New Delhi: The Centre showered praise on the former PM PV Narasimha Rao and his finance Minister Manmohan Singh for opening up the country’s economy in 1991 in what the government now said ending ‘the era of 'licence raj', NDTV reported.
During a hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that economic reforms introduced back then liberalized the company law and the Trade Practices Act MRTP, among others.
Tushar Mehta, however, pointed out that over the following three decades the governments did not see the need for amending the Industry (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951.
Solicitor General responded after the bench called the IDRA, 1951 archaic and suggestive of the restrictive ‘licence raj’ era.
The IDRA remained untouched despite the changes that economic reforms brought about because it allowed the government to have a control over various industries, Mehta pointed out.
Mehta made it clear that the Centre retained the power to regulate industries particularly during emergencies such as Covid-19, adding that the government’s withdrawal from controlling industry did not mean that it has no regulatory authority, according to NDTV.
In the face of mounting foreign reserves crisis in 1991, the Narasimha Rao administration introduced three major economic reforms: globalisation, liberalisation, and privatization, whipping up a political storm across the country.