Former Indian Prime Minister (PM) and renowned economist Dr Manmohan Singh breathed his last at AIIMS late Thursday in New Delhi at the age of 92, reported Reuters and foreign media on Dec 26.
Singh was admitted to AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) late Thursday evening after his health deteriorated.
AIIMS said he was brought to the emergency at 8:06 pm, adding that despite all efforts, he could not be revived and passed away at 9:51pm.
Singh is survived by his wife Gursharan Kaur, and their three daughters.
Born on September 26, 1932, in Gah village in the Punjab province of what is now Pakistan, Singh migrated to India after Partition and completed his Matriculation in 1948.
Celebrated as a scholar, he was admired for his humble demeanor, and known for his academic and methodical approach to work.
He was the third longest serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, until Narendra Modi broke his record earlier this year. He was the first Sikh to lead his nation as prime minister from 2004 to 2014, serving two terms and credited with steering India to unprecedented economic growth.
With no apparent plans for a political career, he was appointed to become India’s finance minister in 1991. During that tenure to 1996, Singh was the architect of reforms that saved India’s economy from a severe balance of payments crisis and promoted deregulation, as well as other measures that opened an insular country to the world.
In 2008, his government also clinched a landmark deal that permitted peaceful trade in nuclear energy with the United States for the first time in three decades, paving the way for strong relations between New Delhi and Washington.
