Explosion of anger over education system and youth unemployment has led to movement’s rapid rise

• Tens of thousands of Cockroach party protesters defy police with Delhi march

Youth-led movement calls on education minister to quit in one of India’s largest anti-government rallies in years

Tens of thousands of protesters have defied police orders and descended on Delhi to demand the resignation of India’s education minister in one of the largest anti-government demonstrations in years.

A huge crowd, largely made up of students and gen Z-ers, filled the streets in the heart of India’s capital from early Monday morning shouting anti-government slogans. Hundreds had already camped out overnight.

Sonam Wangchuk has been fasting to demand the resignation of India’s education minister because of alleged irregularities in medical exams

Delhi police forcibly moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on Saturday because of health concerns after 20 days of his hunger strike to protest against India’s examination system.

Wangchuk, 59, has been fasting since 28 June to demand the resignation of India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, over alleged irregularities in examinations to study medicine.

The climate activist and engineer Sonam Wangchuk, who has become the figurehead of anti-government protests in Delhi, is resisting calls to end his fast until the education minister resigns

As night falls on day 18 of his hunger strike, the lack of any sustenance except water shows. It is 7pm and Sonam Wangchuk looks weak. A physiotherapist sits beside him on the stage massaging his arms to soothe his aching joints. Propped up against pillows and bolsters, Wangchuk whispers: “I’m sorry, but I’m unable to speak.”

The activist and engineer has lost close to 9kg from a body that was spare and lean to begin with. Doctors say it is around this stage of a hunger strike that the body enters a state of severe starvation, breaking down fat and muscle, resulting in extreme weakness, impaired brain function and electrolyte imbalance.

Indian prime minister has a habit of collecting awards on his travels, some as their first and only recipient

As Narendra Modi touched down in Seychelles over the weekend, the archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean swiftly bestowed one of its “highest” honours upon the Indian prime minister.

Modi beamed as he accepted the Guardian of the Blue Horizon award from Patrick Herminie, the Seychelles president, complete with a trophy and certificate.

Indien will Pakistan „keinen einzigen Tropfen Wasser“ mehr überlassen. Das klingt krass. Der Streit um den Indus und seine Nebenflüsse heizt sich unter den Atommächten bedrohlich auf.

Die Sängerin will ihre Stimme nicht „abscheulichem Nonsens“ leihen. Der einzige Überlebende des Air-India-Flugs 171 zieht ein Jahr nach dem Absturz eine bittere Bilanz. Und Rumer Willis erreicht einen Etappensieg im Sorgerechtsstreit.

Narendra Modi ist nun länger Premier als Jawaharlal Nehru, der erste Regierungschef des unabhängigen Indien. Seine Anhänger feiern den Rekord als Sieg des Hinduismus über die Idee eines weltlichen Staates.

Cockroach Janta party began as online joke but is growing into one of the most unexpected challenges to country’s rightwing government

The call out to the youth of India was simple: “Get ready to swarm the streets of Delhi with peaceful and loving dissent.” They came in their thousands.

The weekend marked the first public protest of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP), a movement that began as an online joke, but which has swiftly grown into one of the most unexpected challenges to the indomitable power of the country’s rightwing Narendra Modi government – driven by millions of discontented and disillusioned young people.

The Delhi Gymkhana Club has attracted the attention of Narendra Modi’s government. It is now suddenly under threat

Narendra Modi’s government has ordered one of India’s most exclusive private clubs, the Delhi Gymkhana Club, to vacate its sprawling premises – the latest move against institutions seen as symbols of Delhi’s old world establishment.

The club has long been synonymous with India’s upper echelons, although before Independence in 1947 it was largely a preserve of the British colonial elite, admitting only a select few Indians.

In Indien wehren sich Teile der Gen Z mit einer Kakerlaken-Satire-Partei gegen Perspektivlosigkeit und den Stil der nationalistischen Regierung. Das weckt Erinnerungen an die Umstürze in Bangladesch und Nepal. Zu Recht?

Heidi Klum spricht über ihre Wechseljahre. Narendra Modi schenkt Giorgia Meloni Toffees. Und Kylie Minogue enthüllt, dass sie 2021 eine zweite Brustkrebsdiagnose erhalten hat.

Narendra Modi’s austerity appeals reveal how war, energy insecurity and dollar pressures expose the fragility of globalisation

The Indian prime minister’s call for sacrifice last week marks a fundamental shift. He urged the country’s 1.4 billion people to consume less fuel and fertiliser, buy less gold and curb foreign travel as global energy prices surge because of the war in Iran. The message, redolent of the Covid-era restrictions, suggests something larger: a retreat from neoliberal globalisation in Asia and the return of strategic economic management. The Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi waited for key regional elections to finish before pressing for the austerity measures. He was following other Asian states such as the Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which have made similar requests and even demands of their citizens since March.

Mr Modi made an explicit economic argument: reduce energy imports because India must conserve its foreign exchange. About 90% of India’s oil and gas needs come from abroad. When prices spike, the country faces a higher import bill in dollars, inflation and pressure for higher subsidies. Despite India’s recent economic success, it has not built sufficient productive, export or homegrown green-power capacity to reduce its vulnerability. To prevent the rupee crashing in value, India’s central bank reportedly burned through more than $40bn in reserves.

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Premierminister Narendra Modi reist nach Europa. Sein Ziel: mehr Energiesicherheit.

Die Partei BJP von Premierminister Modi siegt in Westbengalen klar und freut sich über den Ausgang von vier weiteren Regionalwahlen. Haben die politischen Gegner noch etwas entgegenzusetzen?

Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscape

Narendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country.

It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India.

Lawrence Bishnoi has been in high-security custody for more than a decade. During that time, he has been linked to multiple high-profile killings, both in India and as far afield as Canada. What explains his seemingly undimmed power?

The border that separates India from Pakistan is lined with 50,000 towering poles that hold 150,000 floodlights, which at night create a glare that is visible from outer space. Passing through the towns on the Indian side of the border, it can be difficult to tell, even in daylight, where one ends and the other begins. Curving along the rolling fields of wheat are nameless dirt roads where men sit on rope benches, whiling away their afternoons, staring as you pass by.

Dutarawali, right by the highway, is slightly different: here, the houses are big, with spacious courtyards. One of the houses – three storeys, painted white with red accents – has a 7ft boundary wall topped with barbed wire and four CCTV cameras overlooking the unpaved street. The symbol of Om is curled on its brown iron door, which has no nameplate. It is the house of Lawrence Bishnoi, who is today, at the age of 33, India’s most notorious gangster.

Indien ist die größte Demokratie der Welt, doch das Beispiel Westbengalen zeigt, wie undemokratisch es in manchen Bundesstaaten zugeht. Ein Besuch.