The prime minister of India is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the executive. The prime minister has to be a member of one of the houses of bicameral Parliament of India, alongside heading the respective house. The prime minister and their cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha.
Lord Mountbatten swears in Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister of India on 15 August 1947.
Lal Bahadur Shastri, K. Kamaraj, and Nehru, ca. 1963
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Shahbanu Farah Pahlavi of Iran being received by prime minister Indira Gandhi at New Delhi airport, 1970
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, left with PM Rajiv Gandhi, Prince Claus, and Sonia Gandhi, The Hague, 1985
In the executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a group of ministers or secretaries who lead executive departments.
The prime minister of India (Indira Gandhi) and the president of the United States (Richard Nixon) in 1971
President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil and President Christina Kirchner of Argentina in 2015.
The heads of government of five members of the Commonwealth of Nations at the 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. From left to right, Mackenzie King (Canada), Jan Smuts (South Africa), Winston Churchill (United Kingdom), Peter Fraser (New Zealand), and John Curtin (Australia).
Image: Olaf Scholz in 2023 (cropped)
