South Asia Investor Review

The Annual Status of Education Report ( ASER ) Pakistan 2025 national report, officially released on March 26, 2026, shows that the number of "Out of School Children" (OOSC) aged 6-16 years in Pakistan is now 5 million, not 25 million generally reported.  "The findings on access are encouraging. Enrollment levels are high, with 92.2 percent of children aged 6–16 in school and only 7.7 percent out of school", says the ASER Pakistan 2025 report. ASER Pakistan is a citizen-led initiative, primarily led by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with various national and international partners to promote foundational learning. It also works closely with over 10,000 volunteers and numerous local civil society organizations such as the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), PAL Network (People's Action for Learning),  UNESCO and federal and provincial government departments in Pakistan.  Enrolling Out of School Children in Pakistan. Source: ASER Via Bilal Gilani  The lates...

Over 1000 Pakistani medical graduates have been matched in the 2026 NRMP (National Residency Matching Program), according to APPNA (The Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America).  This 2026 program was the largest in history, offering 44,344 positions to 53,373 registered applicants, with over 93% of spots filled. Among Pakistani medical graduates matched, Karachi's Dow Medical University graduates led the pack with 132 matches, followed by 109 from Lahore's King Edwards Medical University and 60 from Karachi's Aga Khan Medical College.  Top Pakistani Medical Schools in US Residency Programs. Source: APPNA Nearly 3,000 Indian medical graduates made up the largest group among international medical graduates matched in US residency programs this year. Pakistanis were second with over 1,000 matches.  Over 9,000 International Medical Graduates (IMGs) (including both U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens) matched into U.S. residency positions, with non-U.S...

Right after October 7, 2023, Economist Magazine's Defense Editor Shashank Joshi posted X messages claiming that Hamas beheaded babies during the terrorist attack on Israelis. He has now deleted his posts. Instead of apologizing for joining the baseless Israeli propaganda campaign, Joshi has blamed it on "the fog of war", knowing fully well that this falsehood was used by the Israeli government to justify the  Gaza genocide  that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, most of them women and children. Here's what Joshi has now posted:  "Some of these reports have turned out to be untrue, and yes, I was wrong to be as confident in what was reported as first-hand evidence as I was, particularly given the fog of war in those initial post Oct 7th days".  An X user Tom London  dismissed  Joshi's excuses as follows: . @shashj @TheEconomist @zannymb when I heard the story that Hamas was said to have beheaded 40 babies I thought  1. This makes no sense at...

New research by several economists, including India's former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, finds that the country's GDP has been overstated by 22% to 31%. It says: "The level of (India's) real GDP is overstated by about 22% and the level of consumption by about 31%". "India's economy is thus smaller and the average standard of living significantly lower than official estimates indicate", it adds. The current GDP of India is less than $3 trillion, according to the authors.  Indian GDP Overstated by 22% to 31%. Source: PIIE   In a  paper  published by Peterson Institute for International Economics, the authors state that "India’s annual economic growth during the boom years between 2005 and 2011 may have been underestimated by about 1–1½ percentage points on average, and subsequent growth between 2012 and 2023 may have been overestimated by about 1½-2 percentage points".  It means that India's actual annual GDP growth during ...

Self-described "Proud Islamophobe" Laura Loomer was invited to speak this weekend at  India Today  Conclave, an annual conference sponsored by an Indian publication. Her speech focussed on what she called "Islamic Terrorism". She also apologized for anti-India racists X posts. To further please her Indian audience, she also engaged in Pakistan bashing. "Pakistan's biggest export to the world is Islamic terrorism, and I don't believe the US should be cozying up to the Pakistani government at all," she said.  Loomer is known to be very close to President Donald Trump. In her social media posts, she is also known for viciously attacking India and Indians almost as much as Muslims. But at the conference in Delhi, she apologized for her anti-India posts. She also deleted most or all such posts prior to showing up in India.  A Collage of Laura Loomer's anti-India Posts. Source: OpIndia Loomer has described Indians as “third-world invaders” and questi...

As the war enters 12th day, both the Israeli and the US militaries are using AI to accelerate decision-making, analyzing vast amounts of intelligence data for generating targets, and optimizing logistics, shifting toward AI-enabled command structures to maintain battlefield superiority. Almost all major US AI data center operators have signed contracts to provide AI tools and services to both the Pentagon and the IDF. This arrangement has not gone unnoticed by the Iranians who are now targeting  AI data centers  in the Middle East.  Data Centers in Gulf States. Source: Bloomberg Last week, three data centers operated by AmazonWeb Services (AWS), two in the United Arab Emirates and one in Bahrain, were struck by Iranian drones or missiles. The attacks forced the facilities offline and led to service outages affecting banking, payments, delivery apps, and enterprise software across the region, according to a  Fortune  magazine report.  The U.S. military uses ...