Narendra Damodardas Modi , born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014..Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for October 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra.
The prime minister, a Hindu nationalist and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a controversial figure domestically and internationally because of criticism that, when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, his administration failed to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots. Modi's economic policies (credited with encouraging economic growth in Gujarat) have been praised, although his administration has also been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state.
Early life and education
Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a family of grocers in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State (present-day Gujarat). His family belonged to the Modh-Ghanchi-Teli (oil-presser) community, which is categorised as an Other Backward Class by the Indian government. He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand (1915-1989) and Heeraben Modi (b. c. 1920). As a child Modi helped his father sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station, and later ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus. He completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967, where a teacher described him as an average student and a keen debater with an interest in theatre. An early gift for rhetoric in debates was noted by teachers and students. Modi preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.
Modi being fed by his mother
Modi with his mother, Heeraben, on his 63rd birthday in 17 September 2013.
At age eight Modi discovered the RSS, and began attending its local shakhas (training sessions). There he met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who inducted him as an RSS balswayamsevak (junior cadet) and became his political mentor. While Modi was training with the RSS he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who were founding members of the BJP's Gujarat unit in 1980.
Engaged while still a child to a local girl, Jashodaben Narendrabhai Modi, Modi rejected the arranged marriage at the same time he graduated from high school. The resulting familial tensions contributed to his decision to leave home in 1967.[35] He spent the ensuing two years travelling across northern and north-eastern India, though few details of where he went have emerged. In interviews, Modi has described visiting Hindu ashrams founded by Swami Vivekananda: the Belur Math near Kolkata, followed by the Advaita Ashrama in Almora and the Ramakrishna mission in Rajkot. He remained only a short time at each, since he lacked the required college education. Reaching the Belur Math in the early summer of 1968 and being turned away, Modi wandered through Calcutta, West Bengal and Assam, stopping by Siliguri and Guwahati. He then went to the Ramakrishna ashram in Almora, where he was again rejected, before travelling back to Gujarat via Delhi and Rajasthan in 1968-69.Sometime in late 1969 or early 1970, Modi returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad.There he lived with his uncle, working in the latter's canteen at the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.In Ahmedabad Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city. After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he stopped working for his uncle and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS In 1978 Modi became an RSS sambhaag pracharak (regional organiser), and received a degree in political science after a distance-education course from Delhi University. Five years later, he received a Master of Arts degree in political science from Gujarat University.
On 26 June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India which lasted until 1977. During this period, many of her political opponents were jailed and opposition groups (including the RSS) were banned. As pracharak in-charge of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, Modi was forced to go underground in Gujarat and frequently traveled in disguise to avoid arrest. He became involved in printing pamphlets opposing the government, sending them to Delhi and organising demonstrations.[23][51][52][53] During this period Modi wrote a Gujarati book, Sangharsh ma Gujarat (The Struggles of Gujarat), describing events during the Emergency.
He was assigned by the RSS to the BJP in 1985. In 1988 Modi was elected organising secretary of the party's Gujarat unit, marking his entrance into electoral politics. He rose within the party, helping organise L. K. Advani's 1990 Ayodhya Rath Yatra in 1990 and Murli Manohar Joshi's 1991–92 Ekta Yatra (Journey for Unity). As party secretary, Modi's electoral strategy was considered central to BJP victory in the 1995 state assembly elections. In November of that year Modi was elected BJP national secretary and transferred to New Delhi, where he assumed responsibility for party activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The following year, Shankersinh Vaghela (one of the most prominent BJP leaders in Gujarat) defected to the INC after losing his parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha elections.Modi, on the selection committee for the 1998 Assembly elections in Gujarat, favoured supporters of BJP leader Keshubhai Patel over those supporting Vaghela to end factional division in the party. His strategy was credited as key to the BJP winning an overall majority in the 1998 elections,and Modi was promoted to BJP general secretary (organisation) in May of that year.In 2001, Keshubhai Patel's health was failing and the BJP had lost seats in the by-elections. Allegations of abuse of power, corruption and poor administration were made, and Patel's standing had been damaged by his administration's handling of the 2001 Bhuj Earthquake The BJP national leadership sought a new candidate for chief minister, and Modi (who had expressed misgivings about Patel's administration) was chosen as a replacement.[23] Although senior BJP leader L. K. Advani did not want to ostracise Patel and was concerned about Modi's lack of experience in government, Modi declined an offer to be Patel's deputy chief minister and told Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all". On 3 October 2001 he replaced Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat, with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for the December 2002 elections. As Chief Minister, Modi favoured privatisation and small government; this was at odds with political commentator Aditi Phadnis' description of the RSS as anti-privatisation and anti-globalisation.
Keshubhai Patel and Modi's BJP governments supported NGOs and communities in the creation of groundwater-conservation projects; according to Tushaar Shah, Gujarat (a semi-arid state) was " ... never known for agrarian dynamism". By December 2008 500,000 structures were built, of which 113,738 were check dams. While most check-dam impoundments dried up during the pre-monsoon period, they helped monsoon rains recharge the aquifers beneath them. Sixty of the 112 tehsils which were found to have depleted the water table in 2004 had regained their normal groundwater levels by 2010, and Gujarat increased its groundwater levels when they were falling in all other Indian states. As a result, the state's production of genetically modified Bt cotton (which could now be irrigated with tube wells) increased to become the largest in India. The boom in cotton production and its semi-arid land use saw Gujarat's agricultural growth increase to 9.6 percent from 2001 to 2007. Although public irrigation measures in central and southern Gujarat (such as the Sardar Sarovar Dam) have been less successful, from 2001 to 2010 Gujarat recorded an agricultural growth rate of 10.97 percent – the highest of any state. However, sociologists have pointed out that the growth rate under the 1992–97 INC government was 12.9 percent.
Modi unties a ceremonial red ribbon before a crowd of onlookers
Modi at a hospital dedication in Kheda district.
The Modi government brought electricity to every village in Gujarat, although according to Dipankar Banerjee all but 170 villages had been electrified under the INC administration.Modi significantly changed the state's system of power distribution, greatly impacting farmers. Gujarat expanded the Jyotigram Yojana scheme, in which agricultural electricity was separated from other rural electricity; the agricultural electricity was rationed to fit scheduled irrigation demands, reducing its cost. Although early protests by farmers ended when those who benefited found that their electricity supply had stabilised, according to an assessment study corporations and large farmers benefited from the policy at the expense of small farmers and labourers.
Progress was made on the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City project, considered one of Modi's pet projects. Its first phase, consisting of two skyscrapers (GIFT One and Two), was completed in 2012.
Modi's government has branded Gujarat as a state of dynamic development, economic growth and prosperity with the slogan, "Vibrant Gujarat". However, critics have pointed to its relatively poor record on human development, poverty relief, nutrition and education. Gujarat ranks 13th in India in poverty and 21st in education. Nearly 45 percent of children under five are underweight and 23 percent are undernourished, putting the state in the "alarming" category on the India State Hunger Index.[137] According to state officials, Gujarat outperformed India as a whole in improving several human-development indicators (such as female education) from 2001 to 2011; school drop-out rates declined from 20 percent in 2001 to two percent in 2011, and maternal mortality fell by 32 percent during the same period.[138] In a review of the 1894 Land Acquisition Act, the Supreme Court of India identified Gujarat as one of the few states from which there were no complaints of forcible land acquisition.
According to political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, development in Gujarat has been limited to the urban middle class as rural residents and the lower castes have become increasingly marginalised. The state ranks 10th of the 21 Indian states in the Human Development Index, which he attributes to less rural development. Jaffrelot says that under Modi the number of families below the poverty line has increased and conditions for rural adivasi and dalits, in particular, have declined.[140] In July 2013 economics Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen expressed disapproval of Modi's governance record, saying that under his administration Gujarat's "record in education and healthcare is pretty bad". However, economists Arvind Panagariya and Jagdish Bhagwati say that Gujarat's social indicators have improved from a lower baseline than that of other Indian states. According to them, Gujarat's performance in raising literacy rates has been superior to other states and the "rapid" improvement of health indicators is evidence that "its progress has not been poor by any means.
Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He was the first to invite all South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation leaders to attend his swearing-in ceremony. His first cabinet consisted of 45 ministers, 25 fewer than the previous UPA government.
Economic policies
See also: Make in India
As Prime Minister, Modi began working to speed up the efficiency of India's economy and make it more business-friendly. His government began reforming the red tape that had traditionally hindered Indian business, streamlining the bureaucratic requirements on companies such as a complex permit and inspection system and numerous regulations, so as to ease the burden on companies.[183][184] Modi also ordered reform among the bureaucrats of the Indian Administrative Service, who were infamous for their inefficiency and lethargic work schedule, to ensure a more efficient government bureaucracy.
Modi's government also liberalized India's foreign direct investment policies, allowing more foreign investment in numerous industries. In May 2015, it was reported that foreign direct investment in India had risen 61% since the previous year.
Modi's government has increased infrastructure spending to massively expand the country's transportation infrastructure. Projects to improve and expand the country's road and railway networks were undertaken. In particular, the government began a massive expansion of India's highway network, and is also intent on building transport links to remote areas. In addition, a massive expansion of the country's water transport network was put forward, with a plan on converting 101 rivers into national waterways for the transport of goods and passengers. In addition, construction was started for new sea and river ports, and plans were drawn up for waterbus and hovercraft services.
Modi launched a flagship scheme for developing 100 smart cities on 25 June 2015. In his speech he said:
“For the first time in India, a challenge was being floated, in which the citizens of urban India could contribute in the formulation of development visions of their cities.”
In addition to the smart cities initiative, Modi unveiled the "smart villages" initiative, under which rural villages will be given Internet access, clean water, sanitation, and low-carbon energy, with Members of Parliament overseeing the program's implementation in select villages in their constituencies, other than their own or those of their relatives, with the goal of at least 2,500 smart villages by 2019.
Modi also launched the Digital India program, which aims to ensure that government services are available to Indians electronically so as to reduce the amount of paperwork, build infrastructure to ensure rural areas get high-speed Internet access, and promote digital literacy, including among the poor.
In June 2015, Modi launched the flagship "Housing for All By 2022" project, which intends to eliminate slums in India by building about 20 million affordable homes for India's urban poor. The plan involves the participation of the private sector, and Modi carried out a series of reforms to make it easier to build low-cost housing.
Health and sanitation policies
See also: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Modi's government is working on a plan to introduce a universal health care system, known as the National Health Assurance Mission. Under this plan, the government would provide free drugs, diagnostic treatment, and insurance coverage for serious ailments, although budgetary concerns have delayed its implementation.
In October 2014, Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan ("Clean India") campaign, a national cleanliness drive to eliminate widespread open defecation prevalent in rural areas, as well as reduce widespread littering throughout the country, so as to improve India's poor sanitary conditions. As part of the program, a public awareness campaign against littering was launched, and the Indian government stepped up construction of toilets in rural areas, as well as efforts to encourage people to use them.The Indian government also announced a series of projects to build new sewage treatment plants.[208]
Defense policy
Modi's government has increased defense spending to modernize and expand the Indian Armed Forces.[209] However, he has failed to provide a long term demand of the Indian Armed Forces for the reintroduction of One Rank, One Pension.[210]
Modi's government also negotiated a peace agreement to end a Naga insurgency in northwest India that had been ongoing since the 1950s.
International diplomacy
Further information: Foreign policy of Narendra Modi and List of Prime Ministerial trips made by Narendra Modi
Modi invited leaders of the SAARC countries to his swearing-in as prime minister to strengthen ties among its member states.Continuing his efforts to promote close relationships with neighbouring countries, his first foreign visit as prime minister was to Bhutan. Modi visited Nepal on 8 August 2014,[213][214] and began a five-day trip to Japan on 30 August. On 17 September, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in India; financial memoranda of understanding and cooperation agreements between the countries were signed,which Modi called a new chapter in their economic relationship.The prime minister had a successful visit to the United States in the last week of September, which led to an improvement in relations between India and the US. In a 27 September address to the United Nations General Assembly Modi asked for the adoption of 21 June as International Yoga Day,and a resolution doing so was approved by the 193-member body.
The third of six children, Modi has two elder brothers, Som (b. 1944) and Amrit (b. 1948). He has a younger sister, Vasanti (b. 1952) and two younger brothers, Prahlad (b. 1955) and Pankaj (b. 1958).
In accordance with Ghanchi tradition, Modi's marriage was arranged by his parents when he was a child. He was engaged at age 13 to Jashodaben Narendrabhai Modi, marrying her when he was 18. They spent little time together and grew apart when Modi began two years of travel, including visits to Hindu ashrams. Reportedly, their marriage was never consummated and he kept it a secret because otherwise he could not have become a 'pracharak' in the puritan Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). Although Modi kept his marriage secret for most of his career, he acknowledged his wife when he filed his nomination for a parliamentary seat in the 2014 general elections.
Main article: Public image of Narendra Modi
Modi wearing a suit with his name embroidered in the pinstripes.
A vegetarian, Modi has a frugal lifestyle and is a work] Adept at using social media, since September 2014 he has been the second-most-followed leader in the world (with over twelve million followers on Twitter as on May 2015). Modi's 31 August 2012 post on Google Hangouts made him the first Indian politician to interact with netizens on live chat.
Modi has also been called a fashion-icon with his signature, crisply ironed, half-sleeved tunic-shirt (dubbed the "Modi kurta"), brand-name accessories, and a suit with his name embroidered repeatedly in the pinstripes that he wore during a state visit by US President Barack Obama, drawing particular public and media attention, and sometimes criticism.
Although he has been called a controversial, polarising and divisive figure by media sources, British economist Jim O'Neill (author of "Building Better Global Economic BRICs") blogged that Modi is "good on economics" – one of the things "India desperately needs in a leader". In August 2013, financial analyst Chris Wood of CLSA wrote in his weekly "Greed & fear" report: "The Indian stock market's greatest hope is the emergence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate".
Modi received the Gujarat Ratna award at the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch Shri Poona Gujarati Bandhu Samaj centenary celebration and the e-Ratna Award from the Computer Society of India.[243] He was named Best Chief Minister in a 2007 nationwide survey by India Today, and won the Asian 2009 fDi Personality of the Year award from FDi magazine. In March 2012 Modi appeared on the cover of the Asian edition of Time, one of the few Indian politicians to have done so, and made the 2014 Time 100 list of the world's most influential people. He has become the most followed Asian leader on Twitter,and in 2014 was ranked the 15th-most-powerful person in the world by Forbes In 2015, Modi was one of Time 's "30 most influential people on the internet" as the second-most-followed politician on Twitter and Facebook.
In 2015, Modi was ranked fifth on Fortune magazine's second annual list of 'World's Greatest Leaders', which showed numerous changes from its first publication in 2014 because of its requirement that people who had been previously named had to "requalify with new achievements in the past 12 months"
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