Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh
Official portrait, 2009
Prime Minister of India
In office 22 May 2004 – 26 May 2014
President	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Pratibha Patil Pranab Mukherjee
Vice President	Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Mohammad Hamid Ansari
Preceded by	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Succeeded by	Narendra Modi
Additional ministries In office 22 May 2004 – 26 May 2014 Ministry and Departments Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space Planning Commission Preceded by L. K. Advani Atal Bihari Vajpayee Succeeded by Narendra Modi
Union Minister of Finance
In office 21 June 1991 – 16 May 1996
Prime Minister	P. V. Narasimha Rao
Preceded by	Yashwant Sinha
Succeeded by	Jaswant Singh
Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha
In office 21 March 1998 – 21 May 2004
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Chairman	Krishan Kant Bhairon Singh Shekhawat
Preceded by	Sikander Bakht
Succeeded by	Jaswant Singh
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office 19 August 2019 – 3 April 2024
Preceded by	Madan Lal Saini
Succeeded by	Sonia Gandhi
Constituency	Rajasthan
In office 1 October 1991 – 14 June 2019
Preceded by	Amritlal Basumatary
Succeeded by	Kamakhya Prasad Tasa
Constituency	Assam
Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
In office 16 September 1982 – 14 January 1985
Preceded by	I. G. Patel
Succeeded by	Amitav Ghosh
Personal details
Born	(1932-09-26)26 September 1932 Gah, Punjab Province, British India (present-day Punjab, Pakistan)
Died	26 December 2024(2024-12-26) (aged 92) New Delhi, Delhi, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Gursharan Kaur ​ (m. 1958)​
Children	3, including Upinder and Daman
Alma mater	Panjab University (BA, MA) St John's College, Cambridge (BA) Nuffield College, Oxford (DPhil)
Profession	Economist academician bureaucrat politician
Awards	Full list
Signature
Manmohan Singh's voice Singh delivering a joint address to the United States Congress Recorded 19 July 2005

Manmohan Singh^[a] (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian politician, economist, academic, and bureaucrat, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi.^[1] A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first Sikh prime minister of India.^[2] He was also the first prime minister since Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.^[3][4]

Born in Gah in what is today Pakistan, Singh's family migrated to India during its partition in 1947. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford, Singh worked for the United Nations during 1966–1969. He subsequently began his bureaucratic career when Lalit Narayan Mishra hired him as an advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. During the 1970s and 1980s, Singh held several key posts in the Government of India, such as Chief Economic Advisor (1972–1976), governor of the Reserve Bank (1982–1985) and head of the Planning Commission (1985–1987).

In 1991, as India faced a severe economic crisis, the newly elected prime minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao, inducted the apolitical Singh into his cabinet as finance minister. Over the next few years, despite strong opposition, he carried out several structural reforms that liberalised India's economy. Although these measures proved successful in averting the crisis, and enhanced Singh's reputation globally as a leading reform-minded economist, the incumbent Congress Party fared poorly in the 1996 general election. Subsequently, Singh was leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Parliament of India) during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government of 1998–2004.

In 2004, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance came to power, its chairperson Sonia Gandhi unexpectedly relinquished the prime ministership to Singh. His first ministry executed several key legislations and projects, including the National Rural Health Mission, Unique Identification Authority, Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and Right to Information Act. In 2008, opposition to a historic civil nuclear agreement with the United States nearly caused Singh's government to fall after Left Front parties withdrew their support.^[5] In 2009, BRICS was established with India as one of the founding members.^[6] India's economy grew rapidly during his term.^[7][8] In his term the Public Sector expansion was very rapid compared to Vajpayee's era.^[9]

The 2009 general election saw the UPA return with an increased mandate, with Singh retaining the office of prime minister. After his term ended, he opted out from the race for the office of prime minister during the 2014 Indian general election.^[10] Singh was never a member of the Lok Sabha but served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, representing the state of Assam from 1991 to 2019 and Rajasthan from 2019 to 2024.^[11][12]

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