Open Editor's Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories for this weekly newsletter.
Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, who liberalized the economy and then led the country through a period of rapid economic growth, has died.
Singh, 92, was treated for age-related medical conditions, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said, as it announced his death on Thursday.
A set of economics taught by the University of Oxford India on the path to a fast-growing economy as finance minister from 1991 to 1996, when he opened the country to foreign trade and private investment.
Considered a political lightweight by some in India at the time, Singh was the surprise choice of the Congress party to become prime minister after winning the 2004 parliamentary elections.
Next to a growth rate about 7 percent, Singh's decade as prime minister was marred by widespread corruption allegations against his party's leaders, although his integrity was rarely questioned.
Singh was accused of inaction and opposition parties said he was subservient to the then Congress chief, Sonia Gandhi.
Shortly before the Congress lost the election to Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014, Singh said in a speech in parliament that “history will be kinder to me than the current media, or for that matter the opposition parties”.
Prime Minister Modi on Thursday described Singh as one of India's greatest leaders, saying he had left a “strong mark on our economic policy over the years” and had “made extensive efforts to improve people's lives” as prime minister.
Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress party, paid tribute to Singh, saying he had lost a “mentor and leader” whose “humility and deep understanding of economics inspired the nation”.
A member of parliament for more than three decades, Singh retired from politics earlier this year.
The mild-mannered Singh, who was one of the few Sikhs in India, was born to a humble family in 1932 in a village in Punjab, India, before the country gained 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.