1960: Business

V Krishnamurthy, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council chief
In 1960, the instrument for progress was the PSU (Public Sector Unit), because there were few outstanding business houses in the private sector and India did not have the managerial skills, financial resources or experience of doing things in a big way. This was also the time when public finance and public savings were intensified and India embarked on a tremendous effort to develop humanresources—IIT Kanpur and IIM Ahmedabad were set up this year. At the same time, our reliance on the (then) Soviet Union as a source of heavy machinery and advanced technology was deepening. The realisation that both private and public players are needed for overall development came about in the 1970s—in the ’60s, the private sector was still struggling to survive. Also, back then the focus was on basic industry; there was virtually no service industry—today this has been drastically reversed.