To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story, by Jairam Ramesh
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To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story, by Jairam Ramesh
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BOOK EXCERPT: ...after a decision had been taken to devalue the Indian rupee, Manmohan Singh had written to Narasimha Rao. He was worried that his personal rupee balance, born out of modest dollar savings, would swell. He informed Rao that the 'windfall' gains would be deposited in the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. 1991 was India s Greece moment . It faced an unprecedented financial crisis against the backdrop of political uncertainty and crumbling investor confidence. On 21 June 1991, P.V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister and appointed Dr Manmohan Singh as finance minister. In less than thirty-five days, the Rao-Singh duo ushered in momentous changes in economic policy those that transformed the country. To the Brink and Back is the first account of the weeks of fast-paced change, narrated by an insider a key aide of the prime minister, uniquely positioned both to participate and observe. It carries brisk accounts of the early days of survival; the compulsions and convictions that propelled a paradigm shift in India's economic policy; and the ups and downs, twists and turns in the saga of fiscal reform. Along with the author s astute insights, the book holds key documents and notes, placed for the first time in the public domain; the personal papers of Narasimha Rao; private conversations with Manmohan Singh; Parliament proceedings; and the minutes of seminal Congress meetings. Coming as it does on the eve of the silver jubilee of India s economic liberalization, To the Brink and Back will appeal not only to political history enthusiasts but also to those who wish to know how countries can be led from the brink to a radically new economic future.
To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story, by Jairam Ramesh - Amazon Sales Rank: #2940653 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-01
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 9.37" h x 1.06" w x 6.26" l, .92 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 224 pages
To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story, by Jairam Ramesh
Where to Download To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story, by Jairam Ramesh
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. If not these two in 1991, India would have seen the "Default..." By P. Allam I was always curious about what would happen to the Indian economy between year 1990 and 1995. The country was a mess then with mandal commission agitations, political instability, rising prices etc. to name a few. But as a normal citizen, it was hard to understand what was happening at the top level. This book will answer all those questions. So far I loved it, very clear articulation of events, and the style of Jairam's story telling is excellent. Lot of Macroeconomics in the book (cost-push and demand pull inflation, GDP, debt, capital inflow, capital outflow, deficit (budget and trade), jobs etc). If you know some basic macroeconomics, you will really enjoy the book. After reading few chapters I felt very proud of Late Sri P.V. Narasimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh, who literally saved India from the default. As Mr. Rao was running minority government, any small step he would take, would end up in losing his job. Even though he was aware of it, his priority was to save the country and not protecting his job. BEAUTIFUL.... With addition of Dr. Singh to his minister portfolio, there was no look back and didn't give a damn about his post. If currency had to go devaluation, let's do it and they have done it successfully. An 18% devaluation in three days, fantastic, one will require lot of guts to do it. Stock market loved it, economic pundits and government officials slowly started gaining the trust, and doors were open for foreign investors, capital inflow….Dr. Singh’s first press statement as a finance minister was really courageous, "I don't have any magic wand to bring down the prices, however, if we take right economic steps and policies now, we may see good things in three years from now". As a normal citizen, who has patience to wait that long to see the results? But that is the truth and Mr. Singh had to face lot of criticism for that speech from his minority government. Basically there is no such thing called that government will control the prices or basic economics. As a great economist Adam Smith said back in 1770s - "… one cannot ever regulate economic behavior, it is all about the right incentive systems; it must “pay” to respond in a certain manner..”.After Dr. Singh’s first press meet speech, Congress removed short term election manifest (100, 200, 1000 days) plans.I would highly recommended this book to people with curiosity like me to know what really happened during the days of P.V. Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister. This book is the real answer, well done Jairam Ramesh Sir.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Thank You for writing this book By Sethu Konduru Jairam Ramesh is gifted with writing abilities . Amazingly JR opened how government functions at highest levels in critical situations . I see this book is more about Leadership than anything else. Every Indian and any one who is into stock market must read this book. Jairam being Congressman in Sonia's age must have some guts to present PV as he see with out fear , I truly appreciated the way JR adherence to facts rather than personifying some in power position , this is truly admiring which takes away bias.I hope this book will be made into a movie . This book would be an amazing addition to all Business Schools list of must read . Book convinced me that Jairam Ramesh must write a unbiased book about congress subsequent government , Genesis and reason for the scams and India's future credibility as a economic power deserving international trust.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The Fox-Hedgehog combine that rescued India in its darkest moment in 1991 By Raghu Nathan January 1991 was the year when India was in acute economic crisis with only about 900 million dollars in foreign exchange reserves. The thumb rule is that the nation must have at least enough reserves to cover three months of import bills whereas India had only enough for a couple of weeks. It was at this time that the new Congress government, a minority government at that, assumed power in New Delhi, with Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister. Rao was the first ever PM from southern India since India’s independence and it was widely speculated that he would be only a figurehead, with real power being exercised from behind the curtains by the seasoned stalwarts in Congress. This book by Jairam Ramesh, who had a key role in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) during that time, is the story of how Rao, jointly with his Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, overcame the crisis by firmly putting his stamp on what transpired over the next three months in laying the foundations for radically transforming the Indian economy and integrating it with the Globalized world. Ramesh’s academic credentials to write about those three months is beyond question, especially given the ringside seat he occupied in the PMO.Though I knew that India was in a deep crisis in 1991, I had no idea as to what caused it. Was it due to inept management of the economy by the previous governments of Rajiv Gandhi, V.P.Singh and Chandrasekhar? Or was it something more fundamental? Ramesh explains the causes of the crisis in the second chapter itself. Briefly, it was as follows:Reason 1: The first Gulf War of Aug 1990 resulted in trebling of oil prices. War caused India’s exports to Iraq and Kuwait to halt thereby losing $500 million. Further, India had to repatriate thousands of its labor from these countries, affecting their dollar remittances to India.Reason 2: The Mandal Committee recommendations in favor of the Backward Castes in Oct,1990 caused substantial political instability, particularly in northern India, and this caused non-resident Indians to withdraw their deposits from Indian banks to the tune of nearly a billion dollars by Apr-Jun 1991.Reason 3: Inflation rocketed from 6.7% in the mid 80s to 16.7% by Aug 1991 making our exports expensive and non-competitive.Reason 4: India’s short-term external debt had ballooned to $8.5 billion while our foreign exchange reserves, including gold, were just $5.8 billion in March 1991.The subsequent chapters describe the tumultuous three-month period till Aug 1991 as to how Rao’s cabinet swung into action to push through revolutionary reforms in spite of being a minority govt and facing substantial opposition from not only within the Congress party and the Left but from the opposition BJP as well, which paid only lip service to reforms but in reality tried to make political capital out of ‘the Congress party straying away from the Nehruvian legacy’ charge! What fascinated me most was the way Rao and Manmohan Singh enlisted the backing of naysayers within the party, the media and the opposition to push through the reforms by constantly engaging with them and insisting on the national importance of not losing our economic independence by defaulting on our loan payments. Whether it is the devaluation of the rupee or the transfer or sale of Gold reserves, removal of controls in licensing, linking non-essential imports to exports, policy and institutional reforms in accelerating exports, the govt showed its skills in passing them through Parliament in the face of much opposition in favor of the status quo. Funnily, the entire economic reforms program was conceived and executed without the full active participation of the Finance secretary or the Chief economic adviser!Apart from this main story, there are a couple of other interesting anecdotes as well in the book. After the devaluation of the rupee, Dr.Manmohan Singh was worried that his personal rupee balance, borne out of a modest dollar savings from a South Commission stint in Geneva during 1987-90, would swell due to the change in the exchange rate. Therefore he informed the PM that the ‘windfall gains’ would be deposited in the Prime Minister’s relief fund. It is a shame on the present Modi govt in India to insinuate that this man could be corrupt. The other inexplicable thing that Ramesh writes about is the extent to which Narasimha Rao listened to his Guru Chandraswami! Apparently, Chandraswami had convinced Narasimha Rao that India can tide over the immediate financial crisis in 1991 because Chandraswami's buddy, the Sultan of Brunei, had agreed to extend a line of credit to India at the most concessional terms without questions. Rao took it very seriously because he had a plane ready to fly Dr.Singh to Brunei for this! Thankfully, Manmohan Singh managed to convince the PM at the last minute that it would be a foolhardy adventure!Finally, there is much criticism about the Congress Party not giving Narasimha Rao his due during the past decades. One must remember however, that Rao allowed the Babri Masjid to be demolished and this resulted in Congress losing the support of Indian muslims for the past twenty five years. The party hasn’t forgiven him for this yet, it looks, even though this book is some consolation.Ramesh concludes with some well-balanced remarks towards the end. Whether one believes in the Tolstoyan perspective of history that individuals do not matter and only circumstances do or the contrary view that it is individuals who create history, Ramesh says that what got accomplished in June-July 1991 was inevitable if our goal was to avoid the opprobrium of default. The Rao-Singh duo was at the right place at the right time, having neither bargained nor lobbied for the responsibilities they faced. But they seized the day and the rest, as they say, is history!The book is fast-paced and written with an openness and frankness that one does not associate with the Indian political class. Highly recommended.
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To the Brink and Back: India's 1991 Story, by Jairam Ramesh
