India - Head of Government

The Hon Dr Manmohan Singh began a second term in office as Prime Minister of India on 22 May 2009 following victory of his ruling Congress-led coalition at the May general election. He first became prime minister in May 2004.
Dr Singh has been a member of India’s Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) since 1991, serving as Leader of the Opposition from 1998 to 2004. He was Finance Minister from 1991 to 1996. Dr Singh served as Secretary-General of the South Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1987 to 1990. 

Dr Singh joined the civil service as an Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Commerce in 1971. The following year, he was appointed Chief Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance. Dr Singh went on to hold many senior positions, including Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Deputy Chairperson of the Planning Commission, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Adviser to the Prime Minister and Chairperson of the University Grants Commission.

Before that, Dr Singh was Professor of International Trade at Delhi University’s School of Economics and Professor of Economics at Panjab University, Chandigarh. He also had a brief stint at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at the UN Secretariat in New York. 

Dr Singh obtained his Doctorate in Economics from the University of Oxford, UK. He has a Bachelor’s degree (Hons, 1st class) in Economics from the University of Cambridge, UK, and a Master’s degree in Economics from Panjab University. 

He is the author of India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth (1964).

Dr Singh was born on 26 September 1932 in Punjab, India.

More at: www.pmindia.nic.in