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India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who liberalised the economy and then led the country through a period of strong economic growth, has died.
Singh, 92, was being treated for age-related medical conditions, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said, as it announced his death on Thursday.
The Oxford university-educated economist set India on a path to becoming a fast-growing economy as finance minister from 1991 to 1996, when he opened up the country to more foreign trade and private investment.
Considered a political lightweight by some in India at that time, Singh was a surprise choice by the Congress party to be prime minister after it won parliamentary elections in 2004.
Alongside a growth rate of almost 7 per cent, Singh’s decade as premier was marred by allegations of widespread corruption 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 Congress’s chief at that time, Sonia Gandhi.
Shortly before Congress lost elections to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party in 2014, Singh said in a speech to parliament that “history would be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter opposition parties”.
Prime Minister Modi on Thursday described Singh as one of India’s most distinguished leaders, saying he left a “strong imprint on our economic policy over the years” and had “made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives” as premier.
Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress party, paid tribute to Singh, saying he had lost a “mentor and guide” whose “humility and deep understanding of economics inspired the nation”.
A member of parliament for more than three decades, Singh retired from active politics earlier this year.
The mild-mannered Singh, who belonged to India’s minority Sikh community, was born to a humble family in 1932 in a village in India’s Punjab prior to the country’s independence, which is now part of Pakistan.
Singh rose to become one of India’s most successful economists, serving the government in various capacities, including as head of the country’s central bank in the 1980s.
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