Birth centenary of P.V. Narasimha Rao

In news- 100th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao was observed on 28th June 2021.

About P.V. Narasimha Rao (1921-2004)-

Narasimha Rao was born on June 28, 1921 in the village of Laknepally village of Narsampet mandal, in Warangal Rural district, now in Telangana.
Rao was an active freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement and joined full-time politics after independence as a member of the Indian National Congress.
He served as an elected representative for Andhra Pradesh state assembly from 1957 to 1977.
He became the Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh in 1971 and implemented land reforms and land ceiling acts strictly
He served as Foreign minister from 1980 to 1984 and then from 1988 to 1989.
He served as the 9th Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996.
Rao was the first leader outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to last a full-term as Prime Minister after being elected in 1991.
He was the second holder of this office from a non-Hindi-speaking region and the first from South India.
Rao’s term also saw the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh when BJP’s Kalyan Singh was Chief Minister.
He died on December 23, 2004.

His contributions-

He was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj, when he headed the Ministry of Industries.
He is often referred to as the “Father of Indian Economic Reforms”.
With Rao’s mandate, Dr. Manmohan Singh launched India’s globalisation angle of the reforms that implemented the International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies to rescue the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse.
His reign brought a paradigm shift from the industrialising, mixed economic model of Jawaharlal Nehru to a market driven one.
Rao had launched what has come to be known as the country’s Look East policy linking India to many East and Southeast Asian countries.
He also established diplomatic relations with Israel.
He played a major role in defeating the 1994 United Nations resolution against India.
Under his leadership, the ballistic missile technology programme was launched, besides successfully testing the augmented satellite launch vehicle.