Dr. Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh was born on 26 September 1932 in Gah, Punjab (in Chakwal District of present-day Pakistan). After the partition of India in 1947, his family relocated to Amritsar. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate education in Economics at Panjab University, Chandigarh, before reading Economics at St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a First Class Honours degree. In 1962, he completed his D.Phil in Economics from Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Prior to entering parliamentary politics, Dr. Singh built an exceptional career as an academic and economic administrator. He served as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (1972–1976), Secretary in the Ministry of Finance (1976–1980), Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (1982–1985), and Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (1985–1987).

In June 1991, during an acute economic and foreign-exchange crisis, Dr. Singh was appointed Union Minister of Finance. He formulated and presented the historic 1991 Union Budget, initiating comprehensive economic reforms that dismantled industrial licensing (License Raj), reformed tariff structures, stabilized foreign exchange reserves, and expanded private and public sector investment in national infrastructure.

From May 2004 to May 2014, Dr. Singh served as the 13th Prime Minister of India across two consecutive terms. His administration oversaw sustained macroeconomic growth alongside transformative rights-based social legislation, notably the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE, 2009) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA, 2005). He passed away on 26 December 2024.