 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now completed 11 years in office. This is the first year of his third term -- he took the oath of office on June 9 last year. AFP")
Not five, not 10… Today (June 9) marks Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 11 years in power — he was sworn in as prime minister for a record third time on June 9 last year in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan.
It’s been a busy one year for PM Modi and his government; it has to contend with two wars, the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Hamas war, navigate a new government in the United States led by the rather unpredictable Donald Trump and chart a new normal with Pakistan, who continues to export terrorism, mainly across the borders into India.
As we mark this occasion in our calendars, let’s take a closer look at Modi 3.0’s achievements in the past one year.
Operation Sindoor
Perhaps, PM Modi’s biggest achievement in the first year of his third-term tenure would be Operation Sindoor and the huge damage that it caused to Pakistan. Launched on May 7 as a counter to the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 innocents died, Operation Sindoor was India’s coordinated military strikes on terror camps deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In the days that followed, India and Pakistan reached the precipice of a full-blown war, as both sides engaged in a missile and drone war. However, India, under PM Modi, held its nerve. When Islamabad tried to intimidate the nation by raining down drones and launching Chinese-made missiles , a military — given a free rein by the PM Modi — responded in kind, deploying many ‘ made-in-India’ weapons to extract its pound of flesh.
At the end of Operation Sindoor, India came out on top . The country’s military had eliminated more than 100 terrorists in Pakistan and PoK, including high value targets such as Yusuf Azhar, Abdul Malik Rauf and Mudasir Ahmed who were involved in the hijack of IC-814 and the Pulwama blast.
Moreover, the IAF struck Pakistani air bases, command centres, military infrastructure, and air defence systems across the entire Western Front in a coordinated and calibrated manner. Operation Satellite imagery revealed the extent of damage that Operation Sindoor had caused to Pakistan’s Rahim Yar Khan airbase in Pakistan’s Punjab province — the sole runway at the airbase had to be declared as non-operational for a week.
But beyond causing damage and exhibiting a hegemony over Pakistan’s military, which is largely dependent on China and Turkey, Operation Sindoor also signalled a doctrinal shift in India’s strategy, establishing that state-sponsored terrorism would now invite targeted, visible, and proportional retaliation.
It showed the world that India would no longer hesitate to punish terrorism — anytime, anywhere. It showed that terrorists and their masterminds have no place to hide.
An economy to realise Viksit Bharat
One of PM Modi’s aims for India is a Viksit Bharat, turning India into a developed country by 2047. And to realise this dream, PM Modi and his government have been working tirelessly to ensure that the country’s economy only surges forward.
In his first year of his third term, he has taken many concrete steps to boost the country’s economy. On June 10, just a day after he was sworn in as prime minister, he signed the release of Rs 20,000 crore to 93 million farmers under PM Kisan Nidhi Yojana.
The full budget presented on February 1, 2025 also gave significant income-tax relief to the middle class by ensuring that people earning up to Rs 12.75 lakh were outside the tax net.
In addition to this, he has also taken multiple measures to improve the ease of doing business in the country. For instance, his government announced the abolition of 31 per cent angel tax which it claimed had been burdening start-ups since 2012. The government also reduced corporate tax from 40 per cent to 35 per cent for foreign companies besides setting up a Rs 1000-crore venture capital fund for space sector start-ups.
It is through PM Modi’s policies that India is set to be the fourth largest economy in the world by the end of the current financial year. India’s GDP grew 7.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2024-25, leading to 6.5 per cent growth in FY25 despite severe global headwinds, including uncertainties in global trade because of the US’ reciprocal tariffs.
In Modi 3.0 tenure, India has also signed two major trade deals. The first being the India-European Free Trade Association (EFTA) free trade agreement. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are the four members of EFTA. The deal – the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) – is significant because it is expected to help India bridge a huge gap in the balance of trade, which is in favour of the European nations.
The second was the India-UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is expected to double bilateral trade to over $120 billion by 2030. The other advantage of the deal is its impact on the India-European Union free trade negotiations.
India is also negotiating a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US.
A new criminal code for new India
‘Tareekh pe tareekh (Date after date)’ is a famous Hindi dialogue that is indicative of India’s slow judicial process when it comes to dealing with criminals. However, Modi 3.0 introduced an overhaul of the criminal justice system in the country in July last year.
The Modi government introduced three new criminal laws — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) — which replaced the colonial-era Indian Penal Code (IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), and Indian Evidence Act, respectively.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who piloted the change said, “These laws are made by Indians, for Indians and by an Indian Parliament and marks the end of colonial criminal justice laws.” He added that the laws were not just about changing the nomenclature but bringing about a complete overhaul. “Soul, body and spirit” of the new laws is Indian, he said.
The change in laws also introduced a handful of new offences — as many as 21. One of the significant ones is penalising sexual intercourse through the employment of “deceitful means”. The BNS also recognises murder on the ground of race, caste, or community as a separate offence. Moreover, organised crime and terror offences have been defined and covers a broad spectrum of activities.
Infrastructure development
With ‘sabka vikas’ in mind, PM Modi has laid special emphasis on infrastructural development in the country. And what better example than the inauguration of the Chenab Bridge in Jammu and Kashmir on June 6. The world’s highest railway arch bridge, which is part of the 272-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link (USBRL), finally connects the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country by rail for the first time.
Modi also laid the foundation stone for the Vadhavan Port project in Maharashtra’s Palghar district last August. This project aims to create a state-of-the-art maritime gateway that is expected to enhance India’s trade capabilities.
Under the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Scheme-4 (PMGSY-IV), approval was granted to the construction/upgradation of 62,500 km of roads and bridges to connect 25,000 unconnected villages, with central assistance of Rs 49,000 crore. Many of these unconnected villages have a population of less than 100.
The government has also approved strengthening India’s road network with an investment of Rs 50,600 crore. This includes a go-ahead for eight National High-Speed Road Corridor Projects spanning 936 kilometres.
Elevating India on the global stage
While Modi 3.0’s first year’s focus has largely been domestic policy, the government has ensured to bolster India’s presence globally too.
Shortly after becoming PM for a third time, Modi embarked on a visit to Italy where he attended the G7 Summit during which he also held bilateral meetings with the heads of the states.
Later, in July, PM Modi embarked on a crucial two-day visit to Russia and Austria. The trip to Russia was the PM’s first visit to the country after its invasion of Ukraine. During his Russia visit, PM Modi held the 22nd India-Russia annual summit with President Vladimir Putin. Significantly, PM Modi was conferred the ‘Order of St Andrew the Apostle’ award by President Putin for his contribution to fostering bilateral ties between the two countries. The Russian president also thanked PM Modi for trying to help find a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine crisis.
And Nearly six weeks after his visit to Russia, PM Modi visited Ukraine on the invitation by the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy where he held discussions on the peaceful resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Then early in February, PM Modi visited France where he was the co-chair at the international summit on artificial intelligence.
The PM was also among the first foreign leader to visit Donald Trump after he was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. During his February visit, Trump announced expanded US military sales to India from 2025, including F-35 jets, along with increased oil and gas exports to narrow the trade deficit. Both sides also agreed to negotiate a trade deal and finalise a new defence framework.
He also confirmed that the US had approved the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a Chicago businessman accused of playing a role in the 2008 terror attack in Mumbai.
With inputs from agencies