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Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister, India

Dr. Manmohan Singh, much before taking over reins of the country, was the architect of India’s 1991 liberalisation policy. He brought about a revolutionary change in the way the country’s state-directed economy was run.

Hailing from a simple family, he acquired a world-class education and became an economist with this vision to eradicate poverty. He has also been a professor and a civil servant before turning to his high profile roles as RBI Director, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission of India, Finance Minister and now, Prime Minister of India.

In 1991 PV Narasimha Rao invited him to become the Finance Minister at a time when the country had an unsustainable fiscal deficit of close to 8.5 per cent of the gross domestic product -- almost double of what it is presently. The balance of payment deficit was dauntingly large. The foreign exchange stood at just a billion dollars and India was on the brink of defaulting on the repayments of its international loans. The country was on the verge of bankruptcy.

He took the initiative and single-handedly spearheaded change of which there was a crying need. With the Prime Minister’s backing, he brought in reforms that liberalised India’s economy.

He devalued the rupee to stimulate exports, loosened foreign investment rules, opened oil refining, telecommunications and the stock exchanges, slashed taxes and sought to cut through red tape entangling companies. During his tenure, the government signed an agreement, which effectively ended unlimited monetisation of fiscal deficit. These path-breaking reforms brought about crucial growth in productivity in the Indian industry.

Dr. Singh was then nominated for the post of PM by Ms. Sonia Gandhi. He became India’s fourteenth Prime Minister on May 19, 2004 and has had a successful first year run at the forefront of the UPA alliance. He is one of India’s famous intellectuals, a man of rare integrity and honesty and a quiet but courageous demeanour. He has been conferred with 'Honest Man of the Year' award in 1996 for his clean image.

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