To convey that economic diplomacy was to be his priority, Rao’s first overseas visit, in late 1991, was to Germany, the economic engine of Europe. Ramu Damodaran remembers: ‘Before going, Rao read all the briefs given to him . . . he planned for it six weeks in advance.’8 Once in Germany, Rao made sure to extoll the virtues of investing in India—something almost no prime minister had done before. A businessman in the audience remarked that Rao’s style ‘reminded us of a corporate chief executive’.9
