South Asia in the twenty-first century: Seeking ‘good governance’ in the era of the information revolution

This comparative study of the four major South Asian economies – Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – has reflected on the key problem areas that seem to be hampering the quest for development in these polities in the early part of the twenty-first century. These include:

• low to moderate saving and investment; • low level of human resource development (with the exception of Sri Lanka;

however, at present this nation has been suffering from lack of resources due to a 25-year civil war);

• poor physical infrastructure; • weak fiscal position of the government; • significant reliance on generally inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs); • insufficiently competitive domestic markets; • moderate with international trade and investment.