Modi-era governance: Why it matters

The Modi era can certainly be read as a catalogue of schemes or infrastructural projects. But it is better seen as a continuous attempt to extend the boundaries of what is possible by developing a series of state capacities that remove the constraints on individual agency and action. 

This month marks 25 years of Narendra Modi as head of government—from Chief Minister to Prime Minister. Few Indian leaders have had the opportunity to test their governance philosophy across two levels of the system for so long. While the durability of his political career is discussed often, the durability of his governing ideas do not get much attention. In January 2012, writing on Narendra Modi’s Panchamrut governance model in The Sunday Guardian, I argued that the real significance of the model lay far beyond Gujarat’s growth rate or infrastructure developments. For those who are not aware, the model is the confluence of the mutually reinforcing five shaktis of knowledge, water, energy, security and people.

I focused on its second-order consequences, the altered state-citizen relationship and citizen mindset. As I noted at the time: “This change is more at a behavioural level than at physical, and hence not written about much.” Fourteen years, dozens of books, and hundreds of articles on Modi later, it remains an underdeveloped lens, though it has been a recurring subject of my writing in this publication. Conventional commentary measures state activities and their failures, focuses on the leader’s charisma, or lists statistics and successful schemes. The true long-term benchmark of governance is neither the scheme nor the state; it is the operating relationship between the citizen, the state, and opportunity.

THE FOUNDATION

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The Panchamrut model had a deceptively simple but foundational insight: development cannot happen through silos. The Gujarat experience showed that the value of state capacity compounds when its different components begin to work together. After 2014, when the model scaled to the national level, the objective has been to create mutually reinforcing capabilities. Accordingly, the state has done more than provide public goods; it has been setting up the conditions under which both citizens and businesses can produce social and economic value.

The Modi government has shown that it is possible to build an environment in which social capital can be strengthened and world-class outcomes achieved. The cost of moving people, goods, money, information and ideas has been reduced, which in turn has allowed individuals and enterprises to connect with new markets, skills and opportunities. More importantly, the focus has remained on jan shakti, crucial for the demographic dividend. The Modi era can certainly be read as a catalogue of schemes or infrastructural projects. But it is better seen as a continuous attempt to extend the boundaries of what is possible by developing a series of state capacities that remove the constraints on individual agency and action.

THE MECHANISMS

Historically, the Indian state functioned as a negotiated entity, exacerbating both survival and participation frictions. This changed substantially under the Modi government, particularly through the expansion of digital and direct-delivery systems. Citizen-State Debrokering: One of the most significant structural shifts witnessed during the last decade is debrokering. Direct benefit transfers, Digital India and standardised protocols have facilitated a direct connection between citizens and the state. This has played a big role in dismantling the prevalent mai-baap culture.