Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh
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
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
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	(1932-09-26) 26 September 1932 (age 91) Gah, Punjab, British India (now Punjab, Pakistan)
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Gursharan Kaur ​ (m. 1958)​
Children	3, including Upinder and Daman
Residence(s)	3 Motilal Nehru Marg, New Delhi, Delhi, India[1]
Alma mater	Panjab University (BA, MA) St John's College, Cambridge (BA) Nuffield College, Oxford (DPhil)
Profession	Economist academician bureaucrat politician
Awards	Padma Vibushan Adam Smith Prize
Signature
Manmohan Singh's voice Singh delivering a joint address to the United States Congress Recorded 19 July 2005

This article is part of a series about Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India (2004–2014) Early life and education Public image Awards and recognition Scholarship Premiership General elections 2004 2009 Union Council of Ministers First Second Lok Sabha Fourteenth Fifteenth International visits Budgets Union budgets 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 (interim) National policy Legislations MGNREGA RTE RTI Land Acquisition Act (2013) Food Security Act (2013) Treaties and accords Indo-US nuclear deal IBSA Dialogue Forum Missions and agencies National Health Mission National Investigation Agency Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline Aadhaar Controversies 2G spectrum case Indian coal allocation scam Gallery: Picture, Sound, Video
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Manmohan Singh (Punjabi: [mənˈmoːɦən ˈsɪ́ŋɡ] ^ⓘ; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian retired 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 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. Singh is also regarded as the most educated prime minister of India.^[2][3][4]

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.^[5] 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.^[6][7]