How 24 July 1991 Changed India | Senior Journalist On Corruption, GST, Demonetisation, Rajiv Gandhi

How the 1991 crisis got India to rethink its economic approach. By early 1991, India’s reserves were nearly gone. The government took a desperate step—it sent 67,000Kg  of gold abroad to secure a loan from the IMF. This was a last-ditch effort to avoid default, but it only bought a little time. But soon, the govt collapsed again, leading to a new election. In June 1991, P.V. Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister, and he chose Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister— and things changed. Rao and Singh quickly implemented reforms: they removed restrictive licensing, welcomed foreign investment, and eased machinery imports. The 1991 crisis forced India to rethink its economic approach—it highlighted the risks of heavy borrowing and too much government control. But it also showed that when things get tough, bold decisions can turn a bad situation into an opportunity. In this episode of the NEON Show, Rajrishi Singhal, a senior journalist, banker, shares his deep insights into India"s economic reforms and financial sector. Singhal offers a nuanced perspective on why India"s economic progress hasn"t met expectations, touching on issues from private sector investment to the success of reforms during coalition governments. ------------- Timestamp  00:00 - Introduction to the podcast and guest, Rajrishi Singhal. 01:23 - Corruption in India and its impact on the economy 05:30 - how demonetization was not to take out corruption 07:06 - Rajiv Gandhi was the original ‘Accidental Prime Minister’ 12:29 - What pushed us into the 1991 crisis 14:45 - Raids on reliance industries  18:57 - How India almost went bankrupt 21:45 - Complexities of India’s banking system 19:15 - What are regional rural banks (RRBs) 25:26 - Corruption"s impact on investments. 28:41 - Why doesn"t India have more new banks 32:00 - Why private sector investments in India have been limited 34:25 - Success of reforms during coalition governments 40:26 - Foreign investors" concerns about sudden policy changes in India 41:26 - Impact of demonetization on the Indian economy ------------- Hi, I am your host Siddhartha! I have been an entrepreneur from 2012-2017 building two products AddoDoc and Babygogo. After selling my company to SHEROES, I and my partner Nansi decided to start up again. But we felt unequipped in our skillset in 2018 to build a large company. We had known 0-1 journeys from our startups but lacked the experience of building 1-10 journeys.  Hence was born The Neon Show (Earlier 100x Entrepreneur) to learn from founders and investors, the mindset to scale yourself and your company. This quest still keeps us excited even after 5 years and doing 200+ episodes. We welcome you to our journey to understand what goes behind building a super successful company. Every episode is done with a very selfish motive, that I and Nansi should come out as a better entrepreneur and professional after absorbing the learnings. ------------- Check us out on: Website: https://neon.fund/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theneonshoww/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beneon/ Twitter: https://x.com/TheNeonShoww ------------- Looking to build a differentiated tech startup with a 10X better solution? Prime is the high conviction, high support investor you need. With its fourth fund of $120M, Prime actively works with star teams to accelerate building great companies. To know more, visit https://primevp.in/ ------------- This video is for informational purposes only. The views expressed are those of the individuals quoted and do not constitute professional advice. Send us a text