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

by Vinay Sitapati

Foreign minister Rao visited Singapore in 1989. His grandson Shravan recalls, ‘He came back and told me, “There is a theme park called Sentosa. There is a sound and light show. There is excellent technology. The way they aligned the lights and sounds is superb. There is one show, that show is conducted on the beach in the night.”’82 In that same visit to Singapore, he spent the day with an Indian-origin businessman, buying laptops to take back home.83 These visits to East Asia would shape his ‘Look East’ policy as prime minister a few years later. It would also shape his dislike for the barriers that technology imports into India faced. Returning from one such visit, the foreign minister was irritated at the level of duty that customs officials levied on the laptop and electronic gadgets he was bringing back. He came away from the airport seething.

Duty and customs