And the FM’s experience
++ When I applied for foreign exchange to join Harvard, everyone denied me a few hundred dollars although the Business School had granted me admission. Those were the days when the chief controller of foreign exchange had to clear even personal expenses of students.
++ To my luck, a kind gentleman who was then chief controller of forex gave me a grand allowance of $7 a day for my board, food and personal expenses 10 months a year during my two-year stint at Harvard, unmindful of how I would live for the remaining two months of the year without such a facility.
++ That opened my eyes to how there was something fundamentally wrong about the way the affairs of the country were run,
++ Travelling with this official then, I asked him while I understand the need for a chief controller of imports, why he was also the chief controller of exports. He had no answer. Within a month I became his minister, I told him I was abolishing his post as he had no business to be either the chief controller of exports or imports.
++ we had gone through such torrid times, we had put an end to such a stifling system to ensure the present generation joined us in the dream of building a new India, a strongIndia, a prosperous India that will be free of poverty and disease
Mr. Chidambaram at the Infosys meet.