Prime Minister: Manmohan Singh

The Age Of Stars

The gold airlift, liberalisation, and a floating rupee.

Vol. CXXXVIThe edition of 2010 · The Open Economy7 records
Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh
President
Pratibha Patil
Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee
RBI Governor
Duvvuri Subbarao

Rupee per dollar

₹45.65

−5.5% on 2009

Inflation

11.99%

+1.11 pts on 2009

GDP growth

8.5%

+0.64 pts on 2009

Reserves

$300,480m

+5.5% on 2009

External debt

$290,428m

+13.3% on 2009

Brent crude

$79.61

+28.9% on 2009

sports infrastructure / procurement

Commonwealth Games, Delhi (Games held 2010-10-03 to 14)

OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi (INC) was arrested by the CBI on 2011-04-25. 19 FIRs were filed. Delhi courts later accepted CBI and ED closure reports in several cases (ThePrint, 2025), so most money cases did not end in conviction.

ReportedPress. Source: iPleaders legal timeline; ThePrint 2025 (closure reports); TheBridge

Trade & Tariffs

2 items

ASEAN–India Trade in Goods Agreement

Signed 2009-08-13, in force 2010-01-01

Goods only; services and investment followed later.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: Wikipedia "Free trade agreements of India"; DGFT Appendix 2A

India–Korea CEPA

Signed 2009-08-07, in force 2010-01-01.

ReportedOfficial record. Source: Embassy of India Seoul; DGFT Appendix 2A

Courts & Scandal

2 items

land / housing (defence land, CRZ)

Adarsh Housing Society, Colaba, Mumbai

Flats meant for Kargil war widows and veterans went to politicians, bureaucrats and officers. CM Ashok Chavan (INC) resigned in 2010-11. The Patil Commission (2013) found 25 illegal allotments, 22 of them by proxy. The Bombay HC ordered demolition on 2016-04-29 (stayed on appeal). The Governor later refused sanction to prosecute Chavan.

ReportedPress. Source: Wikipedia "Adarsh Housing Society scandal"; LiveLaw / SCC Online 2016-05

defence procurement

AgustaWestland VVIP helicopters (contract 2010-02-08)

12 AW101 helicopters. The service ceiling in the specification was cut from 6,000 m to 4,500 m, allegedly to favour the bid. India cancelled the contract on 2014-01-01. Named middlemen: Christian Michel, Guido Haschke, Carlo Gerosa. In Italy, Finmeccanica CEO Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Spagnolini were convicted on appeal, the conviction was set aside by the Cassation court (2016-12), and they were acquitted in the 2018-01 retrial ("insufficient proof"). The Indian cases continued.

ReportedPress. Source: ThePrint (Italian acquittal); FlightGlobal; The Quint explainer; The Wire

The Ledger: what was borrowed in 2010

Full ledger →
CreditorInstrumentAmountUS$ mStatusGrade
World Bank, IBRDLending commitments, FY ended 2010-066.7 USD bn6,700Committed. Loan-level terms not extracted.reported
World Bank, IDACredit commitments, FY ended 2010-062.6 USD bn2,600Committed. India's IDA eligibility ended around FY2014 (not re-verified).reported

Rows are listed as recorded. Some describe the same loan from different sources and must not be added together.

Turn to another year

1875 to 2017