List of awards and honours received by Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh was an Indian economist, academic and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India for two consecutive terms (2004–09 and 2009–14). Singh held prominent posts in different organisations and received several honours for his work even before beginning his political career. He held various posts such as an advisor to the Foreign Trade Ministry, chief economic advisor in the Ministry of Finance, governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and deputy head of the Planning Commission. As the finance minister in the P. V. Narasimha Rao government in the 1990s, he carried out several structural reforms that liberalised India's economy. Singh was re-elected as the prime minister in 2009. He was the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term. Singh was also the first and only Sikh to hold the office and the only prime minister of India to never win a direct popular election. Born in 1932 in Gah (British India), Singh received his early education from the Hindu College, Amritsar, where his family migrated after the Partition of India. From 1966 to 1969, he worked for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Later, Singh worked as a professor of International Trade at the Delhi School of Economics from 1969 to 1971. In 1972, he was appointed as the chief economic adviser to the Ministry of Finance. He became a secretary in the Finance Ministry in 1976. From 1980 to 1982, he worked for the Planning Commission of India. He served as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India from September 1982 to January 1985. In 1985, Singh was appointed as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, a post he held until 1987. From 1987 to 1990, Singh worked as the secretary general of the South Commission, an independent economic think-tank based in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1990, Singh became the adviser on economic affairs to the prime minister, following his return to India. In 1991, he was appointed as the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Later that year, prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao appointed him the Finance Minister of India, in his government—a post Singh held until 1996. Despite strong opposition, as finance minister, he was successful in implementing reforms aimed at enhancing productivity and liberalising of India's economy. In 1993, Singh led Indian delegations to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Cyprus and to the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. Singh was first elected to the upper house of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, in 1991 by the legislature of the state of Assam; he was re-elected in 1995, 2001, 2007, 2013, and 2019. In the 2004 general elections, the Indian National Congress party joined some allies to form the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. Congress leader Sonia Gandhi recommended Singh's name for the post of prime minister and in May 2004, he became the 13th prime minister. In 2009, UPA was again successful in forming the government in the 15th Lok Sabha elections, and he was re-elected as the prime minister of India in 2009. Singh died in 2024.