What to watch for in India during Narendra Modi's third term as prime minister

Ear to Asia

While Narendra Modi was able to secure a historic third term as India's Prime Minister in recent elections, he no longer enjoys presiding over an outright parliamentary majority by his party, the BJP. Instead, Modi is now forced to rely on alliance partners, who will likely bristle at his autocratic leadership style and his party's Hindu-nationalist agenda. Yet, Modi will have to find a way to address India's serious policy challenges, which include persistent inflation, the need to find tens of millions of jobs for young Indians, continued marginalisation of ethnic and religious minorities, and an escalating climate crisis that's resulted in 50-degree temperatures in Delhi and a looming water supply issue of existential proportions. So how will Modi's brand of politics measure up to the needs of policy this time around? Dr. Pradeep Taneja from the University of Melbourne's School of Social and Political Sciences joins host Sami Shah to explore what Modi's third term could mean for India.

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