2017-09-26 Tue

Manmohan Singh, the brain behind steering the economic liberalization in India, was the thirteenth Prime Minister of this nation. He is also a renowned economist and the only PM since Jawaharlal Nehru to get re-elected after completing a full five-year term. Manmohan Singh was also the first Sikh to hold this office.

Today, 26th September in 1932 he was born in Gah (Punjab, Pakistan). His family migrated to India during the partition in 1947. Manmohan obtained his doctorate in economics from Oxford and worked for United Nations from 1966-69. Lalit Narayan Mishra hired him as an advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry where subsequently begins his bureaucratic career.

The decades of 70’s and 80's saw him on many different designations such as Chief Economic Advisor, Governor of Reserve Bank and Head of the Planning Commission.

In 1991 when Indian faced an economic crisis the newly elected Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao appointed an apolitical Singh into his cabinet as Finance Minister. He carried out several structural reforms as the Finance Minister which liberalised the Indian economy.

Singh is thus far the most influential architects of India’s socialist economy by eliminating the permit raj and reduced state’s control over the economy and import taxes. He opened the Indian economy and changed a socialist economy to a more capitalist one.

In 2004, Singh swore in as the Prime Minister of India. He focused on the Economic Policy, Healthcare and Education, Security and Home Affair, different Legislation and Foreign Policies. He resigned from the Prime Misters office in 2014 and took the position at Punjab University as the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair in 2016.

In 2006, Uzbekistan issued a stamp in the honour of Manmohan Singh with Islam Karimov. Other countries like Bhutan, Gambia, Guniea Republic and Nevis also issued stamps in his honour.

Mr P. Chidambaram has referred to Manmohan Singh as the Deng Xiaoping of India. He is a man of fewer words and uncommon decency and grace!