Economic Reformer Top Contender for India Prime Minister
May 18, 2004
Economic Reformer Suddenly Seen as Top Contender to Be Indian Prime Minister
By Tim Sullivan
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI (AP) - Manmohan Singh, the 71-year-old technocrat Sonia Gandhi reportedly wants to be India's next prime minister, orchestrated the financial reforms that helped transform India into a regional economic power.
Reports on Tuesday that Singh could become prime minister helped send the country's stock markets soaring, just a day after suffering their worst-ever losses the day before.
"When the markets got a whiff that Sonia may not be prime minister that was the biggest kick for the markets," said Sindhu Sameer, chief dealer at Bombay-based Batlivala & Karani Securities. "If Sonia is out, then Manmohan is in and he is the poster boy of India's reforms."
Singh, an Oxford-educated economist who was born into poverty, is Gandhi's choice to head the incoming government, Indian television stations reported, citing unidentified officials in the Congress party.
The Congress scored a stunning victory last week over the ruling alliance led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, putting it solidly in position to form a coalition government. Gandhi had initially been expected to become prime minister, but on Tuesday she said she didn't want the job.
Singh, who spent years in various government posts, was plucked from relative obscurity in 1991 to become finance minister in a Congress party-led government - and helped dramatically change a stalled economy.
During the 1991-1996 government, he championed a series of sweeping reforms: Devaluating the rupee, slashing subsidies for domestically produced goods and privatizing some state-run companies.
Perhaps most importantly, he ended the "license raj," the regulations that forced businesses to get government approval to make nearly any decision.
In a country where government-run economies had long been the norm, the changes signaled a revolution. By 2004, India's economy, which had crept along for decades, was racing at more than 8 percent.
But as the outgoing government learned last week when its campaign of "Shining India" failed miserably with voters, India's economic miracle has left many untouched.
While per capita income has risen in recent years, hundreds of millions of Indians still live in poverty, with tens of millions in villages without electricity, running water or access to even basic health care.
----------------------------------
This story can be found at:
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAULK84EUD.html