Hall of Fame: Narsimha Rao, the Father of Modern India who reformed the Indian Economy in 1991

P.V. Narasimha Rao was a lawyer and Indian politician who later became the 10th Prime Minister of India. During his regime, several major economic reforms were executed which led to the dismantling of the License Raj and opened up the Indian economy for speedy economic development and growth. He is often referred to as the “Father of Indian Economic Reforms”.

The end of the License Raj is considered a significant milestone in the history of Indian economics as it reversed the socialist policies implemented by the successive Indian governments after the independence and made India an active participant in the wave of globalization that was happening around the world. His visionary administration and unwavering resolve pushed the country towards development

Childhood & Early Life

Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was born on 28 June 1921 in a village in Warangal District, now in Telangana. He was adopted at the age of three by P. Ranga Rao and Rukminiamma, who were from an agrarian background. After completing his schooling, he enrolled at the Arts College at Osmania University from where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. He then pursued a Master’s degree in law at the Hislop College.

Political Career

Rao was a passionate patriot when the freedom struggle was at its peak during the 1940s. He joined politics after independence by joining the Indian National Congress. He served in the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly from 1957 to 1977 and was a loyal supporter of Indira Gandhi. He held various ministerial positions in the Andhra Pradesh government from 1962 to 1973 and later served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1971 to 1973. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1977. He was planning to leave politics but the assassination of Congress President Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 made him rethink his decision. The Congress Party chose Rao as its leader and after the 1991 general elections, he became India’s Prime Minister. He was not only the first person not belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi family who served as Prime Minister for a tenure of five years but also the first to hail from the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Economic Reforms and Liberalization

The Indian economy was going through a crisis when he was appointed as the Prime Minister and he immediately began implementing progressive reforms. He aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit, focused on the privatization of the public sector, and increasing investment in infrastructure. Rao appointed Manmohan Singh, an applauded economist, as his finance minister, who helped him in implementing the reforms. Some of Rao’s reforms were to open India’s equity markets to investment by foreign institutional investors and start the National Stock Exchange as a computer-based trading system in 1994. He energized the national nuclear security and ballistic missiles program, made diplomatic propositions to Western Europe, the United States, and China, and neutralized the Kashmir separatist movement.

Personal Life & Legacy

He was married to Satyamma Rao and had eight children with her—three sons and five daughters. His wife died in 1970. He was a scholar who could speak Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, Oriya, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Urdu, English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German and Persian and had a profound interest in literature. He was a prolific reader and wrote fiction in Telugu, Marathi, and Hindi. He also served as the chairman of the Telugu Academy in Andhra Pradesh (1968–74). He suffered from a heart attack on 9 December 2004 and died 14 days later on 23 December 2004, at the age of 83.

Vishakha

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