P.

V Narasimha Rao
Pamulaparti Venkata "Narasimha Rao" was the ninth Prime Minister of India (19911996). He led an important administration, overseeing a major economic transformation and several home incidents affecting national security of India. Rao who held the Industries portfolio was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj as this came under the purview of the Industries Ministry. He is often referred to as the "Father of Indian Economic Reforms". Rao accelerated the dismantling of the license raj, reversing the socialist policies under the government of Rajiv Gandhi. He is best remembered for employing Dr. Manmohan Singh as his Finance Minister. Dr. Manmohan Singh launched India's globalization angle of the reforms that implemented the IMF policies to rescue the almost bankrupt nation from economic collapse. Rao was also referred to as Chanakya for his ability to steer tough economic and political legislation through the parliament at a time when he headed a minority government.

Early Life
P.V. Narasimha Rao was born at Laknepally village -Near Narsampet in Warangal District to a Niyogi Telugu Brahmin family. At the age of 3 years he was adopted and brought up to Vangara village in the present-day Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh (then part of Hyderabad, capital city of the state Andhra Pradesh). His father P. Ranga Rao and mother Rukminiamma hailed from agrarian families. Narasimha Rao was popularly known as PV. He studied Bachelor's in the Arts college at the Osmania University and later on went to Fergusson College now under University of Pune where he completed a Master's degree in law[10] His mother tongue was Telugu and had an excellent grasp on Marathi. In addition to eight Indian languages (Telugu, Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil), he spoke English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Greek, Latin and Persian. Along with his distant cousin Pamulaparthi Sadasiva Rao, Ch. Raja Narendra and Devulapalli Damodar Rao, PV edited a Telugu weekly magazine called Kakatiya Patrika in the 1940s. PV and Sadasiva Rao used to contribute articles under the pen-name Jaya-Vijaya. Narasimha Rao has three sons and five daughters. His eldest son P.V. Rangarao was an education minister in Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy cabinet and MLA from HanmaKonda Assembly Constituency for two terms. His second son P.V. Rajeshwar Rao was a Member of Parliament of the 11th Lok Sabha (15 May 1996-4 December 1997) from Secunderabad Constituency.

Political Career
Narasimha Rao was an active freedom fighter during the Indian Independence movement and joined full time politics after independence as a member of the Indian National Congress. Narasimha Rao served brief stints in the Andhra Pradesh cabinet (19621971) and as Chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh (19711973). His tenure as Chief minister of Andhra

Pradesh is well remembered even today for his land reforms and strict implementation of land ceiling acts in Telangana region. President rule had to be imposed to counter the 'Jai Andhra' movement during his tenure. When the Indian National Congress split in 1969 Rao stayed on the side of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and remained loyal to her during the Emergency period (197577). He rose to national prominence in 1972 for handling several diverse portfolios, most significantly Home, Defence and Foreign Affairs (19801984), in the cabinets of both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. In fact it is speculated that he was in the running for the post of India's President along with Zail Singh in 1982. Rao very nearly retired from politics in 1991. It was the assassination of the Congress President Rajiv Gandhi that made him make a comeback. As the Congress had won the largest number of seats in the 1991 elections, he got the opportunity to head the minority government as Prime Minister. He was the first person outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to serve as Prime Minister for five continuous years, the first to hail from southern India and also the first from the state of Andhra Pradesh.[2][19] Since Rao had not contested the general elections, he then participated in a by-election in Nandyal to join the parliament. Rao won from Nandyal with a victory margin of a record 5 lakh (500,000) votes and his win was recorded in the Guinness Book Of World Records.[