Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister for 10 years until the Congress was decimated by the BJP in 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Manmohan Singh on his birthday today, wishing him a long and healthy life. "Birthday greetings to Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji. I pray to Almighty that he is blessed with a long and healthy life," PM Modi tweeted.
Dr Singh, who headed the UPA coalition government between 2004 and 2014, turned 88 today. The renowned economist, credited with bringing in sweeping reforms in the 1990s, was Prime Minister for 10 years until the Congress was decimated by the BJP in 2014 and PM Modi took power for the first time.
Dr Singh was born on September 26, 1932, in the village Gah in the Punjab province before Partition.
He studied at the Panjab University and University of Cambridge, UK, where he earned a First Class Honours degree in Economics in 1957. Dr. Singh followed this with a D. Phil in Economics from Oxford University in 1962.
In 1971, Dr. Singh joined the government as Economic Advisor in the Commerce Ministry. He later took role as finance minister in the government of PV Narasimha Rao and carried out various structural reforms to pull the country out of an economic crisis.
In 2004, he became Prime Minister after Sonia Gandhi refused to take the top post following the Congress's election win. Towards the end of his second term, the Congress government battled allegations of corruption and an economic slowdown.
Dr. Singh has been conferred with India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan (1987). The other awards and honours conferred upon the senior Congress leader include the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress (1995); the Asia Money Award for Finance Minister of the Year (1993 and 1994); the Euro Money Award for Finance Minister of the Year (1993), the Adam Smith Prize of the University of Cambridge (1956); and the Wright's Prize for Distinguished Performance at St. John's College in Cambridge (1955).
Dr. Singh has also been honoured by a number of other associations including the Japanese Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Dr. Singh is a recipient of honorary degrees from many universities including the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.