India happens to be a rich country inhabited by poor people!

L - Liberalisation of thoughts

P - Privatisation of belief

G- Globalization of execution

LPG you ask me?

LPG in India initiated in 1991, of the country's economic policies, with the goal of making the economy more market and service oriented and expanding the role of private and foreign investment.

1. Liberalisation - Flexible policies like dilution of MRTP Act, Reduction in rate of import duties, in control on foreign exchange, Financial and banking sector reforms, etc.
2. Privatisation - When the control of economy is shifted from public to private hand.
3. Globalization - The process by which regional economies, societies and cultures have integrated to global network of communication, transportation and trade.

Karl Marx one said " The first act of Mankind is the act of production, as man in order to live needs to produce"

After Independence in 1947, Indian government faced a major problem in developing an economy and resolving issues. There were many high stature leaders belonging different ideologies like Socialist, Communist, and Gandhian, yet the forefront question faced by all the political leaders/ thinkers was that "What was the way forward as far as the independent or democratic India's concern?

Gandhiji?was strictly against any form of industrialization and believed?prevalence of self sufficient economy at village level, where the village becomes completely autonomous in nature, reflecting the ideologies of Little Republics thought, however this opinion was not acceptable, as our first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a believer of pure domination of public sectors, wanted to industrialize the country in order to ensure its progress, so that social justice could be ensured at one hand and at the same time the deprivation, poverty and exclusions could be tackled with a war footing so that people largely could become participants, and everybody could enjoy the fruit of development, resulting in absolute rejection of the Gandhian Ideology.

According to Nehru, a faster and complete industrialization was the way forward, but as time passed and India encountered the conclusion of the Nehruvian tenure, there arised a need for deregulation of Indian Economy. Here's when one of my personal favourite of all times, one of the most honest and down to earth prime minister of Indian History Lal Bahadur Shastri emerged as chief commander. Where the Nehruvian focus was primarily on manufacturing industries shastriji wanted to shift the focus from manufacture to trade where he largely advocated that the country could not just progress on the basis of manufacturing, as the country cannot manufacture every aspect rather it should also start indulging in trade. Here's where liberalization started seeding as now the focus shifted to trade, and in order to trade we need to largely have connections and interactions with the larger world, thereafter consequently globalization and privatization started being acknowledged into the circles of Governance or Government policy making.

After Shastriji, a dominating personality came into being, known as Smt. Indira Gandhi, she single handedly dominated the Indian Society. She was a leader with not only a vision, but also a fierce personality who had the spine to take decisions and implement them, which was also favoured by the sole dominance of Indian National Congress during that time, as when a Coalition government is formed, it has high push and pull risk in framing policies which never allow the leader to take major decisions. During the reign of Indira Gandhi, policy started shifting towards welfare approach where "Garibi Hatao" became a very famous slogan, however pro-poor policies were misunderstood as anti-capitalist policies during License Raj (The Licence Raj or Permit Raj was a pejorative for the system of strict government control and regulation of the Indian economy that was in place from the 1950s to the early 1990's)

LPG came against License Raj, but a commonly misunderstood notion is that LPG largely existed during and after 1991, however history communicates well LPG secretly deepened its root long back during Shastriji's?tenure, wherein trade led India tilt towards LPG.

Second phase of Indira Gandhi saw a pro-capitalist approach wherein changing International scenarios highlighted that just a close authority would not suffice, rather India would have to aggressively trade with the world if it had to maintain the pace of remaining relevant in the 21st century. However the demise of Smt. Indira Gandhi paved way for oath taking of our accidental prime minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, who was more neoliberal, owing to the fact that he himself was a product of western?education and grew in an environment where the world was expanding and India had to keep peace with primarily committed economic growth than opening up the economy. Dr. Manmohan Singh, former finance minister and P. V. Narsimha Rao opened the way of free economy wherein this process was largely regulated, and not a blind opening to the world, rather a strategic one. Opening up of areas that were previously marked for the public sector further strengthened LPG into a huge reality and there was no looking back now.

To sum up LPG reforms in India was a steady transition and not a direct shift!