PM Modi's 75th Birthday: A Look at How the Economy Performed Under His Reign

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrates his 75^th birthday today, the country takes a look at the economy under him over the last one decade. Under his leadership, India has touched several highs and has also witnessed exponential growth in the stock market sector.

Notably, PM Modi's tenure has positioned India as the fourth-largest economy in the world after the US, China, and Germany, with its GDP at $4.19 trillion. Exports have seen a growth in the past decade but the growth of India's manufacturing sector with respect to the country's economy is still a hige challenge.

Here’s a look at different aspects of the Indian economy and how they have performed under PM Modi:

India’s GDP Performance

Since PM Modi came to power in 2014, India's GDP growth rate has mostly seen a steady rise with just one hiccup in the year 2020-21 when the rate fell to a staggering -5.8%. Besides that, India's GDP has been growing at 6.5% per annum on average under Modi while nominal GDP has tripled from around ₹106.57 lakh crore in 2014-15 to ₹331.03 lakh crore in 2024-25.  In addition to that, there has been a rise in India's Gross Value Added (GVA). While in 2014 it was $1.88 trillion, the same almost doubled to $3.55 trillion in 2024.

Steady Growth in Exports But Manufacturing a Challenge

Under his term, India's exports have seen steady growth. While India's exports were valued at $466.22 billion in 2013-14, the same rose up 67% to $778.21 billion in 2023-24.

In addition to that, merchandise exports grew 39% rate in the same period (from $314 billion in 2013-14 to $437.10 billion in 2023-24). Additionally, services exports saw a 124% increase from $152 billion in 2013-14 to $341.11 billion in 2023-24.

However, growth in the manufacturing sector has remained a challenge despite the prime minister launching the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Even though the manufacturing sector's share in total GVA was 17.2% in 2013-14, it has witnessed almost no improvement (17.5% in 2023-24) in a decade.

Stock Market Performance and Inflation

In the past decade, market indices have shown impressive growth. Since the prime minister took his first oath on May 26, 2014, both Sensex and Nifty have increased almosy fourfold.

Back in 2014, Nifty was around 7,360 and currently it is trading above 25,100, growing around 240% in the given time period.

On the same day, eleven years ago, Sensex was at 24,690 but now it is now above the 82,000-mark, thus showing nearly 235% growth.

In terms of India's inflation rate, it has hovered around 4 to 6% during Modi's leadership. On the other hand, due to global factors, it increased to 6.7% in 2022.

Job Creation

In a noteworthy development, employment under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increased by 36% to 64.33 crore in 2024-25. However the same was at around 47.15 crore in 2014-15, Union Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya noted.

Comparing the growth of the job sector under Modi to that under Manmohan Singh, the Minister also said that between 2014-24, the Modi government created around 17.19 crore additional jobs while the UPA had managed to create 2.9 crore additional jobs. Mandaviya has also mentioned that India's unemployment rate has dropped from 6% in 2017-18 to 3.2% in 2023-24 while the employment rate (WPR) grew from 46.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 58.2 per cent in 2023-24.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, India's unemployment fell to 6.8 per cent in July 2025, marking the lowest unemployment rate in 34 months.