’s tau was used. Findings: Results indicate that SAARC countries are struggling to reach at least one ANC visit. Comparison among these countries has shown no significant trend and it is concluded that there is no significant difference among SAARC countries' women ANC visits from 2015 to 2030 at a 5% significance level for all years. Practical Implications: The estimations of this research would help to develop innovative strategies for uplifting maternal health among SAARC countries to reach Sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Particulate air pollution and metabolic risk factors: Which are more prone to cardiac mortality.

This study explored multiplex, country-level connections between a wide range of cardiac risk factors and associated mortality within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries. The grey relational analysis (GRA) methodology is used to evaluate data from 2001 to 2018 to compute scores and rank countries based on cardiac mortality. Subsequently, we used the conservative (Min-Max) technique to determine which South Asian country contributes the most to cardiac mortality. The Hurwicz criterion is further applied for optimization by highlighting the risk factors with the highest impact on cardiac mortality. Empirical findings revealed that India and Nepal are the leading drivers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality among all SAARC nations based on the results of the GRA methodology. Moreover, the outcomes based on the Hurwicz criterion and the conservative criterion indicated that CVD mortality is considerably impacted by household air pollution from the combustion of solid fuel, with India as a potential contributor in the SAARC region. The outcomes of this research may enable international organizations and public health policymakers to make better decisions and investments within the SAARC region to minimize the burden of CVD while also strengthening environmentally sustainable healthcare practices.

Informal Providers-Ground Realities in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Nations: Toward Better Cancer Primary Care: A Narrative Review.

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations are a group of eight countries with low to medium Human Development Index values. They lack trained human resources in primary health care to achieve the WHO-stated goal of Universal Health Coverage. An unregulated service sector of informal health care providers (IPs) has been serving these underserved communities. The aim is to summarize the role of IPs in primary cancer care, compare quality with formal providers, quantify distribution in urban and rural settings, and present the socioeconomic milieu that sustains their existence. A narrative review of the published literature in English from January 2000 to December 2021 was performed using MeSH Terms Informal Health Care Provider/Informal Provider and Primary Health Care across databases such as Medline (PubMed), Google Scholar, and Cochrane database of systematic reviews, as well as World Bank, Center for Global Development, American Economic Review, Journal Storage, and Web of Science. In addition, citation lists from the primary articles, gray literature in English, and policy blogs were included. We present a descriptive overview of our findings as applicable to SAARC. IPs across the rural landscape often comprise more than 75% of primary caregivers. They provide accessible and affordable, but often substandard quality of care. However, their network would be suitable for prompt cancer referrals. Care delivery and accountability correlate with prevalent standards of formal health care. Acknowledgment and upskilling of IPs could be a cost-effective bridge toward universal health coverage and early cancer diagnosis in SAARC nations, whereas state capacity for training formal health care providers is ramped up simultaneously. This must be achieved without compromising investment in the critical resource of qualified doctors and allied health professionals who form the core of the rural public primary health care system.

Status and Trends in Financial Inclusion and Financial Stability: A Comparative Analysis of SAARC Countries

Financial Inclusion (FI) refers to the process of bringing more people under the coverage of formal financial sector/s. It is very common in developed countries over the decades. But with the development of science and technology, financial inclusion has been introduced and spread in many developing nations in recent times. Most of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations are still under the category of developing economies. Mostly financial inclusion has taken part in this region for the last two decades. This research conducted a comparative study among the different SAARC nations based on the achievement in financial inclusion. This paper attempted to identify the sequential position of those countries as they can evaluate them by comparing each other for further improvement and stability.

Indicator based assessment of food security in SAARC nations under the influence of climate change scenarios

The availability of food is the basic entity for the survival of human. The resources that make a nation food secured is guided by multiple factors and can be evaluated using a set of indicators. We present an assessment for ranking food security of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations represented by Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, the Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka using a set of indicators under the prevailing scenarios of climate change. The food security indicators can primarily be grouped into four dimensions represented by the availability of food, access to food, potential utilization and stability of food production. Each of the identified indicators that are independent of each other can be utilised to assign individual values based upon actual statistics and observations available for each country. The projection of these statistical values for evaluating future food security can also be done once the appropriate methodology is available for making projections. We assessed food security under the future scenarios of climate change for the year 2050 by synthesising a food security index using a set of indicators. The climate change scenarios were adopted from the IPCC (2014) assessment represented by RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5. The score of individual indicators were obtained from country specific statistics provided by Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Bank while the values of few indicators such as the projected availability of agriculture and forest land, estimates of future productivity under climate change scenarios and vulnerability of food production were synthesised by the authors for this study. The assessment shows that under all RCPs, Bangladesh is the most food secured nation followed by Sri Lanka. Whereas, Maldives and Afghanistan were found to fall under least food secured SAARC nation under all four scenarios of climate change. While rest of the nations had varying ranks and represented the middle-ranking of food security under all RCPs. India was consistently at the sixth position under all four scenarios of climate change followed by Afghanistan and Maldives in a consistent manner while Afghanistan maintained the rank of seventh and Maldives was found to fall at last position of eighth rank. The framework of assessment demonstrated by us can be used for ranking individual region while it provides an opportunity to the planners for allocating adequate resources and implement other adequate measures in regions that fall short in terms of food security.

COVID-19 vaccination in South Asia: a call for responsible leadership among SAARC countries

PurposeCoronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has presented an opportunity to set aside traditional regional collaborations and take responsible leadership to overcome difficult times. This paper aims to explore the current COVID-19 vaccination progress and pandemic status for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries and suggests responsible leadership to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and to think beyond.Design/methodology/approachThis paper offers a viewpoint of the current COVID-19 vaccination among eight SAARC nations. It scrutinises the recent COVID-19 vaccination statistics for the eight South Asian countries based on Web-based analytics and comparative analysis until 28 August 2021.FindingsThis paper calls for collaborative decisions and responsible actions for policymakers in the SAARC countries to deal with the COVID-19 vaccination crisis. When South Asian countries are fraught with the increasing number of populations with COVID-19 cases, deaths and acute shortage of life-saving vaccines, it is time for their national and SAARC leaders to strengthen regional cooperations and initiate collaborative actions. The paper demonstrates that implementing responsible leadership can result in favourable outcomes for individuals, organisations, regions and the world. Moreover, this paper suggests SAARC, through responsible actions, has the potentiality to overcome the current crisis of COVID-19 vaccination and enhance the regional sustainability of the South Asian nations.Originality/valueThis paper delivers information about the present developing situation of COVID-19 vaccination in SAARC countries, how the governments and regional leadership are handling and future challenges that have been raised and can be overcome effectively. This paper can be helpful for the policymakers and SAARC leaders for effective public health interventions in the region and to develop a recovery roadmap for the sustainable economic zone.

Assessing vulnerability of agriculture system to climate change in the SAARC region

Agriculture production is primarily influenced by human-induced management interventions whereas climate plays an important role. Climate change with increasing global carbon dioxide concentration and changes in temperature, precipitation and other climatic parameters play a significant role in influencing agriculture productivity. The assessment of the vulnerability of agriculture production under the influence of climate change can be done using process-based vegetation models. We assessed the vulnerability of agriculture production for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations comprising of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka using the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) model. Net Primary Productivity (NPP) was simulated under the forcing of climatic variables of the climate change scenarios of representative concentration pathways (RCP2.6, 4.5 & 8.5) for the year 2050 using JULES. JULES is a process-based model that simulates fluxes of carbon, energy, and momentum between the atmosphere, land surface, and water to estimate the productivity of a system. The sensitivity was calculated as the inter-annual dispersion from the average NPP of assessment period 2016 to 2050, whereas adaptive capacity was calculated as the slope of productivity regressed over the assessment period. The vulnerability was calculated by subtracting the values of adaptability from sensitivity. The JULES simulated NPP was also compared with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS 17A) derived NPP for the period 2000–2014. The simulated NPP had a decreasing trend under projected climate change scenarios of 2050 for all the SAARC nations compared to recent years average of 2000–2014. The analysis reveals that one-third of the SAARC region is highly sensitive under low to moderate emission scenarios, while it was observed that under high emission scenarios the sensitivity would reduce with increased vulnerability. We observed that the vulnerability of the system is not alone influenced by sensitivity and any change in adaptive capacity or resilience would also impact the overall vulnerability of the system.

Socioeconomic Influence on Cardiac Mortality in the South Asian Region: New Perspectives from Grey Modeling and G-TOPSIS.

Background Measuring the potential socioeconomic factors of cardiac mortality is fundamental to identifying treatments, setting priorities, and effectively allocating resources to minimize disease burden. The study sought to present a methodology that explores the connections between urbanization, population growth, human development index (HDI), access to energy, unemployment, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations to mitigate the cardiac disease burden. Methods This investigation uses multiple-criteria decision-making methodologies to analyze data between 2001 and 2017 commencing with a mathematical grey incidence analysis (GIA) methodology to estimate weights and rank nations based on CVD mortality. Then, utilizing the conservative min-max model approach, we sought to determine which country contributes the most to CVD mortality among all South Asian nations. The grey preference by similarity to ideal solution (G-TOPSIS) method is adopted for further optimization by prioritizing the selected factors that have the greatest influence on CVD mortality. Results The estimated statistic highlights that, among SAARC nations, Pakistan has a significant proportion of the disease burden attributable to cardiac events. In addition, HDI showed a significant contribution in the reduction of CVD mortality, whereas unemployment showed a significant contribution in the rise of CVD mortality among all selected variables. Conclusions This investigation may facilitate researchers with a multiple-criteria decision-making roadmap to help them enhance the quality of their studies and their understanding of how to use multiple-criteria decision-making techniques to evaluate and prioritize the influencing factors of disease mortality in healthcare research. Further, the study outcomes provide additional practical knowledge for appropriate policy solutions.

Analyzing the Impact of Political Stability on FDI Inflows in SAARC Nations : A Panel ARDL Cointegration Approach

The present research work analyzed the influence of political stability on foreign direct investments (FDI) for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations. The study analyzed a panel of four countries, namely India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The time frame considered for analysis was from 2000 – 2017. The panel auto-regressive distributive lag (ARDL) cointegration methodology was applied to assess FDI inflows’ impact on political stability of select SAARC nations. The results of panel ARDL exhibited significant and positive influence of political stability on FDI inflows in the long and short run. Long run causality and joint causality were also established amongst the political stability components and FDI inflows. The study advised SAARC nations to consider desired actions for improving the investment scenario and keep political situation stable in the region. The government, leaders, and policy makers are also advised to pay due consideration to the political stability to keep low investor scepticism and attract more FDIs in the economy.

Some Determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in SAARC Countries: an Empirical Assessment through Panel Data Analysis

The present study is an attempt to examine the distal determinants of Infant Mortality Rate in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations over the period of 2000–2016. Instead of looking at individual nation model, the study tries to develop a regional model to examine the determinants of infant mortality. Infant mortality is modelled as a function of public health expenditure, educational status of women, access to proper sanitation, GDP per capita and urbanisation. To attain this objective, we have applied Pedroni’s cointegration test. Subsequently, to estimate the long run relationship we have utilized the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) methods. The results of the Pedroni’s cointegration test have shown the long run relationship among the selected variables. Similarly, FMOLS and DOLS test results have indicated that health expenditure, GDP per capita, educational status of women and sanitation facilities have a significant impact on Infant Mortality Rate of SAARC nations. The results of this study led to the conclusion that Health Expenditure is one of the significant contributors in decreasing the Infant Mortality Rate. Moreover, the results of our study shed light on determinants such as GDP Per Capita, Female Education, Urbanisation and Sanitation which have some clear policy implications for reducing Infant Mortality Rate in SAARC nations.

Developmental Performance Ranking of SAARC Nations: An Application of TOPSIS Method of Multi-Criteria Decision Making

To be developed, nations are trying to cope up with the fast-changing economy and technology of the world. But the development of a nation does not depend only on these two factors rather several other indicators are essential to a country’s development. The present study deals with the progress of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries towards development through social, economic and environmental stability. This study aims at analyzing the comparative developmental performance of the SAARC nations in accordance with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this study, we have prioritized the 8 SAARC nations based on 4 indicators (economic, demographic, health and environment indicators) and 20 variables using the multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM). The result showed that Sri Lanka has prioritized 1st followed by Bhutan. India has been ranked 4th and Afghanistan was least prioritized.

Modelling Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) in response to climate change scenarios for the SAARC nations

Agriculture and forestry are the two major land use classes providing sustenance to the human population. With the pace of development, these two land use classes continue to change over time. Land use change is a dynamic process under the influence of multiple drivers including climate change. Therefore, tracing the trajectory of the changes is challenging. The artificial neural network (ANN) has successfully been applied for tracing such a dynamic process to capture nonlinear responses. We test the application of the multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP-NN) to project the future Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) for the year 2050 for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations which is a geopolitical union of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) use much frequently the term 'AFOLU' in their policy documents. Hence, we restricted our land use classification scheme as AFOLU for assessing the influence of climate change scenarios of the IPCC fifth assessment report (RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, RCP 6.0 and RCP 8.5). Agricultural land would increase in all the SAARC nations, with the highest increase in Pakistan and Maldives; moderate increase in Afghanistan, India and Nepal; and the least increase in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. The forestry land use will witness a decreasing trend under all scenarios in all of the SAARC nations with varying levels of changes. The study is expected to assist planners and policymakers to develop nations' specific strategy to proportionate land use classes to meet various needs on a sustainable basis.

Does India's growth matter? Evidence from the SAARC nations

The study estimates the extent of spillover effects that India's real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate has on the growth rates of other countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region for the period 2003–2016. It also identifies whether the conventional trade channel is the means through which growth is transmitted from India to her neighboring countries. Using a random effects model, we conclude that on average, a 1 percentage point increase in India's real per capita GDP growth rate results in 0.46 percentage point increase in the per capita GDP growth rates of other SAARC nations. However, this does not occur through the trade channel primarily due to low levels of intraregional trade. Also, using time dummies, the paper analyzes whether there has been any significant change in the degree of spillover effects in the postfinancial crisis period, where countries have been observed to insulate themselves to a certain extent.

Water and Communities in South Asia: A Case for Regional Cooperation

Increased use of water for hydropower and agriculture, due to population growth accounts for future water shortages that will affect a quarter of South Asia’s population by 2050. Water crises affect all member-nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC nations water needs exacerbate the water crisis on the one hand and lack of mechanisms for good governance and cooperation required for addressing issues related to food and water security within the region. This paper attempts to draw attention to the big picture regarding water resources management and the impacts of water scarcity on South Asian nations. The paper begins with a review of the water crises in each of the SAARC nations and follows on with consideration of perceptions towards transboundary river infrastructures and the political stances each nation takes about solutions for the continuing water crisis. Undoubtedly, the only mechanism that these nations can adapt to address the geopolitical challenges of a thirsty world, for which SAARC association provides the platform is a deliberate constructive solution centred dialogue. A range of recommendations for SAARC nations are reviewed with a view to assist the water thirst in these nations.