As Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes twelve years in office, becoming India’s longest-serving Prime Minister in independent India’s history, assessments of his legacy continue to evoke both admiration and criticism

With completion of twelve years in office, Shiri Narendra Modi has become the longest serving Prime Minister of independent India. He has proved to be a transformational leader who has restored national confidence, accelerated development and elevated India’s standing in the world. Critics question aspects of his governance, institutional approach and political style. Yet beyond the partisan debate lies a larger and more enduring question: what has India become after twelve years of the Modi era?

The answer is not that India has already become Viksit Bharat, a developed nation. No country of India’s size and complexity can complete such a journey in little more than a decade. Rather, the more persuasive argument is that the foundations of a Viksit Bharat have been laid in these twelve years. The significance of the Modi era lies in the creation of economic, infrastructural, digital, social and strategic foundations upon which a developed India can be built over the coming decades.

The scale of this transformation can perhaps be captured through a few numbers. India has risen from the world’s tenth-largest economy to become the fourth largest. More than 58 crore citizens have been brought into the formal banking system through Jan Dhan accounts.

Over 15 crore rural households have received tap-water connections, more than 10 crore poor women have received LPG connections, nearly 12 crore toilets have been constructed, and an estimated 25 crore Indians have moved out of multidimensional poverty. Taken individually, these figures represent efficient governance. Taken together, they tell a larger story: the laying of foundations for a more prosperous, inclusive and capable India. Beneath these achievements lies a deeper transformation. The central........

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