It’s been a good weekend for India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Two days ago he took his biggest step yet toward boosting the economy with a shift to more market-based energy pricing. Then yesterday his Bharatiya Janata Party came first in two state elections, building on his landslide victory in May.
Modi now has a stronger hand to push ahead with tougher steps to overhaul Asia’s third-biggest economy. Those include passing a goods-and-services tax, further opening up to foreign investment and making subsidies for fertilizer, cooking gas and food more targeted toward the poor.