Imran Khan has played many prominent roles in Pakistan over the past few decades: champion cricketer, philanthropist, author and politician. However, it is his latest role that is drawing him the most attention at present: potential presidential candidate. 

Last month, I got an opportunity to travel through Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda on a field trip. As part of my research, I interacted with policy-makers, regional experts from diverse backgrounds, academics and journalists. Through my interaction and exposure to East African culture, I was able to develop an improved understanding of the region. Discussions on Africa are generally centered on poverty, disease and disasters. Positive developments in Africa are featured less prominently in mainstream socio-political discourse. Endowed with abundant resources, both human and natural, African countries, especially in East Africa, are gradually getting their act together and striving for growth for their people. The potential of East Africa to emerge as a powerful regional bloc in the continent should receive significant attention.

After a two week journey through East Africa, my last stop, Kigali, was literally a breath of fresh air. Clean and green, with ordered traffic and smooth wide avenues, Kigali is a far cry from what one would imagine. 17 years after one of the worst genocides in history, the country and the people have come a long way, and Rwandans have much to feel satisfied about. During the course of visit to the country, I experienced a sense of positivity in the country that is only possible when people truly believe that there is hope in their future. From interactions with all aspects of the civil society, the government and everyday Rwandans, I realized what is most remarkable and commendable is that people have chosen to learn from their horrific past and take charge of their future.

They say European economies are failing – Greece, Italy, may be Spain. They are bound to fail when their growth rates plunge. It is not like rising economies where official accounts are hardly relevant. What is good for future of the world – a transparent failing economy or a rising black economy?

Bangladesh is in the midst of a severe energy and power supply crisis; one of the worst in South Asia. Approximately 85% of the power generated in the country is from natural gas. The growth in demand and consumption of gas has been far outstripping any increase in supply and production, leading to gas deficits, which are likely to worsen in the coming years. In order to meet the growing energy demand, the government has increased its focus on renewable energy in the past decade. Initially, the aim was to expand solar and biogas energy in the rural regions of the country. However, the government is now looking to explore the potential of wind energy, particularly along the country’s 700 kilometer long coastline.

In 2006, the Barefoot College set up a community-level solar-powered desalination plant in partnership with a small voluntary organization called Manthan in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. This small-scale plant now meets the drinking water requirements of more than 1,000 men, women and children from Kotri, as well as the surrounding villages. A family is charged INR 40 per month for use of 1200 litres of water. This is just one of the many emerging small-scale water desalination initiatives that have been taken to meet the needs of vulnerable people with little or no access to clean water in India. 

Presently, US-Pakistan relations are at an extremely crucial juncture. There are conflicting views amongst analysts about whether or not Pakistan has been pushed into a corner by the US over the issue of support to terrorists. There are theories about whether the Pakistan-US alliance would last till the end of the war in Afghanistan and questions about what Pakistan would ask for in return for getting Taliban to the negotiating table. 

I have rarely experienced a greater irony in my life. Hours after I spent touching moments in Einstein’s apartment at Gerechtigkeitsgasse 32 in old Bern, where he had written all his famous works of 1905, I heard the announcement from another part of Switzerland. CERN said that its Large Hadron Collider had enabled neutrinos to travel faster than light, thus proving Einstein wrong.....