Premiership of Narendra Modi

The economic policies of Modi's government focused on privatization and liberalization of the economy, based on a neoliberal framework.[9][10] Modi liberalized India's foreign direct investment policies, allowing more foreign investment in several industries, including in defense and the railways.[11][12][13] Other reforms included removing many of the country's labor laws. Some scholars alleged government on remodeling labour reform and said labour reforms were made to make it harder for workers to form unions and easier for employers to hire and fire them. These reforms met with support from institutions such as the World Bank, but opposition from some scholars within the country. The labor laws also drew strong opposition from unions: on 2 September 2015, eleven of the country's largest unions went on strike, including one affiliated with the BJP. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a constituent of the Sangh Parihar, stated that the reforms would hurt laborers by making it easier for corporations to exploit them.[14]

In his first budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley promised to gradually reduce the budgetary deficit from 4.1% to 3% over two years and to divest from shares in public banks.[15] Over Modi's first year in office, the Indian GDP grew at a rate of 7.5%,[16] making it the fastest-growing economy in the world. For this the basis was a revised formula introduced a year after he took office, which surprised a lot of economists.[17] However, this rate of growth had fallen significantly to 6.1%, by his third year in office.[18] This fall has been blamed on the exercise of demonetisation of currency, COVID-19 pandemic.

In July 2014, Modi refused to sign a trade agreement that would permit the World Trade Organization to implement a deal agreed in Bali, citing that agreement will lead to "lack of protection to Indian farmers and the needs of food security" and "Lack of bargaining power".[19] The addition to Indian airports grew by 23 percent in 2016 while the airfares dropped by over 25 percent.[20]

Indian Government at the launch of the Make in India program.

In September 2014, Modi introduced the Make in India initiative to encourage foreign companies to manufacture products in India, with the goal of turning India into a global manufacturing hub.[21] Supporters of economic liberalisation supported the initiative, while critics argued it would allow foreign corporations to capture a greater share of the Indian market. "Make in India" had three stated objectives:

• to increase the manufacturing sector's growth rate to 12-14% per annum
• to create 100 million additional manufacturing jobs in the economy by 2022
• to ensure that the manufacturing sector's contribution to GDP is increased to 25% by 2022 (later revised to 2025).

Forecasting public healthcare expenditure by Government of India[22]

The Government has increased the Budget for National Mission for Green India from Rs.290 Crore($38,511,333.00 in USD) to 361.69 Crore($48,034,782.98 in USD).[23] The public expenditure on education including technical education as a percentage of GDP for the year 2013-2014 was 4.44% which was later reduced to 4.35% in the year 2014-2015 and was later increased to 4.56% in the year 2015-2016 by Modi Government.[24] The public health expenditure as a percentage of GDP of the country was 1.3% in 2013-14 was reduced by Modi Government to 1.2% and in the year 2016-17 was increased to 1.5%. In October 2014, the Modi government deregulated diesel prices,[25] and later increased taxes on diesel and petrol by Rs 13 and Rs 11 between June 2014 and January 2016 on petrol and diesel respectively. Later, taxes were decreased by four rupees(Rs 4) between February 2016 and October 2018 for petrol and diesel. Similarly, during January–April 2020, following a sharp decline of 69% in the global crude oil prices, the central government increased the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 per litre and Rs 13 per litre, respectively in May 2020. Because of these subsequent changes in taxes the retail selling prices remained stable in India during the period of fall and increase in prices of global crude oil.[26]

In order to enable the construction of defence and industrial corridors, the Modi administration amend the 2013 Act of land-reform bill that allowed it to acquire private land and without the consent of the owners for "only" these five types of projects (i) defence, (ii) rural infrastructure, (iii) affordable housing, (iv) industrial corridors set up by the government/government undertakings, up to one km on either side of the road/railway of the corridor, and (v) infrastructure including PPP projects where the government owns the land.[27] Under the previous bill(Land Acquisition Act, 2013), the government required 0% consent of landowners for Public Projects of any category, 70% consent of landowners for Public-Private projects and 80% consent for Private Projects. According to the new bill, The government must conduct a survey of its wasteland and maintain a record of the same. The bill was passed via an executive order after it faced opposition in parliament but was eventually allowed to lapse.

The government substantially increased the percentage of central revenue directly granted to states, while decreasing the amount granted through various central government programs. Overall, states' share of revenue increased marginally. The criteria upon which individual states' allocation was determined were changed, such that the revenue to 19 states increased, and that of 10 states decreased. Only one of the ten states was ruled by the BJP when the policy was enacted.[28]

The government signed large deals with General Electric and Alstom to supply India with 1,000 new diesel locomotives, as part of an effort to reform the Indian railway, which also included privatisation efforts.[29][30] In December 2015, Modi's government signed an agreement with Japan to jointly build a bullet train system linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad.[31] The Indian government put forward a plan on converting 101 rivers into national waterways for the transport of goods and passengers. The government also began an ambitious program to increase the number of highways in the country,[32][33] allocating ₹700 billion (US$8.8 billion) to the project.

On 25 June 2015, Modi launched a program intended to develop 100 smart cities.[34] The "Smart Cities" program is expected to bring IT companies an extra benefit of ₹20 billion (US$250 million).[35] He also launched a "smart villages" initiative, under which villages would be given Internet access, clean water, sanitation, and low-carbon energy, with Members of Parliament overseeing the program's implementation. The program had a stated goal of at least 2,500 smart villages by 2019.[35]

Give up LPG subsidy is a campaign launched in March 2015 by the Indian government led by Narendra Modi. It is aimed at motivating LPG users who can afford to pay the market price for LPG to voluntarily surrender their LPG subsidy.[36] As at 23 April 2016 1 crore ( 10 million) people had voluntarily given up the subsidy.[37] The surrendered subsidy is being used by the government to provide cooking gas connections to poor families in rural households free of cost.[38] Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi and Tamil Nadu are the top five states to give up the subsidy.[39]

Under his government, Railway budget was merged into the Union Budget of India. The date of presenting the budget was moved from 28 to 1 February and the financial cycle was changed from July to April. Further, the artificial distinction between planned and non-planned expenditure was removed. Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), considered as a hurdle in FDI, was scrapped by the Modi government.[40]

In 2017, Modi government put in place the Goods and Services Tax, the biggest tax reform in the country since independence. It subsumed around 17 different taxes and became effective from 1 July 2017.[41]

Over the first four years of Modi's premiership, India's GDP grew at an average rate of 7.23%, higher than the rate of 6.39% under the previous government.[42] The level of income inequality increased,[43] while an internal government report said that in 2017, unemployment had increased to its highest level in 45 years.[44] The loss of jobs was attributed to the 2016 demonetisation, and to the effects of the Goods and Services Tax.[45][46] The last year of Modi's first term didn't see much economic development and focused on the policies of Defence and on the basic formula of Hindutva. His government focused on pension facilities for old-age group people and depressed sections of society.[47] The economic growth rate in 2018-19 was recorded to be 6.1%, which was lower than the average rate of the first four years of premiership.[48] The fall in the growth rate was again attributed to the 2016 demonetisation and to the effects of the GST[49] on the economy. In the year 2020, due to the nationwide lockdown and shutdown of the industries, the Indian economy suffered a major economic loss.[50][51] It experienced a historic fall of -23% rate of the GDP,[52] following which, Prime Minister Modi launched a movement called Atmanirbhar Bharat along with other movements and schemes to support the small scale and indigenous businesses to support the economy and to boycott Chinese products.[53][54] Following this, Prime Minister Modi also announced a scheme of ₹20 lakh crore (US$250 billion) as a relief package for all damages to the economy.[55]

Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) in August 2014. The initiative aimed to create bank accounts and debit cards for 150 million families, and to allow them an overdraft of ₹5,000 (US$63) and accident insurance. After the launch, 125.4 million accounts were opened by January 2015.

Mudra yojana logo

Modi government launched the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) in April 2015. Under this scheme, loans up to ₹1 million (US$13,000) are given for non-agricultural activities under the three categories: Shishu (loans up to ₹50,000 (US$630)); Kishore (loans from ₹50,000 (US$630) to ₹500,000 (US$6,300)) and Tarun (loans from ₹500,000 (US$6,300) to ₹1 million (US$13,000)). According to a report by the SKOCH Group, this scheme has generated 1.68 crore incremental jobs in the first two years until September 2017.[56]

In his first cabinet decision, Modi set up a team to investigate black money.[57][58][59][60][61][62][63] Over the first four years of Modi's premiership, India's GDP grew at an average rate of 7.23%, higher than the rate of 6.39% under the previous government. The level of income inequality increased,[43] while an internal government report said that in 2017, unemployment had increased to its highest level in 45 years. The loss of jobs was attributed to the 2016 demonetisation, and to the effects of the Goods and Services Tax.[45][46]

On 8 November 2016, the Government of India announced the demonetisation of all ₹500 and ₹1,000 banknotes of the Mahatma Gandhi Series. It also announced the issuance of new ₹500 and ₹2,000 banknotes in exchange for the demonetised banknotes.[64] Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the action would curtail the shadow economy, increase cashless transactions and reduce the use of illicit and counterfeit cash to fund illegal activity and terrorism.[65][66][67]

The announcement of demonetisation was followed by prolonged cash shortages in the weeks that followed, which created significant disruption throughout the economy.[68][69][70][71][72][73] People seeking to exchange their banknotes had to stand in lengthy queues, and several deaths were linked to the rush to exchange cash.[74][75]

According to a 2018 report from the Reserve Bank of India ₹15.3 trillion of the ₹15.41 trillion in demonetised bank notes, or approximately 99.3%, were deposited in banks, leading analysts to state that the effort had failed to remove black money from the economy.[76][77] The BSE SENSEX and NIFTY 50 stock indices fell over 6 percent on the day after the announcement.[78] The move reduced the country's industrial production and its GDP growth rate.[79] It is estimated that 1.5 million jobs were lost.[80] The move also saw a significant increase in digital and cashless transactions throughout the country.[81]

Initially, the move received support from several bankers as well as from some international commentators. The move was also criticised as poorly planned and unfair, and was met with protests, litigation, and strikes against the government in several places across India. Debates also took place concerning the move in both houses of Parliament.[82][83][84][85]

After demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1000 rupee notes[86][87][66] various authorities noticed a surge in shell companies depositing cash in banks, possibly in an attempt to hide the real owner of the wealth. In response, in July 2017, the authorities ordered nearly 2 lakh shell companies to be shut down while Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) imposed trading restrictions on 162 listed entities as shell companies.[88][89] In September 2017, the government froze bank accounts of nearly 2 lakh shell companies.[90] A day after, the Corporate Affairs ministry decided to ban around 300,000 directors of shell companies from serving on the boards of other firms to track down the beneficial owners of suspected shell companies and take penal action against those who divert funds from these shell companies.[91]

Modi government passed the National Waterways Act, 2016 to develop 111 National Waterways in India.[92]

in June, 2015 under his premiership MoHUA started PM Awas Yojana with an aim to provide affordable Houses by giving financial assistance. Under PMAY, it is proposed to build 2 crore houses for poor including Economically Weaker Sections and Low Income Groups by the year 2022 through a financial assistance of ₹2 lakh crore (US$25 billion) from the central government.[93][94]

On 27 March 2022 Bank employees called a nationwide strike for two days to protest against the Modi government's plan to privatize public sector banks.[95]

During the 2014 election campaign, Modi expressed hopes for a tenure without communal violence. The BJP sought to identify itself with political leaders known to have opposed Hindu nationalism, including B. R. Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Ram Manohar Lohia. The campaign also saw the use of rhetoric based on Hindutva, however, by BJP leaders in certain states.[96] Communal tensions were played upon especially in Uttar Pradesh and the states of Northeast India. A proposal for the controversial Uniform Civil Code was a part of the BJP's election manifesto.

Several state governments headed by the BJP have enacted policies aligned with Hindutva after the election of Modi as prime minister. The government of Haryana made changes to its education policy that introduced Hindu religious elements into the curriculum. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj suggested after the election that the Bhagvad Gita be adopted as India's "national book". The Modi administration has generally avoided directly supporting policies related to a Hindutva agenda. There has been an increase in the activities of a number of other Hindu nationalist organisations, sometimes with the support of the government. The incidents included a campaign against "Love Jihad", a religious conversion programme, by members of the right wing Hindu Mahasabha. The attempts at religious conversion have been described by the VHP and other organisations involved with them as attempts at "reconversion" from Islam or Christianity. However, no evidence was found by police in many states to support the "love-jihad" narrative.[97][98][99][100] There have been a number of reports of intimidation or coercion of the subjects during these attempts. Officials in the government, including the Home Minister, have defended the attempts. There were additional incidents of violence targeted at religious minorities by Hindu nationalists. Modi refused to remove a government minister from her position after a popular outcry resulted from her referring to religious minorities as "bastards".[101] Commentators have suggested, however, that the violence was perpetrated by radical Hindu nationalists to undercut the authority of Modi.

The Modi administration appointed Yellapragada Sudershan Rao, who had previously been associated with the RSS, chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research. In reaction to his appointment, other historians and former members of the ICHR, including those sympathetic to the ruling party, questioned his credentials as a historian. Several stated that the appointment was part of an agenda of cultural nationalism.[102][103]

On 8 January 2019, India's lower house of parliament approves a bill that would grant residency and citizenship rights to non-Muslim immigrants who entered the country before 2014 - including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from three Muslim-majority countries (Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan) - and make them eligible for Indian citizenship. The Bill excludes Muslims.[104][105]

Modi at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi.

On 6 August 2019, the Supreme Court of India passed resolution on creation of Ram Mandir on the disputed land of Ayodhya.[106] The verdict also stated to provide 5 acres (20,000 m²) for creation of a mosque on another part of the land. The land was given to the Sunni Waqf Board.[107] On 5 August 2019, Narendra Modi held the Bhoomipujan at the Ayodhya. He became the first prime minister to visit Ram Janmabhoomi and Hanuman Garhi.[108]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing at the inauguration of Kashi Vishwanath Dham on 13 December 2021.

On 8 March 2019, the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project was launched by Narendra Modi to ease access between the temple and the Ganges River, creating a wider space to prevent overcrowding.[109] On 13 December 2021, Modi inaugurated the corridor with a sacred ceremony.[110]

Under Modi's tenure, bulldozers have been used in many Muslim neighborhoods for demolitions of homes, shops and other property owned by Muslims accused in crimes or riots. BJP officials have defended the use of demolitions as they say properties are illegal. In Delhi, the demolition drive even violated the Supreme Court order which asked the authorities to immediately stop the demolitions.[111]

In June 2015, Modi launched the "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.[112][113] A total of 4,718 camps were held from 2014 to 2017, benefiting 6.40 lakh beneficiaries under Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of Aids/Appliances (ADIP) scheme, as compared to 37 camps from 2012 to 2014.[114]

In 2019, a law was passed to provide 10% reservation to Economically weaker sections.[115]

Modi also launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) on 1 May 2016 to distribute 50 million LPG connections to women of BPL families.[116][117][118] A budgetary allocation of ₹800 billion (US$10 billion) was made for the scheme. In the first year of its launch, the connections distributed were 22 million against the target of 15 million. As of 23 October 2017, 30 million connections were distributed, 44% of which were given to families belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.[119] The number crossed 58 million by December 2018.[120] In 2018 Union Budget of India, its scope was widened to include 80 million poor households.[121] 21,000 awareness camps were conducted by oil marketing companies (OMC).[120] The scheme led to an increase in LPG consumption by 56% in 2019 as compared to 2014.[122]

The BJP Government formulated the bill after 100 cases of instant triple talaq in the country since the Supreme Court judgement in August 2017.[123] On 28 December 2017, Lok Sabha passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017.[124] The bill make instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) in any form — spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp illegal and void, with up to three years in jail for the husband. MPs from RJD, AIMIM, BJD, AIADMK and AIML opposed the bill, calling it arbitrary in nature and a faulty proposal, while Congress supported the Bill tabled in Lok Sabha by law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.[125][126] 19 amendments were moved in Lok Sabha but all were rejected.

The central government re-introduced the bill in the Lok Sabha on 21 June 2019.[127][128] The bill was subsequently passed by the Lok Sabha on 25 July 2019[129] and then by Rajya Sabha on 30 July 2019[130] and received assent from President Kovind on 31 July 2019.[131] After its enactment, the Act became retrospectively effective from 19 September 2018.

However, even after five years since Supreme Court’s invalidation of triple talaq, the women petitioners who were abandoned by their husbands, continue to live the life of half-divorcees.[132]

Modi repealed 1,200 obsolete laws in first three years as prime minister, against a total of 1,301 such laws repealed by previous governments over a span of 64 years.[212][213][214] The legislations passed in the parliament for the purpose include Repealing and Amending Act, 2015, Repealing and Amending (Second) Act, 2015, Repealing and Amending Act, 2016, Repealing and Amending Act, 2017 and Repealing and Amending (Second) Act, 2017.[215]

Modi launched the Digital India programme, which has the goal of ensuring that government services are available electronically, building infrastructure so rural areas get high-speed Internet access, boosting manufacturing of electronic goods in the country, and promoting digital literacy.[216][217][218] Under the programme, 400 railway Stations across the country are being equipped with Wi-Fi technology.[219] In the 2017 Union Budget of India, POS machines, scanners, fingerprint readers, iris scanners and micro ATMs were exempted from all kinds of custom duties. The internet penetration in India rose from 20 percent in 2014 to 28.7 percent in 2016.[220]

"Unnat Bharat Abhiyan" involve engaging with neighbouring communities and using technologies for their upliftment.[221][222]

Under Modi's premiership, India has experienced democratic backsliding. [223][224]

Since Modi became prime minister in 2014, India saw a decline in media freedom. India fell from 133 out of 180 countries in 2016 to 150 in 2021, in the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.[225]

India ranked 46th out of 165 independent countries and two territories in the Democracy Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for 2021.[226]

Central investigative agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation have been instrumentalised for political gains by the Modi government and used against their political opposition.[227][228] The government has put opposition politicians under house arrest and jailed them in order to prevent them from canvassing or participating in protest movements such as in the cases of TDP politician Nara Lokesh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram.[228] Jaffrelot finds similarities between the way the Modi administration has used investigative agencies, and the use of income-tax raids as a tool of intimidation by the government of Indira Gandhi during the emergency.[227] A pattern of closing cases against political opponents who defect to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has also emerged.[229][228] The charges of Sharda scam[230] were dropped[231] against Himanta Biswa Sarma when he joined the BJP,[232] cases against Ajit Pawar,[233] Mukul Roy,[234] Y.S. Chowdary[228] and Harshvardhan Patil[235] were also dropped when they defected to the BJP.

According to the data shared by the Union government in the parliament in July 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered 5,422 cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, but only 23 persons have been convicted – less than 0.5% out of which 5,310 cases were under the premiership of Narendra Modi.[236][237] The government data on convictions by the Income Tax Department is also abysmal.[238] In 6 months between 2018 and 2019, the Income Tax Department had raided the offices of 16 politicians of which 15 belonged to opposition parties.[239] Among the politicians booked, arrested, raided or questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation under the first eight years years of Modi's government, 95% were from the opposition.[240] BJP leaders have boasted about the impunity they get from the investigative agencies and threatening rebels in their party with raids, adds further to the allegations of misuse of investigative agencies under the premiership of Modi.[241] [242]

Modi's government delayed the release of data on unemployment in 2019. Two members of National Statistical Commission resigned in protest as the release was approved in December 2018 by the commission. The government released the data in May 2019 after the general elections. The government delayed farmer suicide data from 2016 by three years. Before the 2019 general elections, the government did not release data on consumer expenditure, GDP growth, deaths due to lynching, and caste census from 2011.[243][244]

The government withheld National Crime Records Bureau data for 2017.[245], discontinued Labour Bureau’s quarterly enterprises survey and the Employment-Unemployment Survey, and instead plan to rely on provident fund data for calculation of unemployment, which is widely criticized.[246]

During the second wave of the pandemic in April 2021, Modi's government launched a new policy for vaccines which allowed Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to earn huge profit margins making vaccine doses distributed by the private hospitals unaffordable for working class families in India. The requirement to book the vaccination slots online excluded many Indians who did not have smartphones or internet access.[247]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many estimates, including by The Lancet and World Health Organization, say India undercounted number of deaths, ranging from a factor of 5 to 10 times.[248][249]

On January 30, 2022, India announced that it administered about 1.7 billion doses of vaccines and more than 720 million people were fully vaccinated.[250]

According to a 2022 study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, over 4.2 million lives were saved in India in 2021 due to vaccination against Covid-19.[251]