1. Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964)

• Born: 14 November 1889, Allahabad. Died: 27 May 1964, New Delhi (in office). Birthday is Children’s Day.
• Education: Harrow; Trinity College, Cambridge; Inner Temple (barrister).
• Pre-PM: President, Indian National Congress (several terms); Vice-President of the Interim Government from 2 September 1946.
• Constituency: Constituent Assembly / United Provinces, then Phulpur (Lok Sabha).
• Tenure: 15 August 1947 – 27 May 1964 — 16 years, 286 days. Longest continuous and longest total tenure. First PM of independent India; first to die in office.
• Also held: External Affairs for almost the entire term; Defence and Finance for short spells.
• Exam tags: First Five-Year Plan (1951); Planning Commission; IITs; Panchsheel (1954); NAM; States Reorganisation (1956); Hindu Code Bills (1955–56); Industrial Policy Resolution 1956.
• Books: Discovery of India, Glimpses of World History, An Autobiography.
• He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times (in 1950 and 1955) for his role in resolving international conflicts, though he never won.
• Memorial: Shantivan. Residence as PM: Teen Murti Bhavan.

2. Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) — Acting

• Born: 4 July 1898, Sialkot (now Pakistan). Died: 15 January 1998.
• Constituency: Sabarkantha, Gujarat.
• Tenures: 27 May 1964 – 9 June 1964 and 11 January 1966 – 24 January 1966 (13 days each).
• Only person to serve as acting PM twice (after Nehru and after Shastri). Not a separately numbered “substantive” PM in many official lists.
• Labour economist; long-time Union Home Minister when he stepped in.
• Bharat Ratna: 1997.
• He served as the interim Prime Minister twice, but because he was never formally elected to a full term in that office, he is not counted numerically in the official sequence of prime ministers.

3. Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904–1966)

• Born: 2 October 1904, Mughalsarai (now Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar), UP. Shares birthday with Gandhi. Nickname: Nanhe.
• Died: 11 January 1966, Tashkent (heart attack) — only PM to die abroad while in office, a day after the Tashkent Declaration.
• The original name of Lal Bahadur Shastri was Lal Bahadur Varma.
• Education: Kashi Vidyapith (the title “Shastri” comes from here).
• Constituency: Allahabad.
• Tenure: 9 June 1964 – 11 January 1966 (1 year, 216 days).
• Slogan: Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan (1965 war period).
• When he served as the transport minister, he was the first to introduce women as bus conductors in India to create job opportunities.
• Exam tags: 1965 India–Pakistan war; Tashkent Agreement (10 Jan 1966); early Green Revolution / White Revolution push.
• Bharat Ratna: 1966 — first posthumous Bharat Ratna.
• Memorial: Vijay Ghat.

4. Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)

• Born: 19 November 1917, Allahabad. Died: 31 October 1984, New Delhi (assassinated in office).
• Daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru; married Feroze Gandhi. Mother of Rajiv Gandhi.
• First (and so far only) woman PM. Age at first assumption: 48.
• First assumed office as Rajya Sabha MP (UP); later Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli.
• Tenures: 24 Jan 1966 – 24 Mar 1977 and 14 Jan 1980 – 31 Oct 1984. Longest first continuous stretch after Nehru (11 y 59 d). Total ~15 years 350 days — second-longest overall.
• Exam tags often listed with her years (as chronology, not commentary): bank nationalisation 1969; 1971 war / Bangladesh; Pokhran-I 1974; Emergency 1975–77; 42nd Amendment; Operation Blue Star 1984.
• Bharat Ratna: 1971.
• She was also called as “Priyadarshini”. This name was given to her by Rabindra Nath Tagore.
• Indira Gandhi was the first person who belonged to Rajya Sabha during nomination as Prime Mnister.
• Memorial: Shakti Sthal.

5. Morarji Desai (1896–1995)

• Born: 29 February 1896, Bhadeli, Gujarat (leap-year birthday). Died: 10 April 1995, age 99 — among the longest-lived former heads of government.
• Oldest person to become PM (81 years).
• Constituency: Surat.
• Tenure: 24 March 1977 – 28 July 1979 (2 y 126 d). First non-Congress PM. First PM to resign.
• Earlier: ICS-era administrator; Chief Minister of Bombay State; Deputy PM (1967–69). Known for strict personal discipline (nature-cure / fasting).
• Exam tags: end of Emergency; 44th Constitutional Amendment (1978).
• Received Pakistan’s highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan.
• Bharat Ratna: 1991.
• Morarji Desai is the only person to receive both the Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian honor) and the Nishan-e-Pakistan (Pakistan’s highest civilian award)

6. Charan Singh (1902–1987)

• Born: 23 December 1902, Noorpur, Meerut district. Died: 29 May 1987, New Delhi.
• Birth anniversary is observed as Kisan Diwas (23 December).
• Education: Agra College (MA, LLB); practised law at Ghaziabad.
• Twice Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1967–68, 1970). Associated with UP Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950.
• Founded Bharatiya Kranti Dal (1967) and Bharatiya Lok Dal (1974).
• Constituency as PM period: Baghpat.
• Tenure: 28 July 1979 – 14 January 1980 (170 days). Only PM who never faced Parliament (lost outside support within weeks; continued as caretaker).
• Earlier Deputy PM under Morarji Desai.
• Book: India’s Poverty and Its Solution (1964).
• Bharat Ratna: 2024 (posthumous).

7. Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991)

• Born: 20 August 1944, Bombay. Died: 21 May 1991, Sriperumbudur (assassinated while campaigning as a former PM).
• Youngest PM — assumed office at 40 (31 October 1984), the day his mother was assassinated.
• Profession before politics: Indian Airlines pilot. Educated at Doon School; Trinity College, Cambridge (did not complete a degree).
• Constituency: Amethi.
• Tenure: 31 Oct 1984 – 2 Dec 1989 (5 y 32 d).
• Exam tags: Computer Mission / C-DOT era; 73rd–74th Amendment groundwork came later, but panchayat and technology modernisation are often linked to this period; Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka; Bofors as a chronology item.
• Official PM residence shifted to 7 Race Course Road (now 7 Lok Kalyan Marg) during his time.
• Youngest PM of India
• Bharat Ratna: 1991 (posthumous).
• Before entering politics, he worked as a professional commercial pilot for Air India.
• Memorial: Veer Bhumi.

8. Vishwanath Pratap Singh (1931–2008)

• Born: 25 June 1931, Allahabad. Died: 27 November 2008.
• Educated at Allahabad and Poona Universities. Former Raja of Manda (title used in older bios).
• Earlier: CM of UP; Union Commerce and Finance Minister under Rajiv Gandhi.
• Constituency: Fatehpur.
• Tenure: 2 December 1989 – 10 November 1990 (343 days). National Front government with outside support.
• First PM to resign after losing a confidence vote (7 November 1990).
• Exam tag: announcement to implement Mandal Commission (27% OBC reservation in central jobs), August 1990.

9. Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007)

• Born: 17 April 1927, Ibrahimpatti, Ballia, UP. Died: 8 July 2007.
• Known as the “Young Turk” in Congress before he left the party. Constituency: Ballia.
• Tenure: 10 November 1990 – 21 June 1991 (223 days). Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya); Congress outside support.
• Resigned March 1991 after support was withdrawn; continued as caretaker through the 1991 election (Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated during that campaign).
• Exam tag: 1991 Balance of Payments crisis; gold pledges to the Bank of England / Bank of Japan occurred in this caretaker window.

10. P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004)

• Full name: Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao.
• Born: 28 June 1921, Karimnagar region (then Hyderabad State). Died: 23 December 2004.
• Education: Osmania, Bombay and Nagpur Universities. Polyglot; lawyer and writer.
• Earlier: CM of Andhra Pradesh; Union External Affairs Minister under Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.
• Constituency as PM: Nandyal, Andhra Pradesh.
• Tenure: 21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996 (4 y 330 d).
• First PM from South India. Headed a minority government that completed a full term.
• Exam tags: 1991 New Economic Policy (LPG) with Finance Minister Manmohan Singh; 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments (1992); Look East Policy; Babri Masjid demolition (6 Dec 1992) as a dated event in his term.
• Sometimes called the “Father of Indian Economic Reforms” in exam capsules.
• He was a polyglot who had a remarkable command of 17 languages, including several Indian and foreign languages, and even translated literary works.
• P V Narsimha Rao was the first Prime Minister from non Hindi belt (South India).
• Started the ‘Look East Policy’

11. Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018)

• Born: 25 December 1924, Gwalior. Died: 16 August 2018, New Delhi.
• Poet and orator. Long-time Jana Sangh / BJP parliamentarian; External Affairs Minister in the 1977 Janata government (addressed the UN in Hindi).
• Constituency as PM: Lucknow.
• Tenures: 16 May 1996 – 1 June 1996 (13–16 days — shortest elected tenure; resigned before a trust vote) and 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004.
• First non-Congress PM to complete a full five-year term (1999–2004). Combined tenure ~6 years 80 days.
• Exam tags: Pokhran-II (1998); Kargil War / Operation Vijay (1999); Golden Quadrilateral; Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan; POTA as a dated law.
• Bharat Ratna: 2015.
• Memorial: Sadaiv Atal.

12. H. D. Deve Gowda (born 1933)

• Full name: Haradanahalli Doddegowda Deve Gowda.
• Born: 18 May 1933, Haradanahalli, Hassan district, Karnataka. Civil engineer by training.
• Former Chief Minister of Karnataka. First PM from Karnataka.
• Sat in Rajya Sabha (Karnataka) while PM; earlier Hassan MLA/MP.
• Tenure: 1 June 1996 – 21 April 1997 (324 days). United Front coalition with Congress outside support.
• One of the few former PMs still living (as of 2026).

13. Inder Kumar Gujral (1919–2012)

• Born: 4 December 1919, Jhelum (now Pakistan). Died: 30 November 2012.
• Education: listed in official bios as MA, B.Com.; later honorary doctorates.
• Long-time diplomat-politician; Information & Broadcasting Minister; Ambassador to the USSR; External Affairs Minister.
• Sat in Rajya Sabha (Bihar / Punjab association in different sources) while PM.
• Tenure: 21 April 1997 – 19 March 1998 (332 days). United Front.
• Gujral Doctrine: non-reciprocal concessions to smaller South Asian neighbours (Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives) — a standard IR question.

14. Manmohan Singh (1932–2024)

• Born: 26 September 1932, Gah (then Punjab, now Pakistan). Died: 26 December 2024, New Delhi, age 92.
• Education: Panjab University; St John’s College, Cambridge; DPhil, Oxford (economics).
• Career economist: Chief Economic Adviser; RBI Governor (1982–85); Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission; Union Finance Minister (1991–96) under Rao.
• First Sikh PM. First PM from a minority religion. Served entire PM tenure from Rajya Sabha (Assam) — never a Lok Sabha MP as PM.
• Tenure: 22 May 2004 – 26 May 2014 (10 years, 4 days). Two full terms. UPA.
• Exam tags often dated to his years: MGNREGA 2005; RTI 2005; Forest Rights Act 2006; Nuclear deal with the US (2008); RTE 2009; Food Security Act 2013; India became a trillion-dollar-plus economy in this period.
• Memorial / funeral: state funeral, Nigambodh Ghat, December 2024.

15. Narendra Modi (born 1950)

• Full name: Narendra Damodardas Modi.
• Born: 17 September 1950, Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Gujarat. First PM born after Independence. Turned 76 on 17 September 2026.
• Education: BA (Political Science), University of Delhi (1978); MA (Political Science), Gujarat University (1983) — as given in standard bios.
• RSS pracharak from the early 1970s; BJP organisational roles in Gujarat; Chief Minister of Gujarat, 7 October 2001 – May 2014 (longest-serving CM of the state). No prior Union ministerial post before becoming PM.
• Lok Sabha: Vadodara and Varanasi (2014); Varanasi thereafter (2019, 2024).
• Tenure: 26 May 2014 – incumbent. Sworn for a third consecutive term on 9 June 2024 (only Nehru had three consecutive terms after general elections before this).
• As of September 2026 he is the second-longest continuous-serving PM after Nehru.
• Exam tags commonly listed by year: Jan Dhan (2014); Make in India; GST (2017); Article 370 changes (2019); CAA (2019); JAM trinity; Ujjwala; Jal Jeevan Mission; G20 presidency 2023; Ram Mandir consecration 2024.

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Compact “who is the only / first” sheet

Question	Answer
First PM	Jawaharlal Nehru
Longest tenure (continuous + total)	Nehru
Only woman PM	Indira Gandhi
Youngest PM	Rajiv Gandhi (40)
Oldest at swearing-in	Morarji Desai (81)
First non-Congress PM	Morarji Desai
First South Indian PM	P. V. Narasimha Rao
First Sikh / first minority-religion PM	Manmohan Singh
First PM born after 1947	Narendra Modi
Only acting PM (twice)	Gulzarilal Nanda
Only PM who never faced Parliament	Charan Singh
Shortest elected tenure	Vajpayee, 1996 (13–16 days)
First non-Congress full 5-year term	Vajpayee (1999–2004)
PM throughout from Rajya Sabha	Manmohan Singh
Died in office	Nehru, Shastri, Indira Gandhi
Died abroad	Shastri (Tashkent)
Assassinated in office	Indira Gandhi
Assassinated as former PM	Rajiv Gandhi
First posthumous Bharat Ratna	Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
Kisan Diwas	Charan Singh’s birthday, 23 Dec
Children’s Day	Nehru’s birthday, 14 Nov
Three-generation PMs	Nehru → Indira → Rajiv
State that sent the most PMs	Uttar Pradesh

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