Manmohan Singh (Punjabi: [mn

mon s] ( listen); born 26

September 1932) is an Indian
economist and politician who served
as the Prime Minister of India from
2004 to 2014. The first Sikh in office,
Singh was also the first prime minister
sinceJawaharlal Nehru to be reelected after completing a full fiveyear term.
Born in Gah (now in Punjab,
Pakistan), Singh's family migrated to
India during its partition in 1947. After
obtaining his doctorate in economics
from Oxford, Singh worked for the

United Nations during 196669. He

subsequently began his bureaucratic
career whenLalit Narayan
Mishra hired him as an advisor in
the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Over
the 70s and 80s, Singh held several
key posts in the Government of India,
such as Chief Economic Advisor
(197276), Reserve Bank governor
(198285) and Planning
Commissionhead (198587).
In 1991, as India faced a
severe economic crisis, newly elected
Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha
Rao surprisingly inducted the
apolitical Singh into his cabinet

as Finance Minister. Over the next

few years, despite strong opposition,
he as a Finance Minister carried out
several structural reforms
that liberalised India's economy.
Although these measures proved
successful in averting the crisis, and
enhanced Singh's reputation globally
as a leading reform-minded
economist, the incumbent Congress
party fared poorly in the 1996 general
election. Subsequently, Singh served
as Leader of the Opposition in
the Rajya Sabha (the upper house
of India's Parliament) during the Atal

Bihari Vajpayee government of 1998

2004.
In 2004, when the Congressled United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
came to power, its chairperson Sonia
Gandhi unexpectedly relinquished the
premiership to Manmohan Singh.
Singh's first ministry executed several
key legislations and projects, including
theRural Health Mission, Unique
Identification Authority, Rural
Employment Guarantee scheme
and Right to Information Act. In 2008,
opposition to a historic civil nuclear
agreement with the United
States nearly caused Singh's

government to fall after Left

Frontparties withdrew their support.
Although India's economy grew
rapidly under UPA I, its security was
threatened by several terrorist
incidents (including the 2008 Mumbai
attacks) and the continuing Maoist
insurgency.
The 2009 general election saw the
UPA return with an increased
mandate, with Singh retaining the
office of Prime Minister. Over the next
few years, Singh's second
ministry government faced a number
of corruption chargesover the
organisation of the Commonwealth

Games, the 2G-spectrum

allocation and the allocation of coal
blocks. After his term ended in 2014
he opted out from the race to the
office of the Prime Minister of
India during 2014 Indian general
election.[2] Singh was never a member
of the Lok Sabha but continues to
serve as a member of the Indian
Parliament, representing the state
of Assam in the Rajya Sabha for the
fifth consecutive term since 1991