Introduction
The end of the Cold War with the dissolution of the Soviet Union came with a deep respite for many states, but for India, it came with a profound realisation and steep vulnerability owed to the overdependencies on one state. In the summer of 1991, India’s foreign exchange reserves fell to a level that could cover barely three weeks of imports. The government of P.V. Narasimha Rao, with Manmohan Singh at the finance ministry, dismantled the licence-permit regime that had governed Indian industry since independence. This move made in desperation made the Indian economy open to trade, collaborate, invest, and compete in the global market for the first time. The story of that reform is well told in the context of consumer goods, banking, and information technology. However, what this first wave of liberalization meant for the one sector the state had always treated as untouchable, i.e., the manufacture of weapons, has been scarcely discussed.
