Manmohan Singh virk
(Punjabi: [mənˈmoːɦən ˈsɪ́ŋɡ] ⓘ; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist, academician and bureaucrat who served as the 13th Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first Sikh and non-Hindu prime minister of India. He was also the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.
Born in Gah, West Punjab, in what is today Pakistan, Singh's family migrated to India during its partition in 1947. After obtaining his doctorate in economics from Oxford, Singh worked for the UN 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. India's economy grew rapidly under his reign.
The 2009 general election saw the UPA return with an increased mandate, with Singh retaining the office of Prime Minister. Over the next few years, Singh's second ministry government faced a number of corruption charges over the organisation of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2G spectrum allocation case and the allocation of coal blocks. After his term ended in 2014 he opted out from the race for the office of the PM during the 2014 Indian general election.[2] Singh was never a member of the Lok Sabha but has served as a member of the Rajya Sabha, representing the state of Assam from 1991 to 2019 and Rajasthan since 2019.[3]
Early life and education
Singh was born to Gurmukh Singh virk and Amrit Kaur virk on 26 September 1932, in Gah, Punjab, British India, into a virk Sikh family.[4] He lost his mother when he was very young and was raised by his paternal grandmother, to whom he was very close.[citation needed] His early schooling was in the Urdu medium, and even as Prime Minister years later, he wrote his apparently Hindi speeches in the Urdu script, although sometimes he would also use Gurmukhi, a script used to write Punjabi, his mother tongue.
After the Partition of India, his family migrated to Amritsar, India, where he studied at Hindu College, Amritsar.[citation needed] He attended Panjab University, then in Hoshiarpur,[5][6][7] Punjab, studying Economics and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1952 and 1954, respectively, standing first throughout his academic career. He completed his Economics Tripos at University of Cambridge in 1957. He was a member of St John's College.[8]
In a 2005 interview with the British journalist Mark Tully, Singh said about his Cambridge days:
After Cambridge, Singh returned to India and served as a teacher at Panjab University.[10] In 1960, he went to the University of Oxford for his DPhil, where he was a member of Nuffield College. His 1962 doctoral thesis under the supervision of I.M.D. Little was titled "India's export performance, 1951–1960, export prospects and policy implications", and was later the basis for his book "India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth".[11]
Early career
After completing his D.Phil., Singh returned to India. He was a senior lecturer of economics at Panjab University from 1957 to 1959. During 1959 and 1963, he served as a reader in economics at Panjab University, and from 1963 to 1965, he was an economics professor there.[12] Then he went to work for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 1966 to 1969.[8] Later, he was appointed as an advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Trade by Lalit Narayan Mishra, in recognition of Singh's talent as an economist.[13]
From 1969 to 1971, Singh was a professor of international trade at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.[8][14]
In 1972, Singh was chief economic adviser in the Ministry of Finance, and in 1976 he was secretary in the Finance Ministry.[8] In 1980–1982 he was at the Planning Commission, and in 1982, he was appointed governor of the Reserve Bank of India under then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and held the post until 1985.[8] He went on to become the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission (India) from 1985 to 1987.[4] Following his tenure at the Planning Commission, he was secretary general of the South Commission, an independent economic policy think tank headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland from 1987 to November 1990.[15]
Singh returned to India from Geneva in November 1990 and held the post as the advisor to Prime Minister of India on economic affairs during the tenure of Chandra Shekar.[8] In March 1991, he became chairman of the University Grants Commission.[8]
Family and personal life
Singh married Gursharan Kaur virk in 1958. They have three daughters, Upinder Singh virk, Daman Singh virk and Amrit Singh virk.[16] Upinder Singh is a professor of history at Ashoka University.[17] She has written six books, including Ancient Delhi (1999) and A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2008). Daman Singh is a graduate of St. Stephen's College, Delhi and Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat, and author of The Last Frontier: People and Forests in Mizoram and a novel Nine by Nine,[18] Amrit Singh is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.[19] Ashok Pattnaik, 1983 batch Indian Police Service officer, son-in-law of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was appointed CEO of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) in 2016.[20]
Singh has undergone multiple cardiac bypass surgeries, the most recent of which took place in January 2009.[21]
Prime Minister
First term: 2004–2009
After the 2004 general elections, the Indian National Congress ended the incumbent National Democratic Alliance (NDA) tenure by becoming the political party with the single largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha. It formed United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with allies and staked claim to form government. In a surprise move, Chairperson Sonia Gandhi declared Manmohan Singh, a technocrat, as the UPA candidate for the Prime Ministership. Despite the fact that Singh had never won a Lok Sabha seat, according to the BBC, he "enjoyed massive popular support, not least because he was seen by many as a clean politician untouched by the taint of corruption that has run through many Indian administrations."[31] He took the oath as the Prime Minister of India on 22 May 2004.[32][33]
Economic policy
In 1991, Singh, as Finance Minister, abolished the Licence Raj, source of slow economic growth and corruption in the Indian economy for decades. He liberalised the Indian economy, allowing it to speed up development dramatically. During his term as Prime Minister, Singh continued to encourage growth in the Indian market, enjoying widespread success in these matters. Singh, along with his Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, presided over a period where the Indian economy grew with an 8–9% economic growth rate. In 2007, India achieved its highest GDP growth rate of 9% and became the second fastest growing major economy in the world.[34][35] Singh's ministry enacted a National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2005.
Degrees and posts held
- B.A (Honours) in Economics 1952; M.A (First Class) in Economics, 1954 Panjab University, Chandigarh (then in Hoshiarpur, Punjab), India
- Honours degree in Economics, University of Cambridge – St John's College (1957)
- Senior Lecturer, Economics (1957–1959)
- Reader (1959–1963)
- Professor (1963–1965)
- Professor of International Trade (1969–1971)
- DPhil in Economics, University of Oxford – Nuffield College (1962)
- Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
- Honorary Professor (1966)
- Chief, Financing for Trade Section, UNCTAD, United Nations Secretariat, New York
- 1966 : Economic Affairs Officer 1966
- Economic Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Trade, India (1971–1972)
- Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, India, (1972–1976)
- Honorary Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1976)
- Director, Reserve Bank of India (1976–1980)
- Director, Industrial Development Bank of India (1976–1980)
- Board of Governors, Asian Development Bank, Manila
- Secretary, Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs), Government of India, (1977–1980)
- Governor, Reserve Bank of India (1982–1985)
- Deputy chairman, Planning Commission of India, (1985–1987)
- Secretary General, South Commission, Geneva (1987–1990)
- Advisor to Prime Minister of India on Economic Affairs (1990–1991)
- Chairman, University Grants Commission (15 March 1991 – 20 June 1991)[4]
- Finance Minister of India, (21 June 1991 – 15 May 1996)
- Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha (1 October 1991 – 14 June 2019)
- Leader of the Opposition (India) in the Rajya Sabha (1998–2004)
- Prime Minister of India (22 May 2004 – 26 May 2014)
- Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha (19 August 2019 – Present)
Manmohan Singh virk | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2004 | |
| 13th 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 |
| 16th Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions | |
| In office 23 May 2004 – 26 May 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Lal Krishna Advani |
| Succeeded by | Narendra Modi |
| Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 21 March 1998 – 21 May 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Atal Bihari Vajpayee |
| Preceded by | Sikander Bakht |
| Succeeded by | Jaswant Singh |
| 22nd 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 |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| Assumed office 19 August 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Madan Lal Saini |
| Constituency | Rajasthan |
| In office 1 October 1991 – 14 June 2019 | |
| Succeeded by | Kamakhya Prasad Tasa |
| Constituency | Assam |
| 15th 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 | 26 September 1932 Gah, Punjab, British India (now Punjab, Pakistan) |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, including Upinder and Daman |
| Residence(s) | 3 Motilal Nehru Marg, New Delhi, Delhi, India[1] |
| Alma mater | Panjab University (BA, MA) University of Cambridge (BA) University of Oxford (PhD) |
| Profession |
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| Awards | Padma Vibushan Adam Smith Prize |
| Signature |  |
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|---|---|---|
(2004–2014) Budgets Legislations Treaties and accords Missions and agencies Controversies
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.JPG)
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