Andrew Buncombe



Profile:
Full name: Andrew Buncombe

Area of interest: Asia (India, Pakistan, Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh)

Journals/Organisation: The Independent

Email: [mailto:a.buncombe@independent.co.uk a.buncombe@independent.co.uk]

Personal website:

Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/andrew-buncombe

Blog: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/andrewbuncombe

Representation:

Networks: https://twitter.com/#!/andrewbuncombe



Biography:
About: http://www.independent.co.uk/biography/andrew-buncombe

Education:

Career: "The Independent's Asia Correspondent Andrew Buncombe is based in Delhi. His dominion ranges over India, Pakistan, Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sir Lanka, occasionally parts of South East Asia and - or at least he is hoping - The Maldives." (source: The Independent) Current position/role: Asia Correspondent


 * also writes/has written for:

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Video:

Controversy/Criticism: Independent reporter shot as he covers the Bangkok crisis - The Guardian, 20th May 2010

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Books & Debate:


Latest work:

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Debate: 

The Independent:
Column name:

Remit/Info: Asian coverage/issues

Section:

Role: Asia Correspondent

Pen-name:

Email: [mailto:a.buncombe@independent.co.uk a.buncombe@independent.co.uk]

Website: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/author/andrewbuncombe

Commissioning editor:

Day published: varies

Regularity: not frequent

Column format:

Average length:



Articles:

 * What’s the big deal, Barack Obama? India has plenty of top women bankers - Global Outlook: We are our own glass ceilings and see glass ceilings that don’t exist - 12th October 2013
 * The passing of a generation: Manmohan Singh's time as Indian Prime Minister is nearly up - Rahul Gandhi is running India from the sidelines - 3rd October 2013
 * Visa bonds a blow to ‘special relationship’ with India - Cameron should think carefully before he progresses with this scheme, which has been greeted with anger and disbelief by the very people the PM has tried to woo - 30th June
 * The Government must do more to stop India's plague of acid attacks - Campaigners want the sale of acid to be regulated in future - 4th June 2013
 * Kashmir: It's time for India take a risk - The removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which protects Indian troops from prosecution, would be a gesture of goodwill to Kashmir's population - 21st May 2013
 * Hot, small, and crowded, Singapore is having an identity crisis - Earlier this year the authorities revealed proposals to increase the population of 5.3 million by as much as 30 per cent by 2030. Citizens did not take them well - 22nd March 2013
 * Rape in India: Leaders need to prove they want to make their country safe for women - India needs to prove a series of measures that show the authorities take rapes and sexual assaults seriously - 21st March 2013
 * Pakistan's minorities are under attack and the country's blasphemy laws must share the blame - The accusation alone of blasphemy has led to violence that has claimed countless lives. And the cases themselves are usually about something else - 11th March 2013
 * Syed Ali Shah Geelani: Why is India afraid of this 83 year-old man? - He has long been considered a hard-liner in Kashmiri politics and has never shifted from his demands for a referendum to decide the future of Kashmir - 1st March 2013
 * Why exactly will the Delhi rape trial be held in private? - The public has a right to know the role of the five men in the attack. Perhaps the real motive is that someone has decided the ensuing publicity might be be bad for India - 4th February 2013
 * Burma visit is not just about trade. The President's aim is to counter the challenge of China - The way senior US officials have been talking, one might think Washington had just discovered this strange new world called "Asia" - 19th November 2012
 * Did India betray democracy in Burma? - Beneath the diplomatic platitudes and the soundbites for the media, it soon became clear that Ms Suu Kyi was not entirely happy - 19th November 2012
 * Dharamsala: The new film festival in the Dalai Lama's backyard - A new film festival will showcase the best of recent Indian and world cinema in November - 13th October 2012
 * Can journalists ever be trusted to keep a secret? - Dart-playing Telegraph correspondent has been banned from the British social club in Islamabad - in case he reports the off-hand gossip of diplomats - 21st September 2012
 * Delhi is a city where connections count for a lot - As with so many things in Delhi, one's access to an uninterrupted supply of electricity is inextricably linked to wealth, status and connections - 31st July 2012
 * Freedoms beget freedoms as voters have their say - These polls have to be seen as credible and opponents such as the NLD have to take part - 2nd April 2012
 * Breathing life into a dying language - The Andamans, a cluster of islands 700 miles east of the Indian mainland in the Bay of Bengal, are home to three highly endangered languages - 17th November 2011
 * India where it's still the 1930s'' - Notebook - 11th July 2011
 * a serving army major spying on compound?'' - View from Abbottabad: When The Independent went in search last month of those who may have helped the CIA to keep a watch on Osama bin Laden, there were plenty of puzzled looks, but no mirrored windows or telephoto lenses - 16th June 2011
 * big heart, a brave soul and a death that leaves some blood on our hands'' - Syed Saleem Shahzad had strong hands - 4th June 2011
 * excuses are not going to solve this crisis'' - In the states of Punjab and Haryana, famed as the home of the big fat Indian wedding, there is something of a marriage crisis - 25th May 2011
 * won't tolerate corruption forever'' - The middle-classes in India have, in recent days, been getting very stirred up by an elderly man in a traditional white hat who almost brought the government to a spluttering halt by going on a hunger strike - 25th April 2011
 * who dare to speak out become a shooting target'' - Rarely have Pakistan's religious minorities and liberals felt more beleaguered - 3rd March 2011
 * breaking up, I’m at the cinema'' - It’s curious the way in which things settle down, how issues that once appeared vexing gradually smooth out, or even become a pleasure - 28th February 2011
 * – the politician critics saw as a rabble-rouser'' - Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, is perhaps the most controversial politician in India. He is also one of the most successful - 23rd February 2011
 * on mosquitoes in fight to get Delhi ready for Games'' - If the fate of the Commonwealth Games depends on the efforts of people such as Sanjay Kumar, then one can take comfort from the attention to which the young man was giving his work - 24th September 2010
 * still cast a lengthy shadow over regional politics'' - Despite a meeting last week at a regional summit between the leaders of Pakistan and India and a slight melting of the diplomatic ice, the relationship between South Asia's nuclear-armed neighbours has still not returned to the position it was at when Ajmal Kasab and his accomplices unleashed deadly chaos - 4th May 2010
 * escape from the pull of poverty'' - Kolkata Notebook: Life as a rickshaw-puller is hard, difficult and usually short - 8th March 2010
 * one extreme to the other'' - Delhi Notebook: - 6th January 2010
 * epiphany born out of disaster'' - Galle Notebook: - 24th December 2009
 * sure way to lose hearts and minds'' - Kashmir Notebook: Te central Government recently banned pre-paid mobile phone connections in the state - 7th December 2009
 * of more troops will arouse suspicion in Pakistan'' - While it is to Afghanistan that additional American troops are being dispatched, Barack Obama's administration has made it clear that its policy is dependent on "getting it right" in neighbouring Pakistan – a country that has very different regional priorities to the US - 2nd December 2009 (with Omar Waraich)
 * relic no place for high jinks'' - Lahore Notebook: The mighty Zam-Zammah is splattered with pigeon mess and sitting on an unsightly concrete plinth - 2nd November 2009
 * sounds to match the setting'' - Jodhpur Notebook: The musicians would take the roof off - if there was one - 12th October 2009
 * baguettes and ancient enemies'' - Pondicherry Notebook: In the 'French Quarter' of this otherwise Tamil town it is clean and calm - 7th September 2009
 * the rains finally came'' - Delhi Notebook - 13th August 2009
 * verdict that clears junta's path to election'' - The proclamation commuting Aung San Suu Kyi's imprisonment yesterday was careful to make clear her sentence should be lessened "if" she was found guilty by the court and not "when" - 12th August 2009
 * emir is dead, but can drones end the insurgency?'' - The assassination of the former fitness instructor by a missile fired from a CIA drone, following as it does close on the heels of the Pakistan army's success in the Swat Valley, could scarcely have been imagined just six months ago - 8th August 2009 (Baitullah Mehsud)
 * try talking a lot of rubbish again'' - Delhi Notebook: There's a nice old-fashioned barney going on between local and national politicians in the Indian capital, and its all about plastic bags – or rather how to get rid of them - 23rd July 2009
 * reckless side of the 'new India''' - Delhi Notebook: It is a confident, sometimes swaggering place that wants to pitch the best of itself to the world - 14th July 2009
 * it's broke, let a handyman fix it'' - Delhi Notebook: in the West have become throw-away consumers; when was the last time you even saw an electronics repair shop? - 2nd July 2009
 * damage by any measure'' - Delhi Notebook: Sri Lanka's government may have won the war, but there is still a lot of work to do - 25th May 2009
 * Asian conflicts, two different responses from the West'' - Two conflicts to get rid of two well-trained, well-armed militant groups that the governments say are threatening the very survival of the countries. Yet, seemingly, two very different perspectives from the West - 13th May 2009
 * at US summit could not be higher'' - When Asif Ali Zardari sees Barack Obama at the White House tomorrow for what is expected to be a tense meeting, the stakes could scarcely be higher - 5th May 2009
 * – time to throw the shoe'' - While hurling a shoe isn't the height of professionalism, I wonder if there's a half-way point journalists might adopt when a politician refuses to come clean - 13th April 2009
 * sense of persecution driving the protesters'' - For decades, Tamils living in Sri Lanka have complained about discrimination by the establishment. But in recent months, the fate of hundreds of thousands of civilians has become much more perilous - 10th April 2009
 * could hinge on the right slogan'' - Delhi Notebook: There's a tradition of political slogans winning and losing elections, so it's no wonder the parties want the perfect catchphrase - 23rd March 2009
 * play silly games while the nation burns'' - Sometimes with Pakistan it is difficult to know whether to laugh or cry - 12th March 2009
 * motivated and on the rise. But who are these militants?'' - as Pakistani police continued what increasingly seemed a hapless hunt for the perpetrators of the Lahore attack, a consensus was gathering that the ambush represented the emergence of a new and distressing terror threat for South Asia - 5th March 2009
 * best kept culinary secret'' - Nihari is a meat porridge that sets its eater up for the day - 2nd March 2009
 * and poor, side by side'' - In Delhi the the layers of history are always rubbing up against each other - 2nd February 2009
 * descends on the noisiest city'' - Dhaka Notebook: I wonder whether Dhaka's reputation might be somewhat unfair - 15th December 2008
 * region at the heart of this deadly argument'' - Again the talk is of Kashmir, disputed, coveted and often fought over... - 1st December 2008
 * political crisis with former PM Thaksin at its core'' - turmoil in Thailand - 27th November 2008
 * sound of music and prayer'' - Indian Notebook: The combination of music and prayer and people, walking clockwise, was mesmeric - 24th November 2008
 * Notebook: As we enter the state of Uttar Pradesh, the scenes of poverty are shocking'' - 3rd November 2008
 * Notebook: A festival to scare off any demons'' - 13th October 2008
 * Notebook: The day I felt a police hand on my shoulder'' - 22nd September 2008
 * Notebook: On the unfinished road to democracy'' - 21st August 2008
 * Notebook: The music didn't die. Just the drink'' - 11th August 2008
 * Gujarat's bloody recent history of sectarian strife - Monday, 28th July 2008



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