Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh Biography

Manmohan Singh (born 26 September 1932) is an Indian economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014. The first Sikh in office, Singh was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. He belongs to Sikh community and he is the first non-Hindu to come to this position. He is the 7^th Prime Minister that belongs to the Congress party.

He was born on 26^th September 1932 in Gah, Punjab. His mother died when he was very young and was brought up by his paternal grandmother. After the partition of India, his family migrated to Amritsar. He studied at Hindu College there. Then he attended Punjab University, Chandigarh to study Economics. He got his bachelor’s degree in 1952 and masters’ degree in 1954. He received the Wright’s Prize for his distinguished performance in the year 1955 and 1957. He also received Wrenbury Scholarship. In 1962 he completed his studies at University of Oxford.

He got Honorary Doctorate Law degree from University of Alberta in 1997. He received this degree from many universities like University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Hindu Benaras University, University of Madras, King Saud University, etc. He worked in University of Delhi in 1970s. Lalit Narayan Mishra recognized his talent as an economist and appointed him as his advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Trade. He married Gursharan Kaur in 1958 and has three daughters Upinder Singh, Daman Singh and Amrit Singh.

He was appointed as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and was in this position until 1985. He served as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of India from 1985 to 1987. He was the Secretary General of the South Commission headquartered at Geneva in Switzerland from 1987 to 1990. He was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 1991 and again in 2001 and 2007. He served as the Leader of Opposition from 1998 to 2004 when Bharatiya Janata Party was in power. He contested for the Lok Sabha from South Delhi in 1999 and lost.

He became the Prime Minister of India for the first time on 22^nd May 2004. Again on 22^nd May 2009, he was sworn in as the Prime Minister of India for the second time. He is a man of clean background. He brought many reforms in the Indian economic climate. He has received a number of awards including Padma Vibhushan award.

Published: N/A

Updated: September 25, 2017