Exciting times demand exciting business reporting. Business Today is our response to that need.'' I wrote this in the inaugural issue of Business Today in January 1992. And what an exciting decade it has been. With the notable exception of a few, the entire matrix of top businesses in the country has changed. Entrepreneurs no longer speak of manipulating government machinery but of satisfying consumer needs. Professionalism is the order of the day and management is the hottest subject of study in the country. The draconian FERA has gone and we live in a more liberal foreign exchange regime. Investment in shares has become commonplace amongst vast sections of society.

The first decade of reforms (1991-2001) in India can be loosely divided into two main phases. The first phase-that of radical reforms-began in 1991-92 and continued till 1995-96. It saw a flurry of activity from the government, in terms of putting an end to the licence-permit raj, automatic approval of foreign investment up to 51 per cent in most industries, making the rupee convertible on the current account, and opening up the insurance sector.

However, the second phase-beginning in 1997-98-saw the fizz dying. Despite innumerable promises, there were no major reforms in agriculture and labour laws. The Indian financial sector, reeling under a staggering Rs 75,000 crore of bad debt, is a bomb waiting to go off. One stockmarket scam has followed another in the past 10 years, raising questions over the administration of the Indian capital market.

The decline in reform activity after 1995-96 also coincided with a decline in the fortunes of the manufacturing sector. Demand failed to match the capacity that was created in the exuberant early years of the reforms. In 1997-98, industrial production registered a growth of 4.7 per cent, followed by 2.3 per cent in 1998-99. After that, it has steadily declined. GDP growth, which was around 6.8 per cent in 1998-99, slipped to 6.0 per cent in 2000-01 and is likely to be only around 5 per cent in 2001-02.

What worries me more, though, is the dead-end the reform process seems to have reached. The politics of coalition and the calculus of populism are blocking critical economic initiatives. Subsidies continue to wreak havoc with government finances. The power sector remains a mess. And bureaucratic processes still take a heavy toll of potential investors who would rather exit the country than wait.

This issue of Business Today is like a time capsule, one where our team of journalists, aided by columnists and business historians, has tried to encapsulate the past 50 or more years of Indian business in general, and the last 10 years in particular. From the origins of stockmarkets to the history of enterprise, from the evolution of the consumer, to that of society, and from economic revolutions to the growth of our cities, the 12 sections that make up this issue offer a comprehensive perspective of everything to do with business in India.

The line separating historians and futurists is thin. Even as they pored through reams of material, and met scores of economists, businessmen, business historians, consultants, and sociologists, our team realised that there was enough research being done into the future. The concluding pages of each of our sections are devoted to the numbers they unearthed, and the insights they gained on the future. Together, these make for greater understanding of where we've been, and what lies ahead. What better way to celebrate the magazine's tenth anniversary. Here's wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year.

(Aroon Purie)