The lion's share of many in opening up the economy

- Indian 30 years ago

- Dr. Immediately after Manmohan Singh devalued the rupee by 9 per cent on July 1, he ventured to devalue 10 per cent on July 3 despite the reluctance of the Prime Minister.

Three decades ago, there was only one domestic airline (Indian Airlines), two telephone service providers (MTNL and BSNL) and three cars (Ambassador, Fiat and Maruti) in the country. There was a long wait to get telephone and gas connections. Many commodities were in short supply in the country. The country's position was also weak on the foreign exchange front. Thus, in 181, India's economy was something like this. There was political consensus on the economy with government control. Public sector monopoly, import control, fixed exchange rate, licensing system had influence in the country.

A team of six scholars

No political party expected to get a majority in the 181 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress came close to a majority with a victory in 9 seats. At that time, the country was going through a severe economic crisis. Prime Minister P. V. Dr. Narasimha Rao Manmohan Singh's appointment as Finance Minister was encouraging. I was appointed Minister of Commerce. I still remember the question Narasimha Rao asked Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra in the very first meeting of the Cabinet. Got a chariot for ministers, right? That was the question he asked the Cabinet Secretary. The first ten days of the new government were in turmoil over whether the minority government could win a vote of confidence. Time and flow never stop for anyone, not even for the Prime Minister. India's foreign exchange levels were declining, the risk of default was looming, the unofficial exchange rate for the dollar was rising, exporters and importers were in a frenzy and there was no light on any front. The left was pursuing a heavy dose of socialism. There was hardly a political leader who spoke out against economic liberalization.

When the people of the country were electing the 10th Lok Sabha, 4 scholars - Naresh Chandra, a. N. Verma, Montek Ahluwalia, Dr. Rakesh Mohan, S. Venkataraman and Dr. C. Rangarajan's army was thinking of something different for the country. The first step was explosive. That was devaluation. Dr. Immediately after Manmohan Singh devalued the rupee by 5 per cent on July 1, he ventured to devalue the rupee by 10 per cent on July 8, despite the reluctance of the Prime Minister.

Painted different cracks

Dr. Singh pushed me and Ahluwalia. I had prepared a special 12-point policy to change the trade policy and also announced it on July 9. This trade policy was well ahead of the move by the Commerce Ministry. I spoke of relevant measures such as fiscal and industrial policy, foreign investment, decallization of imports, Tilanjali to the license raj and the convertibility of the rupee to a trade account. May said both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister supported the move. The finance ministry got new wings in their venture. What was left was completed by the Ministry of Industry announcing a new revolutionary industrial policy. The budget, which ushered in a new era, was presented on July 7.

The strong economic reformist political brigade faced heavy opposition in Parliament. With the exception of Chandra Shekhar, the other members were not particularly critical. To break his strike, I reminded him, as Prime Minister, of the proposal he had approved to ease trade policy. However, the proposal could not be implemented. He tried to blow my claim by saying that this was a proposal and not to implement it.

I became active in making drastic changes. We dismissed the office of the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports. We summed up the Indian Trade Service. At the end of the year, Dr. Mr. Singh. Ahluwalia was "snatched" from me. Him and dr. Y. V. I was a little sad to see Reddy joining the finance ministry. But Mr. a. V. When I was happy to get Ganesan, Civil Aviation Minister Madhavrao Scindia was furious with me as if I had "snatched" his secretary.

New foreign trade policy

I worked hard to formulate a new foreign trade policy. My instruction was clear. One is not more than 100 pages and the other is simple English language. But the question was who would write the handbook and policy of this process? There was no expert in the whole ministry or no one wanted to write. I refused to back down. One Sunday, I started writing the first chapter of the new trade policy. As the chapters were being written, the relevant chapters of the Ganesan process handbook were being written. We completed the operation on time and announced the new trade policy on March 31st.

Those nine months were peaceful for us. We realized that we always had wings but we forgot to fly. About 20 years ago, we started flying again.