At 63, India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, is the first to have been born after India's independence.
India's population now stands at 1.2 billion. While this falls just short of China's 1.3 billion, it is predicted that at the midpoint of the 21st century, India will surpass China to become the world's most populous country, with a population of 1.5 billion. China, however, boasts an economy four times larger than that of India. China, Japan and India currently rank first, second and third, respectively, among Asia's economic powers.
Prime Minister Modi has impressively declared that his target is to improve the living standards of the people and transform India into an economic power on a par with China. "Build toilets first and temples later" is the slogan of this new "Modinomics."