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The first 100 days of a new government can be tumultuous as power shifts hands and leaders make dramatic decisions. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has thus far proceeded in a more nuanced fashion, making an assessment of his first four months in office more complicated.
Modi has repeatedly stated that government should not be in the business of business, but when policy issues demand difficult trade-offs, will the Indian government side with business or consumers?
The prime minister’s primary objective in the United States was to make the pitch that India is once again a hospitable environment for investment.
It is one thing for Modi to say India needs to be more practical in dealing with the outside world. It is entirely another to get his ministerial colleagues and the bureaucracy to act on that basis in a sustained manner.
Modi's reference to the South China Sea says more about India’s changing political attitude than its policy towards the maritime territorial disputes between Beijing and its Asian neighbours.
If the expansive agenda unveiled by Modi and Obama is matched by bureaucratic purposefulness in Delhi and Washington, India and America have a second chance at building a strategic partnership of considerable consequence.
Yogi Adityanath, a polarizing BJP member of parliament, will play a prominent role if the party’s electoral rhetoric shifts from development to sectarian issues.
While continuing to engage with East and South East Asia, Indian Prime Minister Modi is ‘Linking West’ to increase India’s ties to the Middle East.
What stands out at the end of Narendra Modi’s visit is his demonstration of political will and diplomatic ingenuity to rekindle the romance with America that had gone cold in recent years.
Although both the United States and India see terrorism as a great threat to their societies, they have different priorities in the war against it.