Twenty-Five Years of Governance

Twenty-five years in public life at the helm of government is an extraordinary milestone in any democracy. For Narendra Modi, the journey began on 7 October 2001, when he took oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Thirteen years later, in May 2014, he became Prime Minister of India. Since then, he has continued to lead the Union government, making his tenure one of the longest continuous periods of executive leadership in independent India’s history

The significance of these twenty-five years lies not merely in their duration, but in the scale of change that has taken place across Gujarat and India. From infrastructure and industrial development to digital governance, financial inclusion, welfare delivery, India’s global engagement and the language of national development, the Modi era has been marked by an emphasis on scale, execution and a more visible role for the state in driving economic and social transformation.

Development Model

When Narendra Modi assumed office in Gujarat in 2001, the state was recovering from the devastating Kutch earthquake. Gujarat had also experienced a major cyclone, drought conditions and economic difficulties. Modi’s own account of that period describes a state facing serious challenges in agriculture, electricity, water availability and industrial growth. 

The subsequent years witnessed a strong emphasis on infrastructure, industrialisation, agricultural development and administrative reform.

One of the most important features of the Gujarat model was the focus on physical infrastructure. Roads, electricity networks, water infrastructure, ports and industrial corridors became central components of the state’s development strategy. Gujarat’s geographical advantages—particularly its long coastline—were increasingly integrated into an industrial and logistics strategy.

The state today has an extensive road network, major ports, substantial railway connectivity and a growing ecosystem around industrial investment and logistics. Gujarat government material highlights approximately 1,600 kilometres of coastline, extensive road and railway networks, industrial estates and major infrastructure projects. 

Agriculture was another significant part of this transformation. Gujarat’s economy was historically associated strongly with trading and industry, but agricultural productivity and irrigation became increasingly important policy priorities. The expansion of irrigation infrastructure and improvements in electricity and water availability contributed to the state’s agricultural growth.

This transformation helped establish Gujarat as a major destination for domestic and international investment. The Vibrant Gujarat investment summit became an important platform for presenting the state to global businesses and investors.

The state’s development subsequently expanded beyond traditional industries into financial services, renewable energy, technology and advanced manufacturing. GIFT City, including India’s International Financial Services Centre, represents another stage of this evolution, seeking to position Gujarat as a global financial and business-services hub.

National Stage

The 2014 transition from Gandhinagar to New Delhi changed the scale of the experiment.

The central question became whether administrative approaches associated with Gujarat could be applied to a country of more than a billion people, with enormous differences between states, regions, communities and economic conditions.

The answer has been a governance philosophy centred on scale.

Programmes that might once have been conceived as individual welfare or infrastructure initiatives were increasingly designed as national missions.

Financial inclusion is a prominent example. The expansion of bank accounts, digital identity and mobile connectivity created the foundations for a much more digitally connected welfare and payments architecture.

India’s digital public infrastructure subsequently became one of the most visible elements of the country’s transformation. UPI, Aadhaar-enabled services and digital payment systems have changed the way millions of Indians transact with businesses and government.

The government’s own budget documents identify continued expansion of digital-payment infrastructure and UPI transactions as explicit policy outcomes. 

The transformation is particularly visible in everyday economic activity. A small business owner can increasingly receive a digital payment without needing sophisticated banking infrastructure. Government benefits can be transferred directly to beneficiaries. Citizens can access an expanding range of services through digital platforms.

This is more than technological change. It represents a shift in the relationship between citizens, markets and the state.

National Priority

Perhaps nowhere is the change more visible than infrastructure.

The years since 2014 have seen an emphasis on highways, railways, airports, ports, urban infrastructure, logistics networks and digital connectivity.

The objective has increasingly been to create an integrated infrastructure ecosystem rather than treating individual projects in isolation.

Projects such as dedicated freight corridors, industrial corridors, modern airports, expressways, metro systems and port connectivity have formed part of this broader approach.

The underlying idea is straightforward: India’s economic ambitions require infrastructure capable of supporting manufacturing, exports, urbanisation and the movement of people and goods at much greater scale.

This emphasis has also been linked to the government’s broader ambitions for manufacturing and investment under initiatives such as Make in India and the production-linked incentive framework.

(The writer is a BJP official based in Thane. Views personal.)