Introduction: Contradictions in South Asia Mostly discussions on South Asia start with a phrase that ‘South Asia is one of the least integrated regions of the world’. Although negative it is an appropriate characterisation of a region that despite having so much of socio-cultural and historical commonalities struggled to cooperate and integrate. Even from a purely economic perspective, South Asia showed some remarkable growth rate in the last two decades but failed to improve the intra-regional trade. These are some notable contradictions of the region. Several other contradictions define South Asia as economic growth has not sufficiently translated into economic development. South Asia in demographic terms is one of the youngest regions of the world. Economically it is one of the biggest and booming markets. Still, South Asians do not afford to have a balanced nutritious diet. South Asia is close to Sub-Saharan Africa in...