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India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who liberalized the economy and then led the country through a period of strong economic growth, has died.
Singh, 92, was being treated for age-related illnesses, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said as it announced his death on Thursday.
The set for economists with a university degree from Oxford India As finance minister from 1991 to 1996, he led the way to a fast-growing economy as he opened the country to more foreign trade and private investment.
Singh was seen by some in India at the time as a political lightweight and was unexpectedly appointed prime minister by the Congress party after winning the 2004 general election.
In addition to a Growth rate Singh’s tenure as prime minister was marked by nearly 7 percent corruption allegations against his party’s leaders, although his personal integrity was rarely questioned.
Singh was accused of inaction and opposition parties claimed he was subservient to then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Shortly before the Congress lost the 2014 elections to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, Singh said in a speech in Parliament that “history would be kinder to me than the contemporary media or even the opposition parties.”
Prime Minister Modi on Thursday described Singh as one of India’s most outstanding leaders, saying he had “left a strong mark on our economic policies over the years” and had made “extensive efforts to improve people’s lives” as prime minister.
Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress party, paid tribute to Singh, saying he had lost a “mentor and leader” whose “humility and deep understanding of economics inspired the nation”.
Singh was a member of Parliament for more than three decades and retired from active politics earlier this year.
The mild-mannered Singh, who belonged to India’s Sikh minority, was born in 1932 to a humble family in a village in India’s Punjab, before the country gained independence and is now part of Pakistan.
Singh rose to become one of India’s most successful economists and served the government in various roles, including as head of the country’s central bank in the 1980s.
