Was India performed better economically under PM Manmohan Singh?

Well, under PV Narasimha Rao when LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) reform was introduced in 1991, India faced so many problems economically. Our Forex reserve was all time low. So a new change would not impact much initially. But it helped India in long run to eradicate poverty. So under Rao’s first year India’s GDP just grew 1.1%. Under his 5 year tenure the GDP grew at 5.1% rate. The economic policies are little bit stable when A.B. Vajpayee took office and India’s GDP grew 5.9% over his 6 year tenure. When Manmohan Singh took office he delivered 7.7% growth over ten years.

During Singh’s tenure he faced the financial crisis of 2008 that damaging financial institutions globally, culminating with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, and an international banking crisis. There was no planned lockdown due to any virus outbreak but the financial crisis impacted Indian stock market and forex reserve.

BSE Sensex was 20206.95 on 28 Dec 2007 that reached a low 8915.21 on 21 Nov 2008. It took almost 3 years to regain position when on 22 Oct 2010, BSE Sensex again reached 20165.86. Compare that with CoVID-19 pandemic. Pre lockdown era, on 14 Feb 2020, BSE Sensex closed at 41257.74. Sensex reached a low 25981.24 on lockdown starts at 23 March. That bounced back in just 7 and half months when on 5 Nov Sensex touched 41340.16. By 14 Dec, 2020 it has closed at a record 46253.46.


Similar story can be visible in foreign exchange (forex) reserve. During 1991 LPG, India’s forex reserve reached record low of $ 5.8 billion. Before financial crisis on May 2008, India’s forex reserve was US$ 314.6 billion. That value shrank to support the economy in 2008 financial crisis. By Dec 2010 forex reserve reached US$ 297.3 billion. It took 6 years to reach the same value when India’s forex reserve reached US$ 304 billion on March 2014. Let’s compare the similar scenario during lockdown. India’s forex reserve in week ended 6 March was US$ 487.23 billion. But 9 months later in the week ended Dec 4, India’s forex reserve reached all-time high of US$ 579.35 billion.



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