Was the liberalisation of the economy in 1991 an inflection point for Bharat Petroleum?
AS: It was. In 1991,1 was General Manager, Finance, and we really took Manmohan Singh’s economic policy seriously. This had been debated since 1986-87, at every level, and we ourselves would say ‘Aviation? How can you open aviation? How can anybody fuel planes, other than us?’ But we did see liberalisation coming. In 1991 the public market for kerosene and LPG opened up, though they remained the biggest sources of subsidy. We realised that this controlled mathematical world wasn’t going to last – sooner or later the competition would come. It actually came much later, but we took it that competition would be there. One of the first moves we made was to approach Shell for a joint venture. JR/VV: Joint venture into what? AS: Lubricants. We entered into a joint venture in 1993. As it was more for learning than anything else, we gave Shell a liberal package (including a 51% majority stake in the venture) instead of quibbling about the ratio and who would be Chairman and Managing Director.
