ENTERING THE NEW MILLENNIUM The new millennium has opened new vistas for India vis -a – vis the big powers in the world. The year 2000 saw two big powers extending their hands of friendship anew. In the bipolar world i.e. before the fall of communism in Russia India was closer to the USSR. The country was rather left to the centre. We had copied a number of things from Russian Administration. Five year planning was one of them. Nationalizing a large number of basic industries, banks, Insurance sector and starting financial set ups like Unit Trust of India was all on the Russian pattern. Steel, Heavy Engineering Plants, Coal, Petroleum products all were at the mercy of the Central government. Postal services, telegraph, telephone, railways, nuclear plants and dams were already, managed by the government. Even the declaration of glasnost and perestroika by the USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 and further dissolution of communism in Russia did not bring any changes in India at the time as the government was still run on Nehruvian pattern. India was rather committed to Russia and had alienated itself from the USA. For a number of years Russia had a control over the governance of Afghanistan. The forces against Russia were...
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