It was not the appointment of Dr Singh which initiated liberlaization process, rather it was India's 1990 economic meltdown, it's total bankruptcy and the demand from the IMF which forced her to reform her economy - IMF point-blank told India that the only way she was going to get any World Bank funds to bail her out, would be predicated on India liberalizing her economy - India had no choice but to accede to IMF's demands and initiate economic reforms, and just by coincidence, Dr Singh happened to be the Finance Minister this time. Fact is, had India's major trading partner, the Soviet Union, not collapsed and disintegrated, India would have still been following the same destructive socialist economic model with govt controlling the commanding heights of the economy, and the License and Permit Raj still running rampant, strangling and emasculating the economy and pauperizing the masses. So to Mr Dhotekar, I say 'Reforms' were voluntarily initiated - it was mandated by the World Bank as a precondtion for granting a desperate India a few measly billions loan to keep her bankrupt economy from total collapse and catastrophy.
