By Aditya Pittie,News18

Copyright news18

On September 17, 2025, as the sun rises over the nation he has so tirelessly served, India will celebrate the 75th birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi—a milestone that marks not just the passage of years, but also his extraordinary odyssey from the lanes of Vadnagar to the pinnacle of global leadership. Narendra Modi rose from a life of humble service to a life of public service based upon a simple but powerful tenet: nation first, self last.
PM Modi gave Indian politics a much-needed reset: a politics of performance and trust. Governance moved from promises to measurable outcomes, from slogans to dashboards, from five-year plans to weekly reviews. The mantra reform, perform, transform became a management system: reform to remove roadblocks, perform to prove credibility, and transform to compound results.
Before 2014, he built and stress-tested his governance template in Gujarat. Discipline, resolute focus, target orientation, and an obsession with execution formed the flywheel, and this model was carried to New Delhi and operationalised at scale.
Consider the new public rails that now power everyday life in India. Digital Public Infrastructure (Aadhaar, UPI, Digi Locker, Open Network for Digital Commerce, etc.) collapsed friction for citizens and small firms; money moves instantly, credit can be priced on data rather than collateral, and the most vulnerable are visible to the system without intermediaries.
The Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity enabled record direct benefit transfers, stopping leakage and enabling empowerment. Swachh Bharat created a national hygiene habit and dignity for women. Ujjwala shifted kitchens from biomass to clean LPG, improving health and safety for crores of families. Saubhagya connected homes to electricity; Ayushman Bharat gave financial protection to the vulnerable; PM Awas turned housing aspiration into ownership.
This is ‘Antyodaya’ in practice—uplifting the last person in line—ensuring a minimum standard of living and dignity of life for the marginalised so that growth is not just a statistic but felt and experienced by every citizen of the country.
Under the leadership of PM Modi, we have surged from a $2 trillion economy in 2014 to $4.3 trillion today, with 7.8 per cent GDP growth in Q1 FY25, outpacing global giants. We have lifted 250 million people out of multidimensional poverty, and our Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has landed on the South Pole of the Moon.
His tenure has also repositioned India on the global stage. From spearheading the voice of the Global South and leading a successful G20 presidency, to expanding strategic partnerships and championing resilient, trusted supply chains, India today is not merely “at the table”—it often sets the agenda. In space, digital, climate commitments, and humanitarian outreach, the country has found a confident, clear voice. It is hence no accident that Narendra Modi consistently ranks among the world’s most trusted and popular leaders.
In addition to undertaking major structural reforms, such as the GST and the Insolvency and
Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the government under his leadership is now pushing process reforms to boost the ease of doing business and living. Add to this the most consequential consumption booster since GST’s original rollout: GST 2.0. This reform streamlines slabs toward a simpler two-rate structure (5 per cent and 18 per cent), pares taxes on essentials and mass-market durables, accelerates refunds, and layers in digital ease, which will supercharge demand and further boost GDP growth.
India’s transformation under his leadership is nothing short of miraculous. This is not happenstance; it is the hallmark of a ‘Yug Purush’. Narendra Modi is no ordinary leader; he is the man of the era, beloved by the people of India, stemming from his unwavering dedication and focus on their welfare. As he repeatedly states, the public is my God and I am their ‘Pradhan Sevak’. His life is a reminder to us that true greatness is forged in the crucible of selfless dedication.
Trust is the quiet currency behind all of this. Over 11 continuous years as prime minister—now India’s second-longest serving PM—Narendra Modi has built an indelible bond with the people by delivering in tangible ways: a toilet in the home, a tap in the kitchen, a house with a title deed, a health card that works. This is ‘Modi Ki Guarantee’.
To call him merely successful is to undersell the civilisational scale of the aspirations he has normalised. His life is a lesson in prioritising the nation over self, leading with empathy yet
firmness, and serving without expectation, a true ‘Karma Yogi’. His life embodies the unyielding spirit of Bharat and offers a practical curriculum about mission orientation, hard work, resolute focus, and selfless leadership.
Seventy-five is usually a moment of rest; for him, it is simply another milestone on a mission, and the words from Robert Frost’s poem come to mind: The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.
Happy 75th Birthday, Honourable Prime Minister. May you be blessed with a long life and good health in the service of the nation, and may your light continue to guide us toward Viksit Bharat. When India turns 100, we will say that under a ‘Yug Purush’, we learned to reform without pause, perform without excuses, and transform without leaving anyone behind. Bharat bows in gratitude to you, for not just leading us, but for awakening our potential. Jai Hind!
The author is an angel investor and startup mentor for the Atal Innovation Mission, Government of India, and the Atal Incubation Centre-Rambhau Mhalgi Prabhodhini. He is presently the Convenor (Western Maharashtra) of the BJP Intellectual Cell and has recently co-edited the book Modi’s North East Story. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.