Asia | Another test for Modi 3.0

The Adani scandal takes the shine off Modi’s electoral success

The tycoon’s indictment clouds the prime minister’s prospects

Photograph: Reuters

For India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, it should have been the perfect prelude to the winter session of parliament. Two days before its reopening on November 25th, results showed that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies had won a landslide victory in a state election in Maharashtra. The state is not just India’s richest and its second most populous. The stakes this year were especially high as the poll was seen as an indicator of whether the BJP could consolidate a political rebound after the surprising loss of its parliamentary majority in a general election in June.

Explore more

Discover more

Priyanka Gandhi addresses a rally standing in front of an image of herself.

Priyanka Gandhi: dynastic scion, and hope of India’s opposition

Poised to enter parliament, she may have bigger ambitions than that 

Kazakhstan, the Ustyurt plateau. Caspian sea;

The Caspian Sea is shrinking rapidly

This has big implications for Russia, which has come to rely on Central Asian ports


Members of the Maori community and their supporters march in a protest rally to criticise the government for its policies affecting the Indigenous Mori population in Wellington

Racial tensions boil over in New Zealand

A controversial bill regarding Maori people punctures its relative harmony


Once a free-market pioneer, Sri Lanka takes a leap to the left

A new president with Marxist roots now dominates parliament too

Why is it so hard for Indians to get a visa?

Outsourcing firms are capitalising on Indians’ misery