As India remembered Indira Gandhi, an astute commentator pointed out that half of India's current population was not there in her time. That may well be the reason for her handling of India's first major global economic crisis, the impact of the First Energy Crisis, being ignored. Since I joined the Planning Commission as the adviser head of its powerful Perspective Planning Division in my first stint with the government then, one was in the ringside. The OPEC raised oil prices and from 1972 onwards the global economy went into a tailspin. Prices rose - by double digits in 1972 and 1973 - and output and employment fell. India was no exception. But as a wag put it, in the energy crisis England discovered North Sea gas and India had an energy policy report.

Indira Gandhi took the energy policy needs head on. India's oil imports were rising rapidly on account of low prices and stagnation for over a decade in coal production Petroleum prices were raised savagely.

India had the highest price of petrol in the world then. Diesel and kerosene were spared. Indira Gandhi did not believe in half measures. I have always believed that if it is needed to raise prices it should be done in one stroke rather than bleeding in small doses, and did so when I was Minister. Car pools shifted to contract buses.

In Gujarat, scooters had side cars attached to them. Demand growth for petroleum went down from 7 per cent to zero and imports actually fell. The younger generation simply has no idea of what frugality meant in those days.

... contd.