This is beautifully written. About the reform being incomplete, I want to quote his interaction with Martin Wolf of FT

As India’s finance minister, Manmohan Singh visited the FT’s London offices in the early 1990s to discuss his reform programme with Martin Wolf and me. Martin asked why he hadn’t made what seemed like a perfectly obvious policy change — something to do with capital flows, I think. “Yes, Martin,” replied Singh quietly. “I understand the economics. But the difference between you and me is that if you make a mistake you can correct it in your next column. If I make a mistake, 20 million people die.”

Source: ft.com/content/837d8ddc…