When I picked up this book to read, the only thing in my mind was he was a Telugu guy and a Hyderabadi. But by the end of the book I understood how he transformed India the way Den Xiaoping transformed China. But the irony was when Rao visited China and want to visit Den Xiaoping, he refused to meet as he was not from a Nehru - Gandhi Family and I would think this one of his worst decision as he missed a chance to meet one of the most influential persons in the History of Independent India.
"When I don't make a decision, Its not that I think about it. I think about it and make a decision not to make a decision " - P.V. Narasimha Rao
For decades India was following the Nehruvian (socialist) philosophy as we bought it from then USSR and now Russia after Indian Independence in 1947. Leaders were never updated not looked into the future and couldn't come out of policies of Nehru. Countries who got Independence after 1947 are looking forward to move to new generation ideas while India was still lagging behind to catch the race of becoming a developed country.
Then came 1991 elections, where congress was the biggest winning party in the elections and Sonia Gandhi (wife of ex PM) refused to become leader of the country. Then congress was looking for a new leader. While there are many, yet they choose Rao because he was a rat and never thought he would become Lion.
Rao was also lion quite a few times but not with people who is above him like in the case of Prime Ministers. There was an occasion when he was Chief Minister of Telangana, Hyderabad. There used to be visitors to visit him everyday. Once Film star N.T. Rama Rao who had came to give his son's marriage invitation to the chief minister Rao. He was made to wait for one hour and Rao in fact went to sleep. That's the level of thug he used to have.
When Rao took in charge as a new Prime Minister of India in 1991 India was in a huge debt, so he wants to choose a wise Finance Minister. India still believes that it was one of his best decisions as a PM. The Finance Minister is non other than Dr. Manmohan Sing who later became Prime Minister of India. So in 1991 as India was in debt, Rao thought to do something which hurts Indian women deeply. He pledged gold. It was a hurtful decision then as Indians look into it as a precious thing more than an asset or entity.
Between July 4 and 18, 1991, the RBI pledged 46.91 tonnes of gold with the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan to raise $400 million. But as the economic situation improved, the government repurchased the gold before December that year and transferred it to the RBI.
Later, the economy was boomed. The stock market response was euphoric. Within a single month sensex doubled and the stock broker Harshad Mehta became a national icon. He would drive around Bombay in an imported maroon Toyota lexus. A herd of investors would follow his every move on Dalal Street.
Foreign Institutional investors were permitted to enter. In the next 12 years, foreign investors bought a net amount of 163 billion dollars to the Indian equity markets in just one year, 2014, they invested more than 16 billion dollars. One of the companies that boomed during those times was Infosys which came for IPO in 1993.
When Rao travelled to Japan, he met Akio Morita, the head of Sony. Rao put his hand-over Morita and said 'Every Indian wants a Sony T.V, and you are not making it' Morita shrugged. But Sony was willing to invest only if they could own 100 percent of the local company which India never did. But 'you apply' Rao said. ' We will give it'. That was the level of conviction he had.
There were days when on a single day, both Rao and Singh had done more than anyone to dismantle the three pillars of the licence raj, monopolies for the public sector, limits on private business and isolation from the world markets. Both did great things to develop India in different fields such as to bring india owned first phone, airlines, which benefited Indian Entrepreneurs.
But on 16th May, 1996, a new Prime Minister was sworn in and Rao's career in government was over. During his last days of life he spent dealing with plenty of cases against him which never proved him guilty. But today if you look at Indian those were the ground roots in which Rao did during his tenure. That is why he is called as FATHER OF INDIAN ECONOMIC REFORMS.
I would recommend to read the below book to understand more on how Indian transformed into a new-generation country.
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