M Narasimham: Forgotten contributions

In 1977, the Janata government asked him to leave and made Narasimham governor for five months

Journalists and sports people are often told that they are only as good as their last performance. This would resonate well with M Narasimham, economist, central banker, and economic administrator. He passed away on April 20. He was 94.

Much of what has been written about him since April 21 has been focused on the two reports on banking reform by the committee he chaired. The first was in 1994; the second in 1999.

I doubt he would have regarded his committees’ efforts as successful. Banking reform in the way the two committees wanted never really happened. There was too much political