CHENNAI: Speaking to an audience at the 15th MMA Awards for Managerial Excellence 2016, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took everyone for a glimpse of 1991 when India was reeling under a severe economic crisis, and lauding the journey against the crises that India has made since then. “When the new government took over under Narsimha Rao, and when Manmohan Singh was the finance minister, India was in a phase of long political and economic instability. The government that came to power was a minority government. We had foreign exchange reserves of $900 million, enough for five days of imports. All lines of credits were choked, stagnant exports and price of oil had gone up three times. This crisis was unprecedented, and the new government overcame it in just 33 days,” he said.
“Today, after these years, we have an economy that is not bankrupt, after that crisis, 25 years ago, we have become an outward looking economy. Today, the private sector is playing a far more expanding role in shaping the economy, unlike public sector in those times,” he continued. He spoke about the importance of economic management in shaping a self-confident and
economically stable India. He also said that today in India, education and health go untended to when compared to other sectors, but looking ahead, the lesson to be drawn is that Indians are prisoners of inertia except when there’s a crisis.
“So, when you don't have a crisis, manufacture one, you would perform better,” he told the audience.He told the audience that good economic and political management is essential to manage a crisis situation. “There would be opposition from all sides, but that situation needs to be managed.” He also gave away the MMA Awards for Managerial Excellence. The award for the winner in the service sector was bagged by Apollo hospitals.
