Dr. Manmohan Singh – The Architect of Viksit Bharat | Atul Sarma

India’s economic crisis in 1991 brought out the toughness in an otherwise humble and self-effacing OX-Bridge trained economist, Dr. Manmohan Singh, when Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao chose him as Finance Minister to steward the crisis-ridden economy. Indeed, the economy was on the verge of collapse: A foreign exchange reserve crisis was gnawing at India, just had enough reserves to meet a couple of weeks’ requirements. India was close to defaulting on its debt obligations, witnessed shrinkage in foreign trade, unsustainable fiscal deficit and inflation in two digits. The Government of India was faced with limited options: either default on India’s debt obligations or accept the World Bank-International Monetary Fund’s structural reforms assistance. India opted for the latter.

A lot has been written about how this man turned adversity into an opportunity since he breathed his last on December 26, 2024, aged 92. I propose to write a few words as my tribute to this great man from my personal perspective.

I knew about Dr. Manmohan Singh as a brilliant economist, an OX-Bridge product and a faculty at the Delhi School of Economics. He made significant contributions in the area of Trade and Development, insights from which were reflected in his policy-making. But my meeting him in person was sudden and unexpected.

It was sometime in the early eighties when I was a faculty at the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research, Ahmedabad and came to Delhi to participate in a seminar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. While at the seminar, I got a message from the JNU Vice Chancellor’s office that I should urgently call a particular telephone number. When I did, the man who picked up the call was Dr. Manmohan Singh. He very politely asked me whether I could come to his office, if I remember alright, at the Yojana Bhawan. I went to his office and he explained the reason why I was called so dramatically.
That was the time when the All Assam Students Union- led movement in Assam was at its peak. In that context, then PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi wanted Dr Singh to prepare a document on Assam’s economy. He told me that he could not find much published materials. He wanted me to speak on Assam’s economy, its challenges and prospects.

Honestly, I was not at all prepared for that. Nevertheless, I collected my thoughts and shared with him. I noticed that he was taking elaborate notes of all that I was saying. What amazed me most was the humility and modesty with which Dr. Singh asked me whether he could use these materials for his document. I remained connected with him both professionally and personally ever since. On subsequent occasions, I experienced similar humility and modesty, time and again, despite his exceptional intellect and accomplishments.

His vision for India was unfolded in the epoch-making budget for 1991-92 that Dr. Singh presented on July 24, 1991. That budget ushered in a new direction for the Indian economy and in fact, laid the foundation of Viksit Bharat, which is being lately trumpeted often. In his budget speech, he said: “I do not minimise the difficulties that lie ahead on the long and arduous journey on which we have embarked. But as Victor Hugo once said ‘no power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come’. I suggest to this august House that the emergence of India as major economic power in the world happens to be one such idea. Let the whole world hear it loud and clear: India is now wide awake. We shall prevail. We shall overcome.”

Dr. Singh introduced comprehensive reforms: liberalized the Indian economy, integrated the Indian economy with global economy, vastly expanded the role of the market, the government became more of a facilitator and the exchange rate was liberalised. Regulatory mechanisms were put in place for the smooth functioning of the market.

Dr Singh’s critics accused him of following the dictates of the Bank and IMF. Those who followed his reform policies knew that he continued to pursue largely his own reform agenda. To illustrate. when some of the targets such as fiscal deficit were not quite in sync with those set by the Bank-Fund, the latter willy-nilly made compromises.

Being at the helm of policy making for years as Chief Economic Adviser, Reserve Bank of India Governor, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Dr. Singh knew well the functioning the Indian economy and its strengths and weaknesses. He had also the benefit of the wisdom accumulated in the reports of various committees and commissions appointed particularly in the early eighties to study and recommend on almost every aspect of the Indian economy. Many of these recommendations were not entirely different from those under the structural reforms suggested by the Bank-Fund. Benefitting from all these, Dr. Singh followed a home grown agenda of reforms.
Nevertheless, it was a difficult journey on a new path for the Indian economy that ended the ‘permit, quota, and license raj’ and ushered in a market-driven system. It was more difficult particularly because his colleagues both in the government and in the party were not quite on the same page for such transformative reforms.

When Dr. Singh became an ‘Accidental Prime Minister,’ he continued the reforms but with a little difference. His two terms as PM witnessed an average growth of 7.8%; millions of people were lifted out of the poverty trap and a growing middle class and an aspirational society developed. The way Dr. Singh navigated the Indian economy through the 2008 global financial crisis without much long-term damage attracted global appreciation.
However, he also observed areas of market failures. High growth worsened income distribution and created fewer jobs than expected. As partial correctives, he enacted under his stewardship a number of right based legislations such as MGNREGA, RTE, NFSA and RTI, which aimed at empowering aiming to empower people.

While the coalition government led by Dr Singh was bogged down by several corruption charges, no one doubted his honesty and integrity. The loud and shrill charges notwithstanding, Dr. Singh will remain a leading light and a source of inspiration for generations to come for his sterling human qualities, humility, dignity and quiet confidence together with his enduring contributions. He rightly predicted: “History would be kinder to me”

(Author: Atul Sarma Member, Thirteenth Finance Commission, Former VC, RGU, Former Head and Prof of Economics, ISI )