Manmohan Singh: The silent Prime Minister or a humane economist?
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
|December 28, 2024
EXPECTATIONS of Dr Manmohan Singh, the trailblazer of India's new economic policy, is no more. Economists around the world remember him for his brilliance and humility, and predominantly for his role in opening up the state-controlled Indian economy, when he was appointed Finance Minister of India in 1991.
The NIPFP (the think tank of finance ministry where I work) had immense opportunities to work with him. It is interesting to recall that in 2004, when Singh was named as Indian Prime Minister, India was embarking into a Common Minimum Programme with dual objectives of economic growth and equity. I remember it was a tough call, given the constrained fiscal space for expenditure design for the poor under the new fiscal rules to contain the mounting fiscal deficits.
Making efforts to phase out revenue deficit, while designing innovative revenue spending for MNREGA to ensure job guarantee schemes, was a tough call during his regime.
This story is from the December 28, 2024 edition of The New Indian Express Kalaburagi.
Subscribe to Magzter GOLD to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 10,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MORE STORIES FROM The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
Kishan's statement ton helps Jharkhand lift title
OUT-OF-FAVOUR India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan made a compelling case for a T20I recall with a belligerent hundred to power Jharkhand to their maiden Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title with a 69-run victory over Haryana on Thursday.
1 min
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
ELOQUENT SILENCE OF CONSTITUTIONS
LUDWIG Wittgenstein famously concluded his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus with the injunction: \"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.\"
3 mins
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
Mamata to rename her govt-funded job scheme after Mahatma Gandhi
WEST Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that her government would rename a state-funded job guarantee scheme after Mahatma Gandhi, a statement made amid the ongoing row over the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill (G RAM G Bill 2025).
1 min
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
CCI will launch probe into IndiGo for ‘abusing its dominant position’
THE Competition Commission of India (CCI), a regulatory body under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, will probe the practices of India's largest domestic airline, IndiGo, to assess whether it has abused its dominant position in the aviation sector.
1 min
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
Chouhan tears into Oppn over din in LS, calls 'conduct' by INDIA MPs a blot
UNION Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday flayed the Congress and other INDIA bloc parties for disrupting the Lok Sabha during the introduction of the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill.
1 mins
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
House clears nuclear energy bill
Centre's push to privatise nuclear energy without 'adequate safeguards' sparks huge uproar
1 min
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
India says will help Afghanistan with vax, med
Support over the past four years to Kabul
2 mins
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
Names of 16L MGNREGS workers out
ABOUT a month before the Centre introduced the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025, in the Lok Sabha to replace the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), official data shows that more than 16.3 lakh workers were removed from the scheme rolls in the preceding 36 days.
1 mins
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
Live-in relationship not illegal, state’s duty to protect every citizen, says HC
THE Allahabad High Court came to the rescue of 12 women, who were in live-in relationships and had petitioned the court seeking protection, fearing a threat to their lives.
1 mins
December 19, 2025
The New Indian Express Kalaburagi
U’khand youth forced to join Russia war, dies
A 30-year-old Uttarakhand man, who went to Russia on a student visa for higher studies, died after he was allegedly forced to join the Russian army for Ukraine war.
1 min
December 19, 2025
Listen
Translate
Change font size

