Confessions Of A Swadeshi Reformer - My Years as Finance Minister

Author: Yashwant SinhaPublisher: Penguin/VikingYear: 2007Language: EnglishPages: 261ISBN/UPC (if available): 0670999520 DescriptionThe Chandra Shekhar government had fallen. Fresh elections had been called. Yashwant Sinha, finance minister in the caretaker government, was in Patna, contesting for the Lok Sabha against tough opposition, when a senior officer from the finance ministry brought an urgent file for his signature: India needed to mortgage gold to obtain a loan from the Bank of England to tide over a payments crisis—there were just enough foreign exchange reserves to pay for two weeks’ imports. The crisis was not of their government’s making, but it devolved on Sinha to take this drastic step. If he ever got the opportunity, he promised himself, he would make sure that the country never had to face such a crisis again.The opportunity came in 1998, when Sinha was appointed finance minister in the NDA government led by Vajpayee and was faced with yet another crisis: the nuclear