Of his two terms as India’s Prime Minister (2004-14), Dr Manmohan Singh famously suggested, history will judge him better. What about his most historic moment itself—as finance minister, delivering the landmark budget speech on July 23, 1991, that singularly altered the course of India’s economy, with Victor Hugo’s line, “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come… Let the whole world hear it, loud and clear. India is now wide awake!”

Meaning, awake to do business—allowing foreign investments, companies, products; dismantling import restrictions, lowering tariffs. Getting rid of several paranoid lists, licences, permits and quotas that were based on India’s fear of both big business, and competing with the First World. Therefore it actively believed in state-run businesses, and closing off the economy altogether!