Athira Sethu
Kochi, 27 December 2024
Dr Manmohan Singh is remembered as the man who changed India’s economy while serving as India’s prime minister from 2004 to 2014. He was known as one of the most calm leaders in Indian political scene, who was instrumental in initiating significant economic reforms that revamped the country. Manmohan Singh is widely regarded as one of the greatest economic minds that India has ever produced. He passed away on December 26 at the age of 92.
Manmohan Singh’s most famous moment arrived in 1991, when he became the Finance Minister under the Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. India at this time was facing massive pressures of high inflation and meager growth, in conjunction with a foreign debt in three digits. Manmohan Singh, due to his knowledge of economics at a very deep level, helped lead a series of reforms that shifted India away from a government-controlled economy to a market-driven one. This involved opening up the country to foreign investments, a decrease in import taxes, and promotion of private industry.
Before becoming Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh had a long career in economics with great success. He graduated from Cambridge and Oxford and was even Chief Economic Advisor and Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He was considered to be an important figure during the financial revolution in India, given his deep knowledge of global economics.
Though he played the key role in economic reforms, Manmohan Singh was very personal when it came to money and investment. When he helped transform the economy, Manmohan Singh himself liked to keep things simple and old school with regard to saving and investing. He did not trust his money to stocks; instead, he relied on fixed deposits and post office savings schemes to increase his money. His financial decisions were conservative but steady, like his calm and careful nature.
Manmohan Singh’s assets in his 2019 election affidavit were valued at Rs 15 crore, including two homes, fixed deposits, and gold. His fixed deposit investments were particularly impressive, with several large amounts reinvested over the years.
Manmohan Singh’s success in transforming the economy of India was not just technical reforms but also inspiring hope. He had run away from Pakistan during the 1947 partition as a young boy and grew up in poverty. His own journey through education and hard work inspired many Indians, particularly the youth, to believe that there could be a better future. Singh’s reforms made many people believe that they too could change their lives through education and effort.
India prospered under his leadership, and millions of people moved out of poverty, bringing India to a great extent into the world’s mainstream of global economic development. His second term in office as Prime Minister saw him face several political setbacks, including corruption scandals and economic slowdowns. Nonetheless, Manmohan Singh has always believed in India’s potential, famously saying “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” His vision had helped India become the fifth-largest economy in the world.
