This is John Batchel. I welcome my colleague Saaran Duma, who writes East Disease column for the Wall Street Journal editorial page, to introduce us again to Mr. Modi, who was greatly celebrated when first he came to authority some years ago. I remember him at Madison Square Garden, well attended by the diaspora. And two electionists later, Mr. Modi is no longer Mr. Excitement,

but he's a senior representative of the vision of India today.

And I learned from Sadanon that he's hesitant.

Sardinan, a very good evening to you.

I was disappointed to learn that Mr. Modi had grown cautious in his

seniority and after being battered around for some years by the opposition. But why? Why now?

Is he planning on running for re-election? Can he free himself and just go for it?

Very good evening to you, John. I wish, you know, like you, I wish he could just free himself and go for it.

I think that, you know, India has shown over the last 35 years since it abandoned state planning and began to move toward a more market-oriented economy that markets work.

But the problem is that the Indian

reform program has been too slow-moving and timid. And so what India has done successfully is

eradicate a lot of mass poverty. What it has been unable to do so far is to create mass prosperity.

And that's the challenge that Modi faces.

And so far, he's struggled.

You're absolutely right, John.

He's struggled for political reasons.

He's cautious.

He's back in parliament without a full majority of his own.

He's going to be running for office again in 2029.

But I think the problem with Indian politics is that people are always very afraid of rocking

the boat because they think they'll be thrown out in Luz office. And I think Moli has the same problem.

You name a number of institutions in India. The one I want to focus on is electricity. I learned from

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