Belt and the Road initiative was unveiled by the Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013. No wonder, this ambitious agenda has sparked a variety of reactions among governments throughout the regions. For Beijing, the BRI constitutes a grand strategy that integrates various factors in pursuit of China returning to great-power status without provoking overt counter reactions from its neighbours and the United States. To this extent, the BRI serves a number of China’s core domestic, economic, and geopolitical interests. Undoubtedly, it is an umbrella initiative covering a multitude of investment projects with the aim of promoting the flow of goods, investment and people. The new connections fostered by the BRI could reconfigure relationships, reroute economic activity, and shift power within and between states. The flagship project of BRI is the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which connects Kashgar in Xinjiang province of China to the Gwadar port in Pakistani province of Balochistan. The CPEC has turned South Asia geopolitically and geo-strategically significant. With the proposed departure of US troops from Afghanistan and the growing hostility between the US and Pakistan, China has been successful in filling the void, at least in Pakistan. In addition, there are other dimensions in evolving South Asia`s landscape which have attracted scholars and experts to ponder over the recent rise in Chinese power and its implications for India. As China becomes a global power, economic and political relations between Pakistan, Afghanistan and China get more intense and strategic. Contemporary relations between India and China are very complex and multifaceted. This book is an attempt at analyzing these interconnected, dynamic and recent political, military and economic developments with regard to BRI in light of India’s concerns. ABOUT AUTHOR Manish is Professor and Dean , School of International Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. He has earlier (March 2001- Dec. 2005) served as Associate Fellow with the prestigious New Delhi-based defence think tank, the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) and an Officer on Special Duty (Dec. 2005 – March 2012) with the Government of India. From March 2012 until October 2017, he was Head, Department of the International Relations, Sikkim University, Gangtok. At Sikkim University , Manish was also instrumental in setting up Maulana Azad Centre for North East Studies, with a research focus on India`s North East. The Centre published a magazine, titled Bodhi, under his editorship. He also holds various honorary positions: Advisory Board Member, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda; Visiting Faculty, Naval War College Goa; Board of Studies of the School of Foreign Affairs , Languages and Political Economy, Rashtriya Raksha Shakti University, Gujarat to mention few. Manish is a M.A., M. Phil. and Ph. D. from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His areas of interest include foreign policy & strategic security aspects. He has supervised various M.Phils and Ph.Ds. He is widely travelled and has several publications, including a book titled Jihadis in Jammu & Kashmir: A Portrait Gallery published by Sage.