Half - Lion: How P.V. Narasimha Rao Transformed India

by Vinay Sitapati

A co-founder of Infosys, Nandan Nilekani, remembers its initial public offering in 1993. ‘Four reforms that the Narasimha Rao government made really benefitted us. [The] abolition of the controller of capital issues allowed free pricing of public issues. We were able to price our own shares . . . It made a big difference. The entry of FIIs [foreign institutional investors] helped. The FIIs understood the new economy. We were able to present ourselves as ethical, transparent. They had an understanding of technology.’45 The liberalization of foreign exchange also made it easier for Infosys—earning in dollars—to expand. But the biggest boost that Narasimha Rao offered software companies was free advertising. As Nilekani says, ‘Just the fact that the economy opened up, was in the news, made foreign companies think of India. That helped us market ourselves to them.’