Dr. Manmohan Singh |
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India's fourteenth Prime
Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh is rightly acclaimed as a thinker
and a scholar. He is well regarded for his diligence and his
academic approach to work, as well as his accessibility and
his unassuming demeanour.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was born on September 26, 1932,
in a village in the Punjab province
of undivided India. Dr. Singh completed his
Matriculation examinations from the Panjab University in 1948.
His academic career took him from Punjab to the University of
Cambridge, UK, where he earned a First Class Honours degree
in Economics in 1957. Dr. Singh |
followed this with a D.Phil in Economics from Nuffield College
at Oxford University in 1962. His book, "India's Export
Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth"[Clarendon
Press, Oxford, 1964] was an early critique of India's inward-oriented
trade policy. Dr. Singh's academic credentials were burnished
by the years he spent on the faculty of Punjab University
and the prestigious Delhi School of Economics. He had a brief
stint at the UNCTAD Secretariat as well, during these years.
This presaged a subsequent appointment as Secretary General
of the South Commission in Geneva between 1987 and 1990.
In 1971, Dr. Singh joined the Government of India as Economic
Advisor in the Commerce Ministry. This was soon followed by
his appointment as Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry
of Finance in 1972. Among the many Governmental positions
that Dr. Singh has occupied are Secretary in the Ministry
of Finance; Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission; Governor
of the Reserve Bank of India; Advisor of the Prime Minister;
and Chairman of the University Grants Commission.
In what was to become the turning point in the economic history
of independent India, Dr. Singh spent five years between 1991
and 1996 as India's Finance Minister. His role in ushering
in a comprehensive policy of economic reforms is now recognized
worldwide. In the popular view of those years in India, that
period is inextricably associated with the persona of Dr.
Singh.
Among the many awards and honours conferred upon Dr. Singh
in his public career, the most prominent are India's second
highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan (1987); the Jawaharlal
Nehru Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress
(1995); the Asia Money Award for Finance Minister of the Year
(1993 and 1994); the Euro Money Award for Finance Minister
of the Year (1993), the Adam Smith Prize of the University
of Cambridge (1956); and the Wright's Prize for Distinguished
Performance at St. John's College in Cambridge (1955). Dr.
Singh has also been honoured by a number of other associations
including by the Japanese Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
Dr. Singh has represented India at many international conferences
and in several international organizations. He has led Indian
Delegations to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
in Cyprus (1993) and to the World Conference on Human Rights
in Vienna in 1993.
In his political career, Dr. Singh has been a Member of India's
Upper House of Parliament (the Rajya Sabha) since 1991, where
he was Leader of the Opposition between 1998 and 2004.
Dr. Singh and his wife Mrs. Gursharan Kaur have three daughters.
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