Modi Archive

Today, on Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad's Jayanti, watch this speech in which @narendramodi explains what good governance actually looks like in practice. During a visit to Dwarka, Narendra Modi was surprised to find that women in their 80s were educated, while younger women were not. He learned these older women came from families in areas once under Gaekwadi rule, where girls' education was compulsory. This stayed with him. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad has had a key influence on Narendra Modi's life. His village, Vadnagar, was a Gaekwadi village, and the primary school where he studied was built during the Gaekwad era. When the 150th Birth Anniversary was observed in 2012, CM Narendra Modi ensured it was marked with the scale and respect it deserved. Over the years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken of Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad as the paragon of good governance. During Maharaja Gaekwad's era, schools, libraries, a postal system, and ponds were built because he believed these basic facilities should be available in every village.

In 2003, @narendramodi articulated a civilizational perspective, asserting how India has historically regarded womanhood not as subordinate or secondary, but as the embodiment of the supreme. "No tradition in the world has elevated the feminine to the form of God," he stated. The feminine is represented as Amba, Durga, Saraswati, and Lakshmi, each revered as a manifestation of the divine. Centuries before contemporary debates regarding the role of women in society, India had already established the principle that Nari Shakti, or feminine power, is to be revered and venerated. Watch this special Women’s Day throwback from the archives. #InternationalWomensDay #NayeBharatKiNariShakti

"While some of the world’s oldest democracies took over a century to grant women the right to vote, India gave women universal suffrage in 1947 itself," he said proudly. This was before the legislation, the national mission, the policy frameworks, and the implementation of the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, which reserved 33% of Parliament's seats for women. Twenty years ago, a Chief Minister was already asking: Why should women's power remain confined to the family? Why not the Gram Sabha, the district, or every room where decisions are made? The year was 2003. The day was Women’s Day. The leader was @narendramodi. Watch this... #InternationalWomensDay #NayeBharatKiNariShakti

The thread connecting the 2006 and 2017 visits is agriculture and water resource management. Both countries had been working on the same problems from different angles. India had the scale, the farmland, and the need. Israel had turned constraint into technique, developing drip irrigation, wastewater recycling, and desalination into systems that could be exported, replicated, and built upon. CM Modi had recognised in 2006 that these were exactly the techniques Gujarat and India needed, and had come back as Prime Minister to make it a national commitment. When he arrived in 2017, the agricultural cooperation agenda was not assembled by officials preparing for a state visit. It had been in formation since a May afternoon in 2006 when CM Modi presented to over a thousand international delegates at Agritech and walked away with a clear conviction about what India and Israel could build together. In 2026, PM @narendramodi returns to #Israel. The India-Israel agenda continues to carry agriculture, water management, and food security at its core. #PMModiInIsrael

Eleven years later, PM @narendramodi returned to Israel as the first Indian Prime Minister to ever make a bilateral visit. The agricultural theme that had run through 2006 ran through this one too. @netanyahu received him at the airport, and their first stop was a flower farm, where Israel's leading flower genetics company had developed a new white chrysanthemum for the occasion and named it "MODI." Floriculture is one of Israel's most advanced agricultural export sectors, and the visit to the farm was a deliberate signal of where Israeli agricultural innovation had reached. The Times of Israel reported it the same evening. The 3-Year Work Program in Agriculture signed during the visit was the formal institutionalisation of what CM Modi had personally initiated at Agritech-2006. The water conservation cooperation drawn up during the visit built directly on the model he had studied at Israel's water facilities over a decade earlier. The Netafim relationship he had worked on as Chief Minister became a government-to-government framework as Prime Minister. In his address to the Indian diaspora in Tel Aviv during the visit, PM Modi emphasised: "Israel's cooperation in the agriculture sector can help India in the second green revolution." He also spoke about the Indian Jewish community at Moshav Nevatim, who had worked to make David Ben Gurion's dream of greening the desert a success, calling them a source of pride for every Indian. Agriculture was not a diplomatic talking point on this visit. It was personal. The visit also produced one of its defining images: PM Modi and PM Netanyahu at a demonstration of Israel's mobile water desalination technology. Water, again, at the centre of what the two countries had to say to each other. #PMModiInIsrael #Israel

As PM @narendramodi is about to land in Israel, here are some anecdotes from his previous visits. May 2006. Israel. CM Narendra Modi of Gujarat travelled to Agritech-2006, Israel’s premier international agricultural technology exhibition, as part of an Indian delegation that included Chief Ministers and senior officials representing India’s agricultural sector. CM Modi presented Gujarat’s agricultural vision at the Israel-India Business Forum under the slogan “Per Drop More Crop”, perhaps the first time he publicly articulated this phrase, which would go on to become the official motto of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, India’s national micro-irrigation scheme. The internal Gujarat delegation report records the presentation received “maximum applause and appreciation.” “More Crop Per Drop” was the founding principle of Israel’s own farming system. CM Modi arrived speaking their language. The delegation visited kibbutzim - Israel’s unique communal agricultural settlements, where land, labour, and resources are collectively owned and managed, the Volcani Centre (Israel’s premier agricultural research institute), water management facilities, and operational water treatment plants where recycled wastewater was being used directly in agriculture. CM Modi sat down with Netafim, already partnered with a Gujarat government subsidiary, with specific proposals: drip irrigation for Gujarat’s drought-prone districts and Netafim’s potential role in the Narmada Canal water network. He attended a full technical seminar by the TAHAL Group on desalination, wastewater recycling, and cloud seeding technologies, building a working understanding of water engineering that he would later apply nationally. #Israel #PMModiInIsrael

Both @narendramodi and Amma Jayalalithaa were at the forefront of resisting any attempt by the Congress-led UPA to hamper India's progress and weaken India's internal security apparatus. Here are some more photos of their close association over the years.

Today is the birth anniversary of Jayalalithaa Ji. During the #MannKiBaat programme on Sunday, PM @narendramodi recalled his association with her on various occasions, including the special gesture of a Pongal lunch she hosted in his honour. Narendra Modi and Amma Jayalalithaa interacted closely when they both served as the Chief Ministers of their respective states. Her presence at two oath-taking ceremonies of CM Modi (in 2002 and 2012), and his at her oath-taking in 2011, illustrated the respect they had for each other.

Today is the birth anniversary of former American President Abraham Lincoln. In 2006, while addressing youngsters during the convocation at Nirma University, CM @narendramodi recalled Lincoln’s life and delivered a powerful message of perseverance, which remains very relevant today, especially for the youth. Watch:

On June 23, 2001, five months after a devastating earthquake struck Gujarat, taking thousands of lives and leaving many homeless, the Malaysian Indian community, especially the Gujarati diaspora, showed remarkable generosity from afar. @narendramodi was visiting Malaysia as the Bharatiya Janata Party's National General Secretary (Organisation). This was months before he became Gujarat's Chief Minister in October 2001. At SMK St. Francis School in Melaka, the Malaysian Indian community organised a vegetarian food fair. They raised 40,000 Malaysian Ringgit, and every cent went to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund in India. Now, twenty-five years later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting #Malaysia again. As he once said in Kuala Lumpur: "Whether I came here without office or now as PM, I have felt the same friendship and welcome."

Today in the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister @narendramodi recalled the history of the Sardar Sarovar Dam - how its foundation was laid under Nehru in 1961, yet the project remained incomplete for decades, plagued by delays under successive governments. It was finally completed only under his leadership. As early as 1946 (even before Narendra Modi was born) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had envisioned harnessing the waters of the Narmada River. However, after his passing, the project languished for over five decades under Congress-led governments, caught in red tape, delays, and indecision. In April 2006, as Gujarat CM, Narendra Modi undertook a famous 51-hour fast to protest the UPA government’s refusal to raise the dam's height, fighting for the survival of lakhs of farmers. The era of "policy paralysis" ended instantly in 2014. Within just 17 days of taking office as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi granted the final clearance to install the gates - a decision that had been blocked for nearly a decade. On September 17, 2017, PM Modi dedicated the completed dam to the nation. At its full height of 138.68 meters, the "Lifeline of Gujarat" now irrigates millions of hectares, finally delivering Maa Narmada’s waters to the desert borders of Kutch.

As we observe #ParakramDiwas today - the Jayanti of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose - it's worth noting that the renewed national focus on Netaji has deeper philosophical roots. In this 1997 speech at an event commemorating a statue of Netaji, @narendramodi articulated a powerful idea - that such efforts to recognise national heroes preserve moral memory and shape national consciousness. "Just as a temple awakens devotion in a village, the memory of national heroes awakens a lifelong commitment to the nation." He emphasised that when citizens encounter national memory in their everyday lives, their sense of responsibility toward the nation deepens organically. Decades later, these early convictions translated into concrete action - as Chief Minister launching 'E-gram Vishwagram' in 2009 from Haripura, the very place where Netaji had lit the flame for Swaraj, and then as Prime Minister: the grand statue at India Gate, renaming Ross Island as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Dweep, establishing January 23rd as Parakram Diwas, declassification of secret Netaji files, Subhash Chandra Bose Museum & INA exhibit at Red Fort and numerous other initiatives.

“Educate a girl child, and generations become educated.” In this 2007 Kanya Kelavani address, @narendramodi explains why girls’ education is not about jobs alone, but about shaping values, families and society itself - and calls for ending discrimination between sons and daughters. Watch this today on 22 January 2026, as #BetiBachaoBetiPadhao completes eleven years of implementation..

January 22, 2026, marks 11 years since the launch of “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,” a landmark effort by PM @narendramodi to promote girl child education and empowerment. Before #BetiBachaoBetiPadhao became a national movement, its blueprint was written in Gujarat. - From dismal female literacy to near-universal enrolment - From mass dropouts to record retention - From neglected schools to dignity-first infrastructure Gujarat’s Kanya Kelavani and Shala Praveshotsav changed mindsets before changing numbers. A Chief Minister, his Cabinet and senior officers reached thousands of villages every year for three days in peak summer - with one mission: bring every girl into school. In scorching summers, CM Narendra Modi went village to village - sitting with parents, folding hands, requesting: “Please send your daughters to school. For your future. For our society.” What followed were drums, decorated chariots, and entire villages celebrating as daughters entered classrooms. Before it became a national slogan, 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' was already a proven grassroots movement. Watch to know how..

Narendra Modi with BJP National Presidents

The sky has never been the limit for @narendramodi! 🪁 Throwback to Uttarayan 2002: a newly sworn-in Chief Minister celebrating Makar Sankranti from a rooftop in the heart of Ahmedabad’s pols with local families. Under the leadership of then Chief Minister Modi, Gujarat’s Patangotsav evolved from a local celebration into a global phenomenon. Watch…

Before social media existed, he was already a youth sensation.. #NationalYouthDay

"आओ, हम सब अपना जीवन उत्सर्ग कर दें, मैं भी और तुम भी, तुम में से प्रत्येक। यह एवं ऐसे ही अनेक कार्य श्रीगणेश मात्र हैं। विश्वास मानो, हमारे जीवन-रक्त की एक-एक बूँद के त्याग से ईश्वर के विराट, वीरचित्त कार्यकर्ता एवं योद्धा जन्म लेंगे, जो संपूर्ण विश्व को क्रांतिमय कर देंगे।" - स्वामी विवेकानंद "Let us sacrifice our lives! You and I, each one of you. From our life-blood will arise heroes who shall revolutionise the world." - Swami Vivekananda On #NationalYouthDay 2026, let’s honour Swami Vivekananda’s vision by choosing service over self. [From the pages of Narendra Modi's Diary]

On this day, 41 years ago, as youth across the world marked International Youth Year 1985, a 35-year-old youth organiser in India, Narendra Modi, addressed youngsters at a National Youth Day programme. Drawing from the Taittiriya Upanishad and the Bhagavad Gita, and invoking figures such as Peter the Great and Thomas Edison, Narendra Modi spoke of character, labour and service as the true foundations of nation building. At the event organised by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Jamnagar, Gujarat, he identified 17 challenges facing India’s youth and outlined a clear roadmap to build a strong, self-reliant nation. Four decades later, those ideas continue to resonate. From the pages of history to the aspirations of today’s youth... #NationalYouthDay