New Delhi, Aug. 15 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day address from the Red Fort on Saturday, August 15, ran 75 minutes, his shortest speech in four years and the fourth shortest of his tenure, as he used the shorter address to unveil a seven-point reform framework called "Sapta Dhara" and warn that countries were increasingly turning resources and shipping routes into tools of geopolitical pressure.

Speech record

Modi's address was well below last year's 103-minute speech, itself a record that broke his own 98-minute address from 2024. His longest speech remains the 96-minute address he delivered in 2016, while his shortest came in 2017 at 56 minutes. His first Independence Day speech in 2014 lasted 65 minutes.

This was...