India, Oct. 11 -- On October 7, 2026, Narendra Modi marked a quarter-century of executive leadership, a journey that began as Gujarat's Chief Minister in 2001 and continued as India's Prime Minister from 2014. His combined tenure is the longest for a head of government in India. The significance of this milestone lies in what sustained leadership can accomplish: carrying reforms through implementation and building institutions capable of serving a vast democracy. Three electoral victories in Gujarat and three terms as Prime Minister provided the time to pursue this institutional change. That experience now informs India's ambition of becoming a developed nation by 2047.

Gujarat offered an early lesson in how administrative reform could i...