Happy Birthday Manmohan Singh: Former Prime Minister and veteran Congress leader Manmohan Singh will turn 89 on Sunday and it is only fitting that we recall his service to the nation as the 13th Prime Minister of Independent India.
He was the first Sikh Prime Minister who served the country for two consecutive terms from 2004 to 2014.
Singh was born to Sardar Gurmukh Singh and Amrit Kaur in 1932 in Gah of Punjab, which is now in Chakwal District of Pakistan. He usually says, “I really don’t know my birthday. This is the date mentioned in my school records.”
Manmohan Singh completed his studies from Hindu College, Amritsar and graduated from Panjab University. After completing his MA he went to Cambridge University, London for higher education. He later taught at the Panjab University as well as Delhi School of Economics, and the University of Delhi. Manmohan Singh worked in the Ministry of Commerce as an Economic Advisor in 1971. In 1972, he worked as the Chief Advisor in the Ministry of Finance.
Manmohan Singh has also held the post of Chairman of University Grants Commission, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, and later Governor of Reserve Bank before serving as the Finance Minister of India from 1991-1996.
Dr. Manmohan Singh served as the 13th Prime Minister of India between 2004 and 2014 after the UPA defeated the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. The economist served as the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha from 1998 to 2004.
Singh has held several key posts including the chief economic advisor between 1972 and 1976 while was the head of the Planning Commission from 1985 to 1987.
Dr. Singh also worked with the United Nations twice, once from 1966 – 1969, as economic affairs officer for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). His second stint in the UN from 1987 to 1990 was as the secretary general of the South Commission, which is an intergovernmental organisation of developing economies.
Upinder Singh is a professor of history at Ashoka University. She has written six books, including Ancient Delhi (1999) and A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2008).
Daman Singh is a graduate of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat, and author of The Last Frontier: People and Forests in Mizoram and a novel Nine by Nine.
Amrit Singh is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Ashok Pattnaik, 1983 batch Indian Police Service officer, son-in-law of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was appointed CEO of National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) in 2016.
Singh has undergone multiple cardiac bypass surgeries, the most recent of which took place in January 2009.