These 25 years mark a defining period in our history

When requested to contribute to this Special Edition, I was instinctively reminded of the early 1990s when this popular business daily made its debut 25 years ago. It also brought back memories of India embarking on its transformational economic journey with the introduction of economic reforms in 1991 that finally liberated the spirit of Indian entrepreneurs after decades of state control and Licence Raj. The rest, as they say, is history, as India metamorphosed from its proverbial ‘Hindu rate of growth’ to become the fastest-growing large economy in the world today.

A dream come true

Clearly, it’s a journey that all — entrepreneurs and consumers alike — have savoured all these years so very happily. For first-generation entrepreneurs like me, who had struggled through the licensing regime that invariably favoured the established business houses, liberalisation was a dream come true as the government opened up many sectors to private entrepreneurs.

In fact, Airtel, which has grown to become the third-largest mobile operator in the world, was born during the first flush of reforms that witnessed the opening up of sectors such as mobile telephony, aviation and broadcasting, which led to the emergence of many other entrepreneurs like me. While new entrepreneurs were making their mark in freshly opened sectors in the domestic market, Indian software was taking wing in overseas markets under the leadership of the likes of NR Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji and Shiv Nadar.

After nearly three decades of liberalisation and several bursts of reforms, India is today the toast of global investors. It’s the third-largest economy in terms of PPP today. While the GDP has galloped away to cross $2.5 trillion from $266 billion in 1991, per-capita income has expanded from a paltry $300 to over $2,000 during this period.

More than size, it’s the structural diversification of the economy, with the increasing dominance of services and reduced dependence on agriculture that really explains the transformation during this period.

The other aspect that needs to be highlighted is the coming-of-age of Indian business on the global platform. Global acquisitions by Indian companies have become routine and accepted as being driven by competence and guided by well-thought-out strategies.

Beyond partisan politics

For me, what has also stood out very vividly through these years is the remarkable ideological commitment of the political parties to the reform processes despite their numerous differences and compulsions within India’s diverse and complex political terrain. Industry leaders may have lost patience at times at the slow progress of reforms, but one can understand the lack of pace in a noisy democracy that goes to some election or other almost every year.

Economic liberalisation ushered in fundamental changes in the lives of consumers — rich or poor, urban or rural. Life has moved from a situation of perpetual scarcity and lack of choice, even with regard to the basic necessities of life, to an ever-widening range of options in every conceivable aspect of life: food, clothing, entertainment, banking, education, healthcare and media. The most apt example of this transformation would be the often-quoted transition from the black boxy rotary phones that only the privileged and the affluent could own after years of wait, to the sleekest smartphones running on superfast data networks, which anyone can pick up from a retail counter and activate from the comfort of home. Not just that, phones are helping customers do just about everything: banking, commerce, healthcare, education, entertainment, citizen services. In fact, mobile phones have quintessentially emerged as the most enduring symbol of transformation in our lives in recent years. Ubiquitous high-speed connectivity is going to further reinforce this change in the years to come.

Another aspect of change during the last decade that often goes unnoticed is the deepening of our democratic roots, largely facilitated by technology — social media applications in particular, which have given voice to the ordinary citizens, thereby improving the quality of governance. Redressal of citizen grievance no longer follows electoral cycles, but happens in real time, making democracy and governance more meaningful. Two or three decades may be a short period in the life of a nation with a history running into millennia; but when history is written a 100 years from now, the last few decades can well be called a defining period in our history

The author is founder and Chairman,Bharti Enterprises

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