Shortly after his arrival in India, Adam Roberts visits a fortune teller in south Delhi who relies on a pair of green parrots to predict the future by pecking out cards. “Only one is effective,” he is advised. The parrots correctly predict Narendra Modi will be the country’s next prime minister. They turn out to be less accurate in a second prophesy — that India will win the 2014 football World Cup. A third prediction — that India will become the world’s “number one nation” — remains as yet unfulfilled.

So begins Roberts’s optimistic take on contemporary India. Superfast Primetime Ultimate Nation is an enjoyable romp across the sub-continent based on reporting and interviews from his five-year stint as the Delhi-based South Asia correspondent for