India’s future economic path is tougher than 1991: Manmohan Singh – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Over the last three decades, successive governments have followed the path of economic reforms to catapult the country into a $3-trillion economy. And into the league of the world’s largest economies. But the road ahead is even more daunting than during the 1991 crisis, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday.
“It is not a time to rejoice and exult but to introspect and ponder. Our priorities as a nation need to be recalibrated to foremost ensure a healthy and dignified life for every single Indian,” Singh said in a statement on the eve of the historic reforms launched 30 years ago, the results of which experts say have led to higher growth and development.
He said the country had made tremendous economic progress in the last three decades due to the economic reforms ushered in by the Congress government in 1991, while flagging education and health as areas of concern.

The former PM, who as finance minister in 1991 led the reforms under the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, said nearly 300 million Indians have been lifted out of poverty in this period and hundreds of millions of new jobs provided for youth.
He said the reforms process unleashed the spirit of free enterprise, which has helped produce some world class companies and India emerge as a global power in many sectors.
“But I am also deeply saddened at the devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the loss of millions of fellow Indians. The social sectors of health and education have lagged behind and not kept pace with our economic progress. Too many lives and livelihoods have been lost that should not have been,” said Singh, who is a Rajya MP.
He said the liberalisation process in 1991 was triggered by an economic crisis that confronted the country then, but it was not limited to crisis management. “The edifice of India’s economic reforms was built on the desire to prosper, the belief in our capabilities, and the confidence to relinquish control of the economy by the government,” said Singh, adding that he was fortunate to play a role in the process along with several of his colleagues in Congress.
“As finance minister in 1991, I ended my Budget speech by quoting Victor Hugo, ‘No power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come’. Thirty years later, as a nation, we must remember Robert Frost’s poem, ‘But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep’,” said Singh in his statement.