--- title: Who is Narendra Modi? A Video Guide to India's Next Prime Minister description: New India Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes with economic clout and baggage from deaths of more than a thousand Muslims in religious riots. canonical: https://time.com/103735/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-gujarat-bse-senex/ author: TIME Video article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-17T15:34:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:54:13.053Z article:section: World og:title: Meet India's Next Prime Minister og:description: New India Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes with economic clout and baggage from deaths of more than a thousand Muslims in religious riots. og:url: https://time.com/103735/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-gujarat-bse-senex/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdafb8b8836592519/69868fff1eebf7b2d0370f57/modi-still001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Modi India's Next Prime Minister og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet India's Next Prime Minister twitter:description: New India Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes with economic clout and baggage from deaths of more than a thousand Muslims in religious riots. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdafb8b8836592519/69868fff1eebf7b2d0370f57/modi-still001.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Quick Guide to India's Next Prime Minister by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video May 17, 2014 3:34 PM CUT  Modi comes with an economic pedigree and some serious baggage. Modi comes with an economic pedigree and some serious baggage. by [TIME Video](/author/time-video/) ## TIME Video May 17, 2014 3:34 PM CUT On the news that Narendra Modi will be India’s next Prime Minister, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE Sensex) experienced its biggest gains in five years. The market leaped on the election of the tea vendor turned politician due to his stellar track record increasing the economy of his state Gujarat by 10% annually. Many hope he can do the same for the nation’s economy as a whole. But Modi comes with some baggage. In 2002, religious riots in Gujarat left more than a thousand Muslims dead, on his watch. Modi has been cleared by the Indian Supreme Court of any blame, but remains a controversial figure despite his economic knowhow. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/103735/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-gujarat-bse-senex/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/103735/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-gujarat-bse-senex/"},"headline":"A Quick Guide to India's Next Prime Minister","datePublished":"2014-05-17T15:34:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:54:13.053Z","description":"New India Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes with economic clout and baggage from deaths of more than a thousand Muslims in religious riots.","url":"https://time.com/103735/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-gujarat-bse-senex/","keywords":["India","elections","Narendra Modi","Prime Minister"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdafb8b8836592519/69868fff1eebf7b2d0370f57/modi-still001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Video","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-video/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdafb8b8836592519/69868fff1eebf7b2d0370f57/modi-still001.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Modi India's Next Prime Minister","caption":"Modi comes with an economic pedigree and some serious baggage.","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/103735/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-gujarat-bse-senex/","name":"A Quick Guide to India's Next Prime Minister"}}]}] ```