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MANMOHAN
SINGH
Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, best known as ' father of Indian
Reforms', has emerged as the
Congress party's frontrunner, the 14th Prime Minister of India and also
the first Sikh to have reached the country's top legislative position.
Hailed to be the cleanest man in Indian politics, he was Former Finance
Minister and author of the post-1991 economic reforms.
He was Born to Mr Gurmukh Singh and Mrs Gursharan Kaur on
September 26, 1932 in a small village Gah (West Punjab), now in Pakistan.
A brilliant student, Manmohan Singh secured top marks in almost all the
major examinations he wrote. After his Masters in Economics from
Amritsar's Hindu College under Punjab University he won scholarships to
Cambridge and Oxford, earning a doctorate with a thesis on the critical
role of exports and free trade in India's economy. Manmohan Singh won the
prestigious Adam Smith prize in 1956 from Cambridge University.
The following year, he returned to India as a university
lecturer and for the next nine years remained at Punjab University before
being posted for international duty with UNCTAD (United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development). He then joined the Delhi School of Economics as
a professor. Two years later, his academic career was cut short and he
joined the government to serve in various capacities.
Singh held several positions throughout the 1980s and early
1990s. He served as Economic advisor to the finance ministry in the late
70s, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission and Chairman of University
Grants Commission in 1980s and early 1990's and as the Governor of the
Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985 etc.
An academician, he was discovered by former prime minister
Shri. P.V Narasimha Rao. Rao offered him the finance ministry in 1991
under the Congress Government, and the chance to rescue a sickly economy
threatened by an acute balance of payments crisis. During his stint as the
finance minister (1991-1996), the suave, soft-spoken Sikh guided India out
of financial trouble and put the country on course to becoming an economic
power by opening up the economy to foreign investment and slashing trade
barriers.
Singh was always an unlikely politician, who was routed in a
parliamentary election in 1999. In fact, he has never won an election and
sits in the upper house. Politically, Manmohan Singh is the classic
example of the stateless politician. The 71 year old prime minister is
married to Gursharan Kaur, they have three daughters.
Address
Manmohan Singh,
7, Racecourse Road
New Delhi |
