India announces seven days of mourning for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh | Politics News

Singh, one of the architects of India’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s, was in office from 2004 to 2014.

India has announced a seven-day mourning and state funeral for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, hailed as one of the architects of the country’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s.

The government said on Friday that there would be mourning until January 1 and a state funeral would be held “as a mark of respect for the late dignitary,” who died on Thursday at the age of 92 in a New Delhi hospital.

The official date for the state funeral was not immediately announced, but a senior Congress party member suggested that the event, which will see the national flag fly at half-mast at official buildings across the country, would take place on Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Singh, who served from 2004 to 2014, as one of the country’s “most outstanding leaders,” while The Times of India newspaper ran a front-page tribute to him, describing him as the “man who made India’s leader.” Dreams liberated”.

India’s cricket team paid respects to Singh on Friday, wearing black armbands as they descended on the ground in Melbourne to face hosts Australia in the fourth Test.

Humble beginnings

Singh was born in 1932 in the mud village of Gah in what is now Pakistan and rose to high office from humble beginnings.

He studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast country and won scholarships to attend Britain’s two prestigious universities – Cambridge, where he received a first degree in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate .

Singh has held a number of senior public service positions, serving as a central bank governor and also holding various positions at global organizations such as the United Nations.

He was tasked with lifting India out of the worst financial crisis in its modern history in 1991 and delivered a significant economic boom in his first term as prime minister.

He also reached a groundbreaking nuclear deal with the United States that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.

However, Singh’s second term ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth and high inflation.

Singh’s unpopularity in his second term and the lackluster leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the current leader of the opposition in the lower house, led to Modi’s first landslide victory in 2014.