Prime Minister Narendra Modi turns 76 on Thursday, September 17, marking another birthday in a political career that has taken him from Vadnagar in Gujarat to the country's highest elected office and, over the past 12 years, to the centre of India's engagement with the world.
Modi was born on September 17, 1950, in Vadnagar, then a small town in north Gujarat's Mehsana district. According to his official biography on the Prime Minister's Office website, he grew up in a family of modest means and helped his family at a tea stall. The PMO describes his childhood as one in which he balanced studies with work and developed an interest in reading and debates.
