Manmohan Singh

13th Prime Minister of India - Manmohan Singh

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 was born to Gurmukh Singh and Amrit Kaur. He lost his mother when he was very young and was raised by his paternal grandmother, to whom he was very close.

Born in Gah (now in Punjab, Pakistan), Singh's family migrated to India during its partition in 1947.

He studied at Hindu College. He attended Panjab University, then in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, studying Economics and got his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1952 and 1954, respectively

After obtaining his doctorate in economics from Oxford, Singh worked for the United Nations during 1966–69.

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.

He held several key posts in the Government of India

Chief Economic Advisor (1972–76)

Reserve Bank governor (1982–85)

Planning Commission head (1985–87)

He held the post as the Advisor to Prime Minister of India on Economic Affairs during the tenure of V. P. Singh.

In March 1991, he became Chairman of the University Grants Commission.

In June 1991, India's Prime Minister at the time, P. V. Narasimha Rao, chose Singh to be his Finance Minister.

He was first elected to the upper house of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, in 1991 by the legislature of the state of Assam, and was re-elected in 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2013.

From 1998 to 2004, while the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power, Singh was the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

In 1999, he contested for the Lok Sabha from South Delhi but was unable to win the seat.

After the 2004 general elections, in a surprise move, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi declared Manmohan Singh, a technocrat, as the UPA candidate for the Prime Ministership.

Singh had never won a Lok Sabha seat

He took the oath as the Prime Minister of India on 22 May 2004.

On 22 May 2009, Manmohan Singh was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the second tenure during a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The 2009 Indian general election was the largest democratic election in the world held to date, with an eligible electorate of 714 million.

Singh did not contest the 2014 general election for the 16th Lok Sabha and resigned his post as prime minister at the end of his term on 17 May 2014.

He served as the acting prime minister till 25 May 2014, when Narendra Modi was sworn in as the new prime minister.

Post-premiership, in 2016 it was announced that Singh was to take up a position at Panjab University as the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair. Singh will not be conducting research but instead interacting with students and departments to inspire them.

Manmohan Singh married Gursharan Kaur in 1958. They have three daughters, Upinder Singh, Daman Singh and Amrit Singh.

Stamp launched in Uzbekistan in honor of Manmohan Singh in 2006