India, Dec. 27 -- As the then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh tiptoed into the Parliament to deliver his iconic speech on July 24, 1991, India had less than INR 2,500 Cr in foreign exchange reserves, only enough to finance imports for a less than a fortnight.

By the time Singh finished addressing the Parliament, the "Gentle Giant" had set India on the path of economic reforms and "unshackled" the country from the Licence Raj. True to his name, he concluded the speech by quoting the famous French novelist Victor Hugo, saying "No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come".

It was true then and it appears to be true now. Singh's series of liberalisation, privatisation, and globalization (LPG) reforms that year not just address...