POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: A POLITICAL-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE MODI ERA (2014–2026)

This paper undertakes a comprehensive political-economic analysis of India's trajectory between 2014 and 2026, the period during which Narendra Modi has led the government of India through three consecutive general election victories. It examines the interaction between political consolidation and economic policymaking, arguing that the Modi era is best understood not as a purely economic or purely political phenomenon but as a distinctive political economy in which centralised executive authority, welfare delivery through direct benefit transfer, and a nationalist developmental narrative have been mutually reinforcing. The paper traces major economic reforms — demonetisation (2016), the Goods and Services Tax (2017), the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the Production-Linked Incentive scheme, and the Digital India and financial-inclusion programmes — alongside major political and constitutional developments, including the abrogation of Article 370, the Citizenship Amendment Act, farm-law legislation and its repeal, and the passage of the One Nation One Election framework. It also engages critically with independent assessments of democratic institutions, press freedom, federalism, and labour-market outcomes, situating official achievements against scholarly and civil-society concerns. Drawing on government data, independent indices, and academic literature, the paper concludes that the Modi era has delivered measurable macroeconomic growth, infrastructural expansion, and welfare outreach, while simultaneously generating significant debate over the health of India's democratic institutions, the inclusiveness of growth, and the balance of power between the centre and the states. The paper argues that any rigorous assessment of the period must hold these two dimensions — economic performance and democratic quality — in analytical tension rather than treating them as separable.