Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Dies At 92

India's former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh died on Thursday, at the age of 92. His demise was confirmed shortly after he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

Singh was admitted to AIIMS Delhi in the evening after his health deteriorated. The veteran Congress leader was brought to the emergency department of the hospital.

"With profound grief, we inform the demise of the former Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, aged 92. He was being treated for age-related medical conditions and had a sudden loss of consciousness at home on Dec. 2024. Resuscitative measures were started immediately," AIIMS said in a statement.

AIIMS Delhi confirmed that he was brought to the Medical Emergency at AIIMS, New Delhi, at 8:06 p.m. "Despite all efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 9:51 p.m.," as per an official statement by AIIMS.

Singh is survived by his wife Gursharan Kaur and their three daughters.

Following Singh's demise, all government programs scheduled for Friday will be cancelled in light of national mourning, government sources told NDTV. A seven-day mourning period will be declared, they added.

Singh's last rites will be held with full state honors, the sources said, while also noting that the Union Cabinet is scheduled to meet on Friday at 11 am.

Singh, who served as India's 14th prime minister, was a revered economist. During his tenure, the country implemented an array of welfare schemes including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

Earlier, Singh served as the finance minister under the Narsimha Rao-led government in the early 1990s. He was credited for effectively addressing the 1991 economic crisis, which led India to embrace liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.

Born on Sept. 26, 1932, in a village in the Punjab province of undivided India, Singh completed his matriculation examinations from the Punjab University in 1948. His academic career took him from Punjab to the University of Cambridge, UK, where he earned a First Class Honours degree in Economics in 1957.

Singh followed this with a D. Phil in Economics from Nuffield College at Oxford University in 1962. His book, “India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth” [Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1964] was an early critique of India's inward-oriented trade policy.

In 1971, Singh joined the Government of India as Economic Advisor in the Commerce Ministry. This was soon followed by his appointment as Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance in 1972.

In what was to become the turning point in the economic history of independent India, Singh spent five years between 1991 and 1996 as India's Finance Minister. His role in ushering in a comprehensive policy of economic reforms is now recognised worldwide.

Among the many awards and honours conferred upon Singh in his public career, the most prominent are India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan (1987); the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress (1995).

In his political career, Singh has been a Member of India's Upper House of Parliament (the Rajya Sabha) since 1991, where he was Leader of the Opposition between 1998 and 2004. Singh was sworn in as prime minister on May 22 after the 2004 general elections and took the oath of office for a second term on May 22, 2009.

Singh's 33-year-long parliamentary career ended in April this year, after his Rajya Sabha term expired.