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David Malpass is the choice of the Trump administration to head the World Bank. He has worked with Latin American countries at the State Department, was the Treasury official responsible for the World Bank in the Reagan administration, and worked on Argentine currency, China trade matters in the Trump administration.

Malpass negotiated a $13 billion replenishment for the World Bank in 2017, with U.S. share of $1.2 billion. This capped the bank's lending at $25 billion.

Last year the World Bank provided China with $60.5 billion in loans for 400 projects, which this WSJ editorial says is loans China does not need with its $3.07 trillion in foreign reserves. This editorial is critical of the current World Bank head Dr. Kim for taking a job with a World Bank partner the private equity fund GIP.

The World Bank has played a significant role in development for South Asia and China in the early years after World War II.

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The Congress party leads with 100 seats in Rajasthan and 114 seats in Madhya Pradesh in the State Assembly elections.

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Prime minister Modi campaigning in his home state of Gujarat, and taking control of the campaign in the state. He has visited the state to launch the bullet train project, a new ferry service for Saurashtra, and for the Narmada dam completion.

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Efforts to reverse declining investor sentiment in India.

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A Pakistani court finds former prime minister Nawaz Sharif guilty of corruption. Sharif is sentenced for 10 years in prison and his daughter Maryam Sharif to 7 years. The corruption case is based on 4 apartments in central London which prosecution claims were bought with money from kickbacks during Sharif's period as prime minister in the 1990's, and later passed on to his sons and daughter. Mr. Sharif's party is the frontrunner in the upcoming election.

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The WSJ's Amol Sharma's interview with India's Gujarat state chief minister, Narendra Modi, in August 2012.

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As the old rules are being rewritten or changed there is considerable ambiguity about the new nuclear rules for India and Pakistan, says The Times. This happens as Mr. Trump is distracted by the international problems such as North Korea and Venezuela and the Mueller probe into Trump and the election of 2016, and as UK prime minister May is distracted by Brexit. 

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Prime minister Modi of India's visit to Japan in September 2014 leads to a commitment of about $35 billion in Japanese investment over 5 years. Japanese companies such as Suzuki, Toyota and Toshiba already have large investments in India.

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The warm and hugely enthusiastic welcome given to India's newly elected prime minister Modi in New York in September 2014

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Meeting between prime minister Modi of India and prime minister Sharif of Pakistan is unlike anything that has happened between leaders in the region since independence in 1947. Sharif told NDTV: "I intend taking up threads from where Vajpayee and I left off in 1999." Modi says Sharif touched on some emotional things in his conversation. Sharif told Modi about his visits to his mother once a week, and how Modi's visit to his mother seen by Sharif when visiting his mother touched both of them deeply. Rarely has a visit been captured in poetry in the manner Sharif did in answering a question, when he recited an Urdu couplet: "cling to the tree and hope, for spring is in sight."

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The AKP party loses its parliamentary majority in the 2015 general election. It wins 41% of the vote compared to 50% in the 2011 general election. This gives it 258 seats in the Turkish parliament, compared to 327 seats in the last election. Kurds, liberals and secular Turks were part of the antigovernment protests in 2013. This part of the electorate voted for the Kurdish People's Democratic Party, which won 13% of the vote. The traditional secular party in Turkey won 25% of the vote, giving the opposition to the AKP a combined 38% of the vote. Turnout was 86% for the election. The Kurdish People's Democratic Party is led by a 42 year old human rights lawyer, who told reporters: "As of this hour, the debate about the presidency, the debate about dictatorship, is over. Turkey narrowly averted a disaster."