 Wheels of fortune
In 1975, Hero Cycles became the largest manufacturer of bicycles in India. After a modest beginning of 7,500 bicycles a year in 1957, annual sales spiralled to 5.2 million bicycles in 2004. |
| RIL on a roll
Dhirubhai Ambani popularised the equity cult in India by taking Reliance Industries Limited public. RIL had its first public issue in 1977. |
| Yankee go home
In 1977, George Fernandes, the then minister of industry, and his colleagues in the Janata ministry gave marching orders to Coca-Cola and IBM within a week of each other. |
 Captain grounded
J.R.D. Tata, chairman of Air-India, was busy giving wings to the nation but, in 1978, the then prime minister Morarji Desai unceremoniously ended his services. |
Two-stroke revolution
India's first powered cycle, called the moped, was the Hero Majestic launched in 1978. Within four years, about a lakh mopeds were being produced annually. |
 The future is here
Infosys Technologies, N.R. Narayana Murthy's dream, was incorporated on July 2, 1981. The IT boom began. |
Colour coup
In 1982, India stopped and hit the pause button when one lakh colour TV sets were imported. In 2004, India boasted of 90 lakh sets. |
Road rage
When the Maruti 800 first hit the roads in December 1983, it was supposed to be a babe in the market. In just two years it became India's largest selling car, redefining the concept of mobility. |
 Pandora's box
The The Indian Express-Reliance Industries war began in March 1986 with the first of a series of articles against RIL. Before it ended, it resembled a potboiler: shadowy roles by the prime minister's buddies, bitter business rivalries, lies and unending spy games. |
Hero No. 1
The plain Jane CD 100, the first Hero Honda bike to roll out in May 1985, outsold strong competition and became the world's largest selling motorcycle in 2000-1. |
 Private banking, finally
In 1994, the Reserve Bank of India allowed the entry of private-sector banks in the financial arena. That changed consumer financing-or at least servicing, as the country knew it-forever. |
Shock waves
As news of Harshad Mehta's shenanigans dribbled out, the Sensex crashed by 1,500 points, market capitalisation fell by Rs 1,00,000 crore, banks were pulled into the vortex and millions lost their fortunes in a Rs 3,000-crore scam. Even Mehta's arrest failed to stop the scam. He returned in 1997. |
Economic crisis
In 1991, the country's foreign exchange reserves hit rock bottom and India had to pledge part of its gold reserves with the Bank of England to avoid a debt repayment default. |
Economic independence
India embarked on the road to economic liberalisation in 1991 when Manmohan Singh, the then finance minister, abolished the licence raj and did away with a host of other controls. |
 Power play
In 1992, serious shortages in power generation and paucity of funds to invest in new plants forced the Union Power Ministry to radically alter its policy and invite the private sector. Major incentives were offered to foreign investors. Enron took the bait, chose Dabhol, and so began the sordid saga. |
 Surfing frenzy: In 1991, huge metallic objects circling the sky started beaming a collage of images into desi homes. Confused? We're talking about cable TV. |
News 24/7
Till 1995, of the 14,350 annual hours of broadcast output in India, only 15-20 per cent was dedicated to news, mostly at prime time. Then came Zee News, the first 24/7 Hindi news channel. |
Uphill race
Did you ever wonder when exactly did the bulls enter the stockmarkets? The answer is 1988, when D-Street jumped 60 per cent in just 60 days. Leading the charge was UTI and the Canbank Mutual Fund. |
| SEBI as a safety valve
The 1992 securities scam and stock market crash necessitated the formal setting up of the Securities and Exchange Board of India in April 1992. |
Mobile magic
Cell phones made a grand entry into the desi dictionary in 1995. Believe it or not, a decade ago the handset cost about Rs 25,000 compared with as low as Rs 1,500 today. In October 2005 alone, 29 lakh Indians picked up a mobile connection. That is 93,548 new users a day. |
 Taking to the skies
In 1993, the government's "open skies" policy saw a host of private airlines spread wings, the first being East West Airlines, which shut shop almost a decade ago. Today, Air Deccan, which kick-started the no-frills revolution with its launch in 2003, symbolises choice and affordability. |
Hope floats
The rupee was made partially convertible on the trade account in 1993, and fully convertible the following year. That signalled India's growing confidence in its own currency and economy. |
 Made in India
It was a car designed in India for Indians, a practical swadeshi effort to take on and beat the onslaught of the Fords, Toyotas, Daewoos and Hyundais. The Tata Indica, launched in 1998, was, in short, India's answer to the world. |
 Divided legacy
The 35 lakh investors who put their faith in a legend looked on in anxiety as the scions quarrelled over their inheritance. In the Mukesh versus Anil battle, 2005, it was the mother, Kokilaben, who finally called a truce. |
 Hot ticket
Tata Motors created history in 2004 by becoming the first desi firm in the engineering field to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. |
 Pop the bubbly
In 1999, Infosys stock became the first Indian stock to be traded on the Nasdaq. Technically, perhaps Cognizant, a US-registered but Chennai-domiciled firm, was the first to be listed in 1998. |
A new role
For close to a decade, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), signified paranoia over foreign companies and exchange outflow. But that ended in 1999. With fema's birth, the government's regulatory "duties" were finally replaced by basic management or "maintenance" mechanism. |
Applauding quality
In November 2002, TVS Motors became the first two-wheeler company in the world to receive the coveted Deming Prize. |
Iron man
In 2004 L.N. Mittal became the world's largest and most global steel maker. His empire now extends to 14 nations and rakes in $22 billion (about Rs 99,000 crore) in annual revenues. |
|  Money machine
The stockmarket finally started creating wealth for the common man, first in the early 1990s, but more substantially and on a sustained basis since 2003. In November 2005, the Sensex surged to a historic high just above the coveted 9,000-point mark. To think, just a year ago, we balked at the idea of predicting that the BSE index would ever reach 10,000.
- By Sushmita Choudhury |
