Over To Manmohan’s Second Innings In Government

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: Soft-spoken and mild-mannered economist-turned-politician Manmohan Singh shot into prominence after he steered the economy from the pits of a severe balance of payments crisis and saved the country from the verge of defaulting its external payments in 1991.

Known as “Mr Clean” and a gentleman politician, the Oxford-Cambridge educated architect of the country’s economic reforms changed the face of India in the global comity of nations during the five years when he held the post of the finance minister from 1991-96.

Born in Gah (West Punjab), now in Pakistan, on September 26, 1932, Mr Singh, as the finance minister in the Narasimha Rao’s Congress government had changed the fundamental way the corporate India thinks and with it the life of millions of middle-class Indians by liberalising the economy.

The economic czar changed the outlook of foreigners towards India, whose economy was in shambles in the early 1990s, with an unsustainable fiscal deficit of close to 8.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP)and the economy stagnating at a Hindu rate of growth of 4 per cent.

An unassuming personality, Mr Singh has held several positions including the chief economic advisor and the finance secretary before becoming the governor of Reserve Bank and then deputy chairman of Planning Commission and University Grants Commission chairman in 1980s and early nineties.

Mr Singh, who unshackled the country from the bureaucratic controls and licence-permit raj, had taken the economy from the brink of bankruptcy to a high growth path of 6-7 per cent during his five years stint at North block.

The 72-year-old Rajya Sabha member from Assam has been welcomed by trade and industry as an instant choice for the coveted post because of his impeccable credentials, bureaucratic experience and intimate knowledge of international economics.

Mr Singh, who is universally well regarded, was educated at Panjab University first and then in Oxford and Cambridge. His potential was evident when he won Cambridge’s prestigious Adam Smith prize in 1956.