Naveen Patnaik

Naveen Patnaik (born 16 October 1946) is 14th and current Chief Minister of Odisha. The supremo of the Biju Janata Dal, is also a writer and has published four books.

Biography

Patnaik was born on 16 October 1946 in Cuttack in a Karan family from Biju Patnaik, former Chief Minister of Odisha, and his brother Himanshu Patnaik. Patnaik was educated at the prestigious Doon School in Dehradun. After that he attended Kirori Mal College,Delhi University, and he qualified for Bachelor of Arts degree. Naveen Patnaik is a writer and had for most part of his youth been away from both politics and Odisha, but after his father Biju Patnaik's demise, he entered politics in 1997 and a year later founded the Biju Janata Dal, named after Biju Patnaik, which won the state election with the BJP as its alliance and formed the government in which Patnaik became Chief Minister. His mild mannerism, "stand against corruption" and "pro-poor policies" have resulted in the development of a huge support base in Odisha, which has voted him to power in the last four consecutive terms. Like his father, he has managed to control the bureaucracy and transformed it into a machine for the development of the state. He is a devotee of Lord Jagannath, Puri and Maa Tara Tarini of Ganjam in Odisha.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː], born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

Since taking office as Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government, reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment, improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations. Modi has been appreciated for starting initiatives like Swachh Bharat Mission, Make in India and Digital India. Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies (credited with encouraging economic growth in Gujarat) have been praised, although his administration has also been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots. A Hindu nationalist and a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, despite his progressivism. Known for his tech savvy image, he is the second most followed politician on social media after U.S. President Barack Obama.