Indian Mandala

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance won a landslide victory in the Bihar elections, largely outperforming the opposition Mahagathbandhan bloc. The Modi government’s cash transfer programmes for women and youth played a decisive role. Voter turnout among women exceeded that of men for the first time.

The northern Indian state has arbitrarily denied land rights granted under the Forest Rights Act of 2006. The legal process has reached a stalemate, but the case of the village of Kajaria has reignited the debate over the slow implementation of the regulations and the broken promises to indigenous peoples, for whom forests are not only a source of subsistence but also the basis of their identity.

Today, India decided to reopen its embassy in Kabul, marking an unprecedented political step towards the Taliban government. The announcement came after Pakistan struck the Afghan capital to eliminate Noor Wali Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban. These developments are part of a new phase in the conflict between India and Pakistan, which began with Operation Sindoor, launched by New Delhi in May in response to an attack in Kashmir.

New Delhi is weighing the consequences of the end of US exemptions on the Iranian port of Chabahar, in which it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars as a strategic hub to Central Asia and a counterweight to China's presence in Gwadar. New sanctions risk stalling the project and further complicating relations with Washington, already beset by tariffs and new visa restrictions. In the long run, analysts warn, China could be the real beneficiary of the crisis.

The Modi government wants to boost nuclear energy production with a new nuclear liability fund to attract investment. The goal is to increase production capacity from the current 8.18 GW to 100 GW by 2047. New Delhi has already opened uranium supply and processing to the private sector, but critical issues remain like high costs, the lack of an independent regulatory authority, and the uncertainties surrounding next-generation modular reactors.

Following the approval of the anti-conversion bill in Rajasthan and the Maharashtra Public Security Bill, protests have broken out in India. In Rajasthan, the law even affects voluntary conversions and interfaith marriages, while in Maharashtra, the executive will be able to declare entire organisations ‘illegal’ without concrete evidence. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has asked the states for clarification on the constitutionality of these laws.

The Indian prime minister is expected to visit the northeastern state next week, after more than two years of communal violence. Meanwhile, militant Kuki groups signed a reconciliation agreement with the central and state governments, but many issues remain unresolved, such as the displacement of some 60,000 people and internal divisions within the BJP, the prime minister’s own party, which controlled Manipur when violence erupted in 2023.

Before his highly anticipated trip to China, the Indian prime minister is in Japan, a clear sign that he wants to counterbalance his overtures to Beijing. Economic co-operation is the focus of the visit, especially in high-speed trains and new technologies. Both sides are seeking a mutually beneficial partnership.

So far, the only real rapprochement, unintentionally fostered by the tycoon’s tariffs, is the one in the shadow of the Himalayas. But for India, the first steps suggest that it promises to be an uphill battle.

The court has suspended the “Land Pooling Policy 2025” for four weeks. Launched by the Aam Aadmi Party government to acquire 65,533 acres of agricultural land for residential and industrial purposes, the measure is contested by farmers and the opposition who say it was approved without consultation with village assemblies. Trade unions, which have organised several protests in recent days, denounce inadequate compensation, risks to the livelihoods of labourers and benefits only for large real estate groups.

The US president's decision to impose such a high tariff is causing economic and diplomatic upheaval in New Delhi. The measure includes sanctions over India's relations with Russia and its membership in the BRICS group. While the opposition calls it a “catastrophic failure of foreign policy”, the Modi government says it wants to negotiate a "fair deal" again in August. But US aggressiveness is pushing New Delhi to consider a tactical rapprochement with Beijing, while Washington is boosting ties with Islamabad, fuelling tensions in an already fragile regional context.

In a report released yesterday, the human rights group accuses India of expelling 1,500 Muslims to Bangladesh between May and June without due process, fuelling religious and ethnic discrimination. Those expelled include Indian citizens with valid papers, as several witnesses testified. In Assam, where the situation is most critical, evictions and home demolitions have been ongoing for months, involving thousands of families, expelled or detained, partly to make way for business development.