Narendra

India is celebrating after winning a first women’s World Cup title, drawing comparisons to the men’s memorable 1983 triumph.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes to India’s women cricketers following their “historic” triumph in the World Cup final on Sunday, while team captain Harmanpreet Kaur hoped it would be a watershed moment for the women’s game in the country.

After suffering heartbreak in the final of the 2005 and 2017 editions of the 50-overs showpiece, India beat South Africa by 52 runs to secure their first title in front of 40,000 delirious home fans at Navi Mumbai’s DY Patil Stadium.

Three defeats in a row earlier in the tournament had nearly derailed India’s campaign before they bounced back to storm into the semifinals, where they pulled off a record chase to eliminate seven-time champions Australia.

‘Dream big and chase those dreams’

“The team showed exceptional teamwork and tenacity throughout the tournament. Congratulations to our players,” Prime Minister Modi said on social media. “This historic win will motivate future champions to take up sports.”

The Indian cricket board announced the team would receive a reward of 510 million Indian rupees ($5.8m) for their title triumph, a victory which the Indian Express newspaper termed “Herstoric” on its front page.

Harmanpreet said it could be a turning point for the women’s game in the cricket-mad country.

“We have been talking about this for many years – we’ve been playing good cricket, but we had to win one big tournament,” the batter said.

“Without that, we couldn’t talk about change. At the end of the day, fans and the audience want to see their favourite team win.

“It’s not that we weren’t playing good cricket, but we were waiting badly for this moment, and today we got a chance to live it.”

The fairytale triumph of the Indian men’s team at the 1983 World Cup is considered the catalyst for the country’s rise to becoming a powerhouse of the game, both on and off the pitch, and batting great Sachin Tendulkar said Sunday’s win was “a defining moment in the journey of Indian women’s cricket”.

“1983 inspired an entire generation to dream big and chase those dreams,” he wrote on social media.

“Today, our women’s cricket team has done something truly special. They have inspired countless young girls across the country to pick up a bat and ball, take the field and believe that they too can lift that trophy one day …”

Mithali Raj, who led India to the 2017 women’s final, said the victory for Harmanpreet’s side had made her dreams come true.

“I’ve seen this dream for over two decades, to watch the Indian women lift that World Cup trophy,” she wrote on X.

“Tonight, that dream finally came true. From the heartbreak of 2005 to the fight of 2017, every tear, every sacrifice, every young girl who picked up a bat believing we belong here, it all led to this moment.”

A spectacular win by the Indian team in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025 Finals. Their performance in the final was marked by great skill and confidence. The team showed exceptional teamwork and tenacity throughout the tournament. Congratulations to our players. This…

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 2, 2025

The northeastern state has been bitterly divided since May 2023 when violence broke out between the Meitei majority and largely Christian Kuki community.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made his first visit to the troubled Manipur state where at least 260 people have been killed in ethnic clashes in two years.

Manipur in the northeast has been bitterly divided since May 2023, when violence broke out between the mainly Hindu Meitei majority and the largely Christian Kuki community.

The violence has also displaced tens of thousands of people who are still living in makeshift camps set up by the government.

“In order to bring life back on track in Manipur, the government of India is making all possible efforts,” Modi told a gathering of thousands in Churachandpur, a Kuki-dominated town, on Saturday.

“I promise you today that I’m with you. The government of India is with the people of Manipur,” Modi said, while also appealing “to all groups to take the path of peace for realising their dreams.”

Modi was also scheduled to address a rally at Imphal, the Meitei-dominated capital of the state.

The Hindu nationalist leader last visited the state, bordering Myanmar and 1,700km (1,050 miles) from New Delhi, in 2022. He inaugurated development projects worth more than $960m, including five highways and a new police headquarters.

Manipur’s former chief minister, N Biren Singh, from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resigned in February after criticism that he failed to stop the bloodshed there. The state of nearly three million people has since been ruled directly from New Delhi.

Tensions between Meiteis and Kukis, rooted in competition for land and government jobs, have long simmered in the region. Rights groups accuse political leaders of fuelling the divisions for their own gain.

Modi’s visit to Manipur is part of a three-day tour that also includes Assam, which borders Bangladesh, and Bihar, India’s third-most populous state with at least 130 million people.

Bihar is a key electoral battleground ahead of polls slated for October or November, the only state in India’s northern Hindi-speaking heartland where Modi’s BJP has never ruled alone.

It is also India’s poorest, and Modi was set to unveil investments worth $8bn, a package that includes agricultural projects, rail links, road upgrades and an airport terminal.

Indian leader’s remarks follow Trump reaffirming their personal friendship and downplaying his earlier remarks about ‘losing India’ to China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says ties with the United States remain “very positive”, after US President Donald Trump reaffirmed their personal friendship and downplayed earlier remarks about “losing India” to China.

“Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s sentiments and positive assessment of our ties,” Modi said in a statement posted on X on Saturday, adding that India and the US “have a very positive and forward-looking comprehensive and global strategic partnership”.

Strains have emerged between the two longtime allies after the Trump administration imposed tariffs of up to 50 percent on Indian imports, accusing New Delhi of fuelling Moscow’s deadly attacks on Ukraine by purchasing Russian oil.

Speculation of a deepening rift further intensified when Trump remarked on Friday that India, alongside Russia, seems to have been “lost” to China. This came after Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a security summit in China.

Earlier this week, Xi hosted more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries – including Modi and Putin – for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. It was Modi’s first visit to China in seven years, signalling a thaw between the two Asian powers.

“Looks like we’ve lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!” Trump wrote in a social media post, with a photo of Modi alongside Xi and Putin.

When asked by reporters later on Friday about his remarks, Trump downplayed his earlier statement, saying he did not think the US had lost India to China.

“I don’t think we have,” he said. “I’ve been very disappointed that India would be buying so much oil, as you know, from Russia. And I let them know that.”

Trump insisted that he “will always be friends with Modi”, adding that “India and the United States have a special relationship“. “There is nothing to worry about,” he said.

Since his first term in office, Trump and Modi, both right-wing populists, have shared a strong bond.

But recently, Trump also appeared irritated at New Delhi as he sought credit for what he said was Nobel Prize-worthy diplomacy for brokering peace between Pakistan and India following the worst conflict in decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours in May.

India, which adamantly rejects any third-party mediation on Kashmir, has since given the cold shoulder to Trump on the matter.

Trump has also been frustrated at his inability to convince Russia and Ukraine to reach an end to their war, more than three years after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.

In India, tens of thousands of Muslims and people from marginalised groups have seen their homes and businesses demolished by authorities in what the country’s Supreme Court has called “unconstitutional” and “lawless” attacks.

Representatives of the Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, say the demolitions are in response to illegal encroachment.

But critics say the demolitions target Muslims and other minorities, a claim the BJP denies.

101 East investigates if India’s bulldozers are delivering justice – or demolishing it.

India is signaling it may seek to rebalance its global partnerships after Trump’s salvo of tariffs on Indian goods.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva have spoken by phone, their offices said, discussing a broad range of topics that included tariffs imposed by the United States on goods from both countries.

Lula confirmed a state visit to India in early 2026 during the call on Thursday, which occurred a day after the Brazilian leader told the news agency Reuters that he would initiate a conversation among the BRICS group of countries on tackling US President Donald Trump’s levies, which are the highest on Brazil and India.

The group of major emerging economies also includes China, Russia and South Africa.

“The leaders discussed the international economic scenario and the imposition of unilateral tariffs. Brazil and India are, to date, the two countries most affected,” Lula’s office said in a statement.

Trump announced an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian goods on Wednesday, raising the total duty to 50 percent. The additional tariff, effective August 28, is meant to penalise India for continuing to buy Russian oil, Trump has said.

Trump has also slapped a 50 percent tariff on goods from Brazil, with lower levels for sectors such as aircraft, energy and orange juice, tying the move to what he called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing ally on trial for an alleged coup plot to overturn his 2022 election loss.

On their call, Lula and Modi reiterated their goal of boosting bilateral trade to more than $20bn annually by 2030, according to the Brazilian president’s office, up from roughly $12bn last year.

Brasilia said they also agreed to expand the reach of the preferential trade agreement between India and the South American trade bloc Mercosur, and discussed the virtual payment platforms of their countries.

Modi’s office, in its statement, did not explicitly mention Trump or US tariffs, but said “the two leaders exchanged views on various regional and global issues of mutual interest.”

India is already signalling it may seek to rebalance its global partnerships after Trump’s salvo of tariffs on Indian goods.

Modi is preparing for his first visit to China in more than seven years, suggesting a potential diplomatic realignment amid growing tensions with Washington. The Indian leader visited Lula in Brasilia last month.

Millions of people are on strike across India, shutting down banking, construction, manufacturing and postal services, and disrupting public transport, among other sectors.

Trade unions say they have united to protest against new labour laws and a long-standing policy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to privatise public services and favour big business over workers.

Why are people so angry with these policies?

And what does this mean for Modi’s government and his economic policies known as “Modinomics”?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests:

Amarjeet Kaur – national secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress

Adil Hossain – political anthropologist and assistant professor at Azim Premji University

Daniel Francis – political analyst and political brand consultant

The rail link will connect the Kashmir Valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has opened one of the country’s most ambitious railway projects, which will connect the Kashmir Valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.

Dubbed by the government-operated Indian Railways as one of the most challenging tracks in the world, the 272-kilometre (169-mile) line begins in the garrison city of Udhampur in the Jammu region and runs through Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar. The line ends in Baramulla, a town near the highly militarised Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.

The Indian government has pegged the total project cost at about $5bn.

The railway line travels through 36 tunnels and over 943 bridges and will facilitate the movement of people and goods, as well as troops, that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and by air.

One of the project’s highlights is a 1,315-metre-long (4,314-foot) steel and concrete bridge above the Chenab River connecting two mountains with an arch 359 metres (1,177 feet) above the water. Indian Railways has compared its height with the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which stands 330 metres (1,082 feet), and said the bridge is built to last 120 years and endure extreme weather, including wind speeds up to 260 km/h (161mph).

Modi visited the Chenab bridge on Friday with tight security, waving an Indian tri-colour flag before boarding a test train that passed through picturesque mountains and tunnels to reach an inauguration ceremony for another high-elevation bridge named Anji.

The railway “ensures all weather connectivity” and will “boost spiritual tourism and create livelihood opportunities”, Modi said.

The prime minister also helped launch a pair of new trains called “Vande Bharat” that will halve the travel time between Srinagar and the town of Katra in the Jammu region to about three hours from the usual six to seven hours by road.

Modi’s visit to Indian-controlled Kashmir on Friday is his first since a military conflict between India and Pakistan brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war last month when the countries fired missiles and drones at each other.

The conflict was triggered after a shooting attack in late April that left 26 men, mostly Hindu tourists, dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan for supporting the attackers, a charge Islamabad denied.

India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety.

Armed groups in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir armed groups are backed by Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.