Narendra Modi’s (*1950) India has a long way to go to catch up with the pseudo-Communist rival China in the Asian century. Prime minister since 2014, Narendra Modi has transformed both, his Hindu-nationalist BJP as well as the most populous country in the world with a population of now over 1.4 billion people.
Modi is a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member since the tender age of eight. As PM, he has allowed a violent form of Hindutva extremism to flourish. Murders of Muslims are not thoroughly investigated and punished. Recently, immigration raids, just like in Trump’s USA, have made the headlines.
India has made economic progress under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but the former World Bank and IMF economist Ashoka Mody wrote and said that hundreds of millions of Indians only get poor education and healthcare. He claimed that only 15% of children can properly read and write; in China, that number is 85%. According to Mody, only 13% of Indian women have a paid job.
The 2023-2024 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLF) by the National National Sample Survey Office put India’s literacy rate for people aged 7 and above at 80.9%. The 2024 Indian labour statistics showed that only around a third of Indian women were working in 2024. Under PM Modi, India made progress. Open to debate is the level of literacy, and there is still room for improvement when it comes to women’s work.
The infrastructure is poor. Corruption remains rampant, the lack of governance and pollution are major problems. Alongside religious intolerance, the caste system remains an obstacle to the country’s development. Under PM Modi, India has made some progress regarding the infrastructure in the big cities.
Critics point out that the top 1% own 40% of the wealth in India. Good connections with the powerful are essential. The Reliance empire led by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, own’s the countries largest oil refinery in Jamnagar. 30% of the oil refined there comes from Russia. Since Putin’s 2022 escalation of the war against Ukraine, Russia is under Western sanctions and forced to sell its natural resources at discount prices to whom is willing to buy them, mainly China and India. Mukesh Ambani maintains excellent relations with PM Modi.
In addition to Reliance, Nayara Energy also owns a major refinery in Jamnagar. Its production is only one third of the one by Reliance but, according to The New York Times, since 2017, Nayara has been 49% owned by Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company. One of its other largest stakeholders is a Russian-owned investment firm. In other words, a Rosneft-backed entity has been buying oil from Russia, processing it in India and in some cases selling the refined products back to Europe.
Despite efforts by Modi’s governments, India remains an import nation: the total value of imports, notably oil, is substantially higher than the total amount of exports, notably electronic and engineering goods, rice, textiles and cotton. India’s most important export market, the United States of America account for about 18% of all exports and 2.2% of Indian GDP. Although President Trump and Prime Minister Modi are or were “political friends”, Modi even campaigned for Trump’s reelection, Trump had no qualms about imposing high import tariffs on India. On August 6, 2025 Trump announced that a 50% tariff on goods imported from India would come into effect on August 27 if no deal was reached before that deadline. Trump wants to replace income tax in part or in full with customs duties. The “Russia penalty” aka 50% tariff as a punishment for importing oil from Russia may be the real reason or just another excuse for Trump’s love for tariffs and balanced trade. Incidentally, the president never mentions the service sector and even punishes the rare countries with a trade deficit towards the United States, e.g. the United Kingdom.
Trump remains a bully who goes after friends and foes alike. The only notable country not facing a tariff yet remains Putin’s Russia. As for Modi and India, they should realize that Trump cares only about Trump. India’s electronics and pharma exports towards the United States remain exempt from additional tariffs for now.
But Trump is unpredictable. His bankrupt companies are legion: Trump casinos, airlines, magazine, mortgages, steaks, travel, university, fragrances, mattress, vodka. You name it. In the future, one can surely add the Trump coin, a Ponzi scheme. Will Trump sink the United States? His Big Beautiful Bill is another step in that direction.
As for Narendra Modi, he made steps in the right direction, some in the wrong. He has no children. He will not create a dynasty such as the Gandhi-Nehru clan who dominates the Indian National Congress party until today. For decades, that clan had led India down the wrong path of socialism. As for Modi, if he really cares about his entry in the history books, he should distance himself from the shady politics pursued by “friends” such as Trump and BRICS leaders.
Related books. Accept cookies — we receive a commission; price unchanged — and order them from Amazon.
Ashoka Mody: India Is Broken: A People Betrayed, Independence to Today. Stanford University Press, 2023, 528 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de.
R. Balasubramaniam aka Balu: Power Within: The Leadership Legacy of Narendra Modi. Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd, 2024, 376 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk.
Ajay Singh: The Architect of the New BJP: How Narendra Modi Transformed the Party. Ebury Press, 2022, 288 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India. 2023 official portrait. Via Wikipedia/Wikimedia.
Article added on August 12, 2025 at 14:07 German time.
