From Narendra Modi’s landslide victory in India to a one-sided and violent election in Bangladesh, from mass demonstrations in Islamabad to campaigning for an early presidential poll in Sri Lanka, 2014 was a year of fast and furious politics for the fifth of the world’s population who live in south Asia.

India to focus on diplomacy for development in 2015, says SwarajExternal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said that 2014 was a year of breakthrough diplomacy for India, and added that New Delhi will in the next year focus on diplomacy for development with a new vision and renewed vigour.

A look at the events in 2014 likely to have the most lasting impact on the region and beyond.

During the recent Saarc summit, the Nepal Prime Minister's niece hosted the South Asian first ladies. A few days before that, Maggie Abbot, the Australia PM's wife took the wives of G20 leaders to see a wildlife sanctuary in Australia. And as a result, Indian babus in foreign relations are now missing the feminine touch to India's diplomatic endeavours and are hoping he will have someone fill in the post of First Lady for the country.

Twiplomacy or ‘twitter diplomacy’ was at its peak with South Asian leaders taking to the social media platform as the 18th Saarc Summit kicked off in the Capital on Wednesday.

The initiative seeks to provide a deeper understanding of public diplomacy practices and trends in emerging markets of different political persuasions, against the backdrop of increasing multi-polarity and shifting world order. 

In our international surveys at the Pew Research Center, we explore how people in countries around the world differ on a wide range of political, economic, and social topics. But very few issues generate the kind of differences we see when we ask about homosexuality.

India’s economy could be a catalyst for development if the region can open up.(...) Modi’s foreign policy, like that of many of his predecessors, is greatly reliant on South Asia. India’s role in the larger world has often been constrained by turmoil in its neighborhood.