Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, the architect of India's economic reforms, passed away in New Delhi last night. He was 92.
Singh's death was announced by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi where he was admitted in the Emergency ward at around 8.06pm in a critical condition.
An AIIMS statement signed by Professor Dr Rima Dada, in charge of its Media Cell, said Singh "was treated for age-related medical conditions and had a sudden loss of consciousness at home" yesterday.
"Resuscitative measures were started immediately at home. He was brought to medical emergency at AIIMS Delhi at 8.06pm. Despite all efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 9.51pm," said the bulletin.
Singh is survived by his wife Gurcharan Singh and three daughters.
Singh, who was twice prime minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2014, has been in indifferent health for the last few months.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and her mother Sonia Gandhi reached the hospital soon after the news of Singh's hospitalisation broke.
Singh, who was the finance minister under the then prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, was the architect and the brainchild of economic reforms in 1991 that pulled India from the brink of bankruptcy and ushered in an era of economic liberalisation that is widely believed to have changed the course of India's economic trajectory.
Singh's final term as PM was marred by corruption scandals, ballooning inflation, and slowing economic growth, which contributed to the defeat of Congress in national elections and brought the BJP back to power with Narendra Modi as the head of the government.
In his political career, Singh has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 1991, where he was the Leader of the Opposition between 1998 and 2004.
In April this year, he retired from Rajya Sabha, the upper House of parliament.
Besides being the architect of opening up the Indian economy to the world after decades of quasi-socialist rule, Singh as PM also signed India's landmark civil nuclear treaty with the United States brushing aside strong resistance to the move from Left parties which then withdrew support from his government.
However, the Left parties' withdrawal of support did not lead to the fall of the Manmohan Singh government which survived a no-trust motion on the floor of the Lok Sabha in 2008.
Singh's tenure made him the third longest-serving PM in Indian history after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Born on September 26, 1932, in Gah village in West Punjab (now in Pakistan), Singh's life was a testament to service, scholarship and leadership. He earned a Master's degree in Economics from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and obtained a doctorate from the University of Oxford.
Singh's village, where he was born, lacked a school, healthcare, and electricity, forcing him to walk miles to an Urdu-medium school and study by kerosene lamp at night.
He attributed his rise to the "system of scholarships" for poor students that existed at the time.
Before his foray into politics, Singh had an illustrious career in government service that began as the Economic Advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Trade in 1971. By 1976, Singh was chief economic adviser in the Ministry of Finance. In subsequent years, he held several key roles, including finance secretary, governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Asian Development Bank and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Member (Finance) at the Atomic Energy and Space Commissions.
As prime minister, he prioritised inclusive growth, social welfare and diplomacy, steering India through global geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges.
Singh paid an official visit to Dhaka in September 2011, a trip that was overshadowed by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's opting out of it at the eleventh hour opposing the Teesta river water-sharing accord which, as a result, could not be signed.
Singh contested Lok Sabha elections only once from the South Delhi constituency in 1999 and suffered defeat. After that, he never again ran for the Lok Sabha poll.