He was born on September 26, 1932, and died on December 26, 2024. After Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, and Narendra Modi, he served as prime minister for the fourth longest period of time. Singh served as India's first Sikh prime minister and was a member of the Indian National Congress. After serving a full five-year term, he was also the first prime minister since Nehru to be re-elected.
Singh was born in Gah, Pakistan, but his family moved to India when it was divided in 1947. Singh worked for the United Nations from 1966 to 1969 after earning his doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford. Later, when Lalit Narayan Mishra appointed him as an advisor in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, he started his career in bureaucracy. Singh held a number of important positions in the Indian government during the 1970s and 1980s, including Chief Economic Advisor (1972–1976), Reserve Bank governor (1982–1985), and head of the Planning Commission (1985–1987).
The political Singh was appointed finance minister by P. V. Narasimha Rao, the newly elected prime minister, in 1991, when India was experiencing a serious economic crisis. Despite fierce opposition, he implemented a number of fundamental reforms that liberalized India's economy over the ensuing years. Despite the fact that these steps were successful in preventing the crisis and improved Singh's standing as a prominent reform-minded economist around the world, the incumbent Congress Party did not do well in the 1996 general election. Singh later led the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, India's upper chamber of parliament, during the 1998–2004 Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration.
Singh was suddenly given the prime ministership by Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, which was led by the Congress and came to power in 2004. His first government implemented a number of important laws and initiatives, such as the Right to Information Act, the Rural Employment Guarantee program, the National Rural Health Mission, and the Unique Identification Authority. Singh's government almost collapsed in 2008 after Left Front parties withdrew their support in response to criticism of a historic civil nuclear deal with the United States. He was a co-founder of BRICS in 2009. During his tenure, India's economy expanded quickly.
Singh continued to serve as prime minister, and the UPA returned with a larger mandate in the 2009 general election. He decided not to run for prime minister in the 2014 Indian general election when his mandate ended. Singh represented the states of Assam from 1991 to 2019 and Rajasthan from 2019 to 2024 in the Rajya Sabha, but he was never a member of the Lok Sabha.
Between April 16 and May 13, 2009, India conducted five phases of general elections for the 15th Lok Sabha. On May 16, 2009, the election's results were made public. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) formed the new government under incumbent Singh thanks to strong performances in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh. Singh was the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 to win re-election after serving a full five-year term. With 322 of the 543 members of the House supporting them, the Congress and its allies were able to form a solid majority. These included the UPA's as well as the outside backing of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and other smaller parties.
In a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 22, 2009, Manmohan Singh took the oath of office as prime minister. According to the 2012 report submitted to the Indian Parliament by the CAG, the country suffered an estimated short-term loss of Rs 1.85 trillion between 2005 and 2009 when Manmohan Singh served as India's coal minister. This loss resulted from the allocation of coal blocks to specific private companies without a bidding process.
In April 2013, when Yashwant Sinha, a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), called on Manmohan Singh to appear before the JPC about his suspected participation in the 2G case, Singh declined.
On May 17, 2014, Singh's premiership came to an official end at noon. He did not run as the prime ministerial candidate in the general election for the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014. Following the electoral victory of the National Democratic Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, he resigned as prime minister. Up until May 26, 2014, when Narendra Modi took the oath of office as the new prime minister, he was the acting prime minister. Singh attended Modi's swearing-in event with Vice-President Hamid Ansari, former Presidents A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Pratibha Patil, and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. In 2016, it was announced that Singh was to take up a position at Panjab University as the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair, which he eventually did not. Singh retired from the Rajya Sabha in April 2024 and was succeeded by Sonia Gandhi.
Singh has several heart bypass operations, the most recent of which was performed in January 2009. Singh was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi in May 2020 as a result of a drug side effect. Singh was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences once more in October 2021 due to fever and weakness.
Singh was brought to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences' emergency room in New Delhi on December 26, 2024, due to concerns about heart disease and aging. Earlier, he had passed out in his New Delhi house. Singh, 92, passed away a few hours after being admitted to the hospital. The government then declared that Singh would have a state funeral and declared a period of national mourning that would last until January 1, 2025.
Singh was referred to as one of "India's most distinguished leaders" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also proclaimed a national day of mourning after his passing. Following Singh's passing, remarks were released by former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi, and President Droupadi Murmu, all of whom praised Singh and his leadership.