Manmohan Singh

From ePedia, the electronic encyclopedia
Dr. Manmohan Singh (Punjabi: ਮਨਮੋਹਨ ਸਿੰਘ, Hindi: मनमोहन सिंह) is the 14th, and current Prime Minister of India. He was born on 26 September 1932, Gah, West Punjab (now in Pakistan) and is member of the left-of-centre Indian National Congress party. The first Sikh Indian prime minister, Singh was sworn in on May 22, 2004.

Dr. Singh is an economist by training, and has formerly served in the International Monetary Fund. His economics education included an undergraduate (1952) and a master's degree (1954) from Punjab University; an undergraduate degree (1957) from Cambridge University (St. John's College); and a doctorate (1962) from Oxford University (Nuffield College). Singh is also known as a low-key politician, enjoying an image as "squeaky clean." He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2002. Singh is held in high esteem, and regard, all over the country and the world. Before becoming prime minister, he served as an advisor to party president Sonia Gandhi and as the finance minister under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. [1] Singh has been married since 1958; he and his wife, Mrs. Gursharan Kaur have three daughters. Their youngest daughter, Amrit Singh, is a Yale Law School-educated attorney in the New York City ACLU.

Although his economic policies - which included the reduction of several redundant socialist policies - were widely popular, especially among the middle class, Singh lost his seat in the Lok Sabha from South Delhi in 1999. He is thus the only Indian Prime Minister never to have been an elected member of the Lower House of Parliament. He was also a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam since 1991 and the upper house leader of the opposition from 1998 - 2004 when India was governed by a coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.

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