DIGITAL SUPER CYCLE WILL POWER US AHEAD

It’s been 30 years since economic reforms were initiated. It is the right time for retrospection. Let us evaluate the three decades of reforms in three phases. The first part is the 1990s, marked by struggle and survival and the rise of the knowledge industry. The second part, from 2001 to 2010, is when we reinvented businesses, scaled up operations and created globally competitive organisations. This period also saw the start of the process to build core infrastructure, especially areas like ports, roads, telecom and power. The third part, from 2011 to 2020, was when the country saw a further infrastructure push. There was focus on green and clean energy, companies were deleveraged, and became globally competitive in some areas. It also saw the start of building up of the digital start-up ecosystem. Let’s study these three phases in greater detail.

THE CHRONOLOGY

I returned to India in the middle of the ’90s. And what I saw was — I will put it