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South Asia is at a crossroads with growing population, rising per capita income, expanding economies, and increasing energy demand. With growing industrial, commercial, and transport sectors along with rising urban and middle-income consumers, the energy use is increasing at unprecedented rates to meet the ambitious poverty-reduction targets. All countries of the region are facing critical scenarios ranging from depleting indigenous energy resources for developing long-term energy cooperation plans to ensuring energy security. South Asian countries are highly dependent on imported fuels, especially liquid hydrocarbon, for transport. For instance, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh meet less of their energy demand with indigenous sources and thus face mounting energy import bills. Maldives depends on oil products to meet its energy needs. Nepal and Bhutan have huge hydroelectric potential. At the same time, there is a very wide variation in the energy consumption levels in South Asian countries. The high potential of hydropower in South Asia can reduce the reliance of the region on importing fossil fuel, increase the demand from indigenous resources, raise the energy security level, and reduce the emission levels. Therefore, energy security is vital for improved economic growth and to attain poverty reduction in the region, and thus calling for development and utilization of locally available renewable energy along with intraregional energy cooperation to help mitigate individual country energy security risks in the context of climate change is required.

The MEASA region forms a crescent of countries beginning with Bangladesh and India in the East, continuing through the Middle East and West Africa, and terminating with the South African nations. This grouping of countries has a long history of cultural, economic, and political advantages and achievements. One need only consider the energy riches of the Middle East, the mineral, agricultural, and fishery resources of Africa, or the large and educated population of India to understand the potential for the region. The MEASA region covers 45% of the worlds population and is expected to be one of the most rapidly growing regions. Moreover, the MEASA region is approximately 18% of global GDP and is likely to grow at much faster than developed countries in the coming decade. Our study reports that the MEASA region stocks have produced exceptional returns and returns relative to risk compared to MSCI Emerging Markets stocks, Frontier Market stocks, and World Index stocks during the January 2003 to September 2017 time period. The situation today in the MEASA region countries seems like the situation in the BRICs countries in the early 2000s. As happened with the BRICs countries, the barriers to investing in the MEASA region are being removed as we write. Innovative investment advisors are set to offer mechanisms to access these markets. The rewards will go to those visionary investors who are able to first see the possibilities.

Although the availability of water in South Asia is high, due to myriad problems of governance, access remains a major challenge. The size as well as the economic strength of riparians influence their treaty-making and implementing practice, compelling them to focus more on “unequal partnerships” syndromes while observing the applicable international norms and principles. Given their hydro-interdependency, the riparians deal with their problems by strategically taking an integrated or a fragmented approach, and adapting, in their unique way, to the principles of “no harm,” “equitable and reasonable use,” “notification,” and “data sharing” for water governance.

Densely populated South Asia faces the challenge of reducing hunger and food insecurity while combating vulnerability to climate change, natural disasters and conflicts. Home to about 36 per cent of the undernourished people in the world, the region (along with Middle East and North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa) accounted for 84 percent of violent terrorist attacks and 95 percent of related fatalities in the world. Higher instances of temperature extremes and altered rainfall patterns accompanied with sea level rise are affecting livelihoods and pushing migration both at national and sub-national levels. In this context, the study examines conflicts (through dummies considering combinations of conflict/no conflict in the present and preceding years) and climate change (as captured by rainfall and temperature over the period 1901 to 2014) as correlates of food security using fixed-effects panel data regression analysis over the period 1991 to 2014. Our econometric findings indicate that both conflicts and climate change worsen the already precarious food security situation in South Asia. In fact, the impact is even greater when prolonged conflicts are considered. Analyzing conflict–climate interactions, food insecurity appears to further worsen with temperatures deviating from their pre-structural break averages, when considered along with prolonged armed conflicts. The study concludes by recommending policies addressing food insecurity, conflicts, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.