“Dr Singh’s abiding legacy was his absolutely superb crisis management and his ability to get a wide variety of people, domain experts, global leaders, multilateral experts, and bureaucrats to actually do the work he wanted them to do without an inferiority complex,” Roy said.
Manmohan Singh, India’s 13th Prime Minister and the first Sikh to hold the office passed away on December 26 at the age of 92 at AIIMS, Delhi. Known for his intellectual brilliance and humble character, Singh leaves behind a rich legacy of economic reforms and transformative leadership.
Sudipto Mundle, Chairman of the Centre for Development Studies, said Singh’s pivotal role in the 1991 economic reforms, which transformed India’s economy, and opened it to global markets, setting the stage for decades of growth, is not celebrated enough.
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Mundle also remembered Singh as a professor at the Delhi School of Economics, where he taught international trade—a subject central to his PhD thesis from Oxford University.
“As a finance minister, as Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Governor, and as Prime Minister, he played a very important role in different dimensions,” Mundle noted.
While Singh is widely recognised for his economic contributions, Mundle pointed out another significant achievement during his tenure as Prime Minister. “His big moment as Prime Minister was, of course, the nuclear agreement with the US government, which put India in a whole different place, and that has not been recognised as much as his role in the economic reforms of 1991,” Mundle added.
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Manish Chokhani, Director of Enam Holdings, shared his memories of the transformative era of liberalisation in India, which he experienced as a young MBA graduate returning from London. He highlighted the vibrant spirit of change during that time, referring to it as the “era of brains and brands,” a term coined to describe the period of growth and innovation.
Chokhani credited the economic liberalisation to the leadership of Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Speaking about Singh, Chokhani said, “We all would remember him for the sheer fact that he is someone who comes from an intellectual background, can rise to the highest office in the country with unreachable integrity and complete humility. The way he conducted himself, the standards he set for himself, and the seeds he sowed for all of us to be beneficiaries of, I think the nation can only just pay homage and be grateful and celebrate him for a life which he lived in a very extraordinary manner.”
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