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Dr. Manmohan Singh

Personal Profile

Dr. Manmohan Singh
  • Date of Birth:
    September 26, 1932
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Libra
  • Place of Birth:
    Gah, British India
  • Sex:
    Male
  • Hair Color:
    White
  • Eye Color:
    Brown
  • Nationality:
    Indian
  • Religion:
    Sikhism
  • Education:

    Panjab University

    University of Cambridge

    University of Oxford

Family

Dr. Manmohan Singh
  • Spouse:
    Shrimati Gursharan Kaur - Present
  • Daughter:
    Upinder Singh, Daman Singh, Amrit Singh

Career

Dr. Manmohan Singh

Awards

Dr. Manmohan Singh

 

Trivia

Dr. Manmohan Singh
  • Manmohan Singh is the 14th and current Prime Minister of the Republic of India.
  • He is the first person of Sikh faith to hold the office.
  • An economist by profession, Singh was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India from 1985 to 1987 and the Finance Minister of India from 1991 to 1996.
  • After serving as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India, Singh was appointed as the Union Minister of Finance in 1991 by then-Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.
  • During his tenure as the Finance Minister, Singh was widely credited for carrying out economic reforms in India in 1991 which resulted in the end of the infamous Licence Raj system.
  • Following the 2004 general elections, Singh was unexpectedly declared as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance. He was sworn in as the prime minister on May 22, 2004, along with the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet.
  • After the Indian National Congress won the 2009 general elections, Singh was reappointed as the Prime Minister of India on May 22, 2009, making him the first Indian Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term before this over 40 years ago.
  • After completing his D.Phil, Singh worked for UNCTAD (1966–1969).
  • During the 1970s, he taught at the University of Delhi and worked for the Ministry of Foreign Trade with then Cabinet Minister for Foreign Trade Lalit Narayan Mishra and for Finance Ministry of India.
  • In 1982, he was appointed the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and held the post until 1985.

Quotes

Dr. Manmohan Singh
  • “Knowledge and education are key to ensuring that the partnership between the people of our two countries continues to grow. I am sure that you will agree that these new relationships will provide a very real platform to allow that to happen”
  • “on which I expressed appreciation for his Government's clear and long-held position.”
  • “On strategic issues we discussed the vital needs for energy security ... for India's need for atomic energy,”
  • “We have agreed to cooperate in civilian nuclear energy,”
  • “Education, inter-faith dialogue and the culture of tolerance should be promoted,”
  • “Our relationship is very special and one that contains exceptional potential, ... Both governments are determined to realize this potential.”
  • “Together with international unity and resolve we can meet the challenge of this global scourge and work to bring about an international law of zero tolerance for terrorism.”
  • “We agreed that there can be no justification whatsoever for terrorism on any grounds, religious, political, ideological or any other,”
  • “Together, with international unity and resolve, we can meet the challenge of this international scourge,”
  • “We have not given up and we still hope we can sort out this issue,”
View all Quotes: Dr. Manmohan Singh

Biography

Dr. Manmohan Singh
Last Updated: Thursday, September 17, 2009

manmohan singhDr. Singh, an economist by profession, worked for the International Monetary Fund in his younger days. Dr. Singh calls himself, a "politician by accident". Dr. Singh is known to be an unassuming politician, enjoying a formidable, highly respected and admired image. Due to his work at the UN, International Monetary Fund and other international bodies, he is highly respected around the world. He was the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, from 1982 to 1985. He served as the Finance Minister under Narasimha Rao from 1991 to 1996, before becoming Prime Minister. He is credited with transforming the economy in the early 1990s during the financial crisis, dismantling License Raj, and allowing easier and more Foreign Direct Investment and beginning the process of the privatization of public sector companies.

He served as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) from March 1998 to May 2004, when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government was in office. His economic policies - which included getting rid of several socialist policies, especially the License Raj - were popular. He enjoys strong support among the middle classes of India due to his education. Singh lost the election in the Lok Sabha from South Delhi constituency in the 1999 general elections. He is thus the only Indian Prime Minister never to have been an elected member of the Lower House of Parliament. In fact he has not won a direct election. He has been a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam since 1995. He was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2001 and 2007.

Singh is widely regarded as the architect of India's original economic reform programme, which was enacted in 1991 under Rao's administration. The economic liberalization package pushed by Singh and Rao opened the nation to foreign direct investment. The liberalization was prompted by an acute balance-of-payments crisis whereby the Indian government, left without sufficient reserves to meet its obligations, had begun preparations to mortgage its gold reserves to the Bank of England in order to obtain the cash reserves needed to run the country.

 

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