Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament for Varanasi. Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation. He is the first prime minister outside of the Indian National Congress to win two consecutive terms with a full majority and the second to complete five years in office after Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
India recorded more than 2,000 Covid deaths and almost 300,000 new cases, among the world's biggest daily totals since the pandemic began, official data showed.
Health ministry figures showed 295,000 new cases in 24 hours, on a par with numbers seen in the United States in January, and 2,023 fatalities, bringing the country's total death toll to 182,553.
In an address to the nation last night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country of 1.3 billion people was "once again fighting a big fight". "The situation was under control till a few weeks back, and then this second corona wave came like a storm," Mr Modi said.