New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Dr. Manmohan Singh on his birthday on Saturday, wishing him a long and healthy life.
“Birthday greetings to Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji. I pray to Almighty that he is blessed with a long and healthy life,” PM Modi wrote on Twitter.
Birthday greetings to Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji. I pray to Almighty that he is blessed with a long and healthy life.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 26, 2020
Dr. Singh, who was the Prime Minister for the two consecutive terms (from 2004-2014) has turned 88 today. He is a renowned economist, credited for introducing sweeping reforms in the 1990s.
He was born on September 26, 1932, in Punjab’s village of Gah before partition. He studied at the Panjab University, Cambridge, and Oxford.
In 1971, Dr. Singh joined the government as Economic Advisor in the Commerce Ministry. He later took role as finance minister in the government of PV Narasimha Rao and carried out various structural reforms to pull the country out of an economic crisis.
In 2004, he became Prime Minister after Sonia Gandhi refused to take the top post following the Congress’s election win. Towards the end of his second term, the Congress government battled allegations of corruption and an economic slowdown.
Dr. Singh has been conferred with India’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan (1987). The other awards and honours conferred upon the senior Congress leader include the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress (1995); the Asia Money Award for Finance Minister of the Year (1993 and 1994); the Euro Money Award for Finance Minister of the Year (1993), the Adam Smith Prize of the University of Cambridge (1956); and the Wright’s Prize for Distinguished Performance at St. John’s College in Cambridge (1955).
Dr. Singh has also been honoured by a number of other associations including the Japanese Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Dr. Singh is a recipient of honorary degrees from many universities including the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
