P. Chidambaram on Manmohan Singh: One journey ends, another continues

Sometimes I think Dr. Manmohan Singh had many lives. As the years rolled by, Dr. Singh held many positions in government, but he seems to have blended with the environment—controls and regulations, dominance of the public sector, protectionism, licences, permits and quotas, suspicion of the private sector, wariness about foreign trade especially imports, and all other incidents of a closed economy. Throughout the stormy journey, especially in the 15 years that Dr Singh was Finance Minister and Prime Minister, he was an astute and assured captain at the wheel, steering the ship called Indian economy. Look at the milestones that we have crossed: an open foreign trade policy, an open industrial policy, wholesale revision of old laws, new liberating laws, foreign direct investment, burgeoning foreign exchange reserves, an ever-growing private sector, new regulatory authorities and new developmental bodies. Dr Manmohan Singh was the proponent and author of the Right To Information Act, Right To Education Act, Right to Food Act, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Forest Rights Act, zero-balance accounts in banks, Aadhaar, direct benefit transfer, the telecom and communications revolution, and many other novel and revolutionary ideas that have transformed India.