Hall Of Fame

IN THIS COVER STORY, WE PRESENT YOU the dream team of post-liberalisation India.

They may belong to different political cultures and parties; they may have been active at different points of time; but together, they present a formidable line-up — like the all-time greats, these are our post-liberalisation economy and business champions. All of them have helmed ministries that have an economic imprint — from Finance to Commerce, and Tourism to Defence.

Ranking the top ministers was always going to be tricky. So we tied up with Decode, and reached out to 500 corporate leaders across 12 metros.

To give you an example, the names of all the finance ministers of all the governments — beginning with the P.V. Narasimha Rao government of 1991 to the incumbent government — were given to the respondents, and they were asked to rank the very best. In all, we did this exercise for 19 ministries that have an economic imprint.

The result is that we have an eclectic mix of leaders — ranging from A.B. Vajpayee to Manmohan Singh to George Fernandes to Piyush Goyal. All those who occupy these offices — whether they are dead or alive — have been considered.

To make it a credible exercise, we asked two acclaimed commentators, Gurcharan Das and Mohan Guruswamy whether they agreed with the findings.

We have not changed the survey findings even when there are vigorous disagreements. It’s because, we want you, dear reader, to make your own conclusions based on the facts and the evidence. (With inputs from Prabodh Krishna, Avishek Banerjee, Sheena Sachdeva)

PRIME MINISTER: ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE