00:00Just as I was turning 19, I was called back by my elder brother to assist in running our
00:09small-scale PVC fill factory situated near Ahmedabad.
00:17The business was faced with many challenges, primarily due to extreme government control
00:26and restrictive import policies leading to severe shortages of raw materials.
00:33This was my first real encounter with the limitations of the business environment in
00:39India.
00:40Yet, it was also an early lesson that laid the ground for the next set of business I
00:52was to start on.
00:55The mid-1980s marked the beginning of transformation in India.
01:03In 1985, under the leadership of S. Rajiv Gandhi, the country took its first steps towards
01:12economic liberalization.
01:15The easing of import policies opened up new possibilities for businesses.
01:23Having run our PVC factory, I understood the pains of the small-scale import sectors and
01:32therefore despite having no prior experience in trading, I saw an opportunity in this environment
01:41of a new policy.
01:45I took a leap and established a trading organization for importing polymers to supply to the struggling
01:54small-scale industries.
01:58By the time I turned 23, my trading venture was doing well.
02:06Then came 1991, when India faced a severe foreign exchange crisis that brought the country
02:16to the brink of economic collapse.
02:20It was during this crisis that S. P. V. Narasimha Rao, the then Prime Minister, and Dr. Manmohan
02:28Singh, the then Finance Minister, outlined a series of bold economic reforms.
02:35These reforms included reducing of import tariffs, deregulating industries, opening
02:45up the economy to foreign investments, and encouraging public-private partnership in
02:52infrastructure development.
02:56Every nation has its transformative years that change the direction of its future.
03:061947 was about a free India.
03:111991 was about liberalization of our businesses.
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