Remembering Shri PV Narasimha Rao
June 27, 2011 2 Comments
Like him or hate him or forget him,Narasimha Rao set India on the path of economic reforms.The Urea Scam might have tainted him and his strategy of Masterly Inactivity might have earned him criticism but to give the man his due, even when India might not have been in much of a position to bargain,he ensured that reforms and growth were initiated in such a way that it didn’t raise trenchant opposition.Here’s an article about the man’s achievements from yesterday’s paper.
Unsung hero of the India story
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar
Twenty years ago, Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister and initiated economic reforms that transformed India. The Congress party doesn’t want to remember him: it is based entirely on loyalty to the Gandhi family, and Rao was not a family member. But the nation should remember Rao as the man who changed India, and the world too. Read more of this post
This article was published in today’s Mumbai Mirror.Reading it took me back to another time when India was a very different place.I was then still in school.India was anything but shining.Poverty and shortages were so much a fact of life that few of us really had an idea of how poor we were since everyone around us was in the same situation and most people had very little exposure to what was going on in the rest of the world.There was no talk of India being an emerging/emerged nation.We considered ourselves as belonging strictly to the Third World and few asked why we should not want better for ourselves.Read the article below and if you’re Indian take a minute to pat yourself on the back for how far we have come in 2 decades.Take heart from it and know that we have it in us to overcome out present problems.And remember the story so that we are never again in the same situation. 
Coca-Cola made an IPO in 1919 when it issued shares at $ 40 each. A year later, the share was quoting at $19. You might think that’s a disaster because the share had lost 50% of its value in just one year. After that there was sugar rationing and the farmers were rebellious. Years later, the Great Depression and World War II happened, there were thermonuclear weapons and what not. You could always find a reason for why that was not the right time to buy shares of Coca Cola. But if you had gone ahead and bought that one share for $40 and reinvested the dividends, your investment in Coca-Cola would be worth $5 Million today.




