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Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who liberalized the economy and subsequently led the country through a period of strong economic growth, has died.
Announcing the news of Singh’s death on Thursday, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said the 92-year-old was undergoing treatment for age-related illnesses.
As finance minister from 1991 to 1996, the Oxford-educated economist led India’s opening to greater foreign trade and private investment, putting it on the path to becoming a fast-growing economy.
Considered a political heavyweight by some in India at the time, Singh was surprisingly chosen as prime minister by the Congress party after winning the 2004 parliamentary election.
In addition to nearly 7% growth, Singh’s decade as prime minister was marred by accusations of widespread corruption among party leaders, although his personal integrity was rarely questioned.
Singh was accused of inaction, with opposition parties claiming he caved in to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
“History will be kinder to me than the contemporary media or the opposition,” Singh said in a speech in Parliament in 2014, shortly before Congress lost to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday described Manmohan Singh as one of India’s most distinguished leaders, saying he had “left a profound imprint on our economic policies over the years” and had made “widespread efforts to improve the lives of people” as prime minister. effort”.
Senior Congress member Rahul Gandhi paid tribute to Singh, saying he had lost a “mentor and guide” whose “humility and deep understanding of economics inspired the entire country”.
Singh retired from active politics earlier this year after serving as a member of Parliament for more than three decades.
The mild-mannered Singh, who belongs to India’s minority Sikh community, was born in 1932 to a humble family in a village in India’s pre-independence state of Punjab, now part of Pakistan.
Singh became one of India’s most successful economists and served the government in various capacities, including as governor of the Reserve Bank of India in the 1980s.
