India on Friday declared seven days of state mourning following the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a key figure in the country’s economic independence in the early 1990s.
Singh, who served from 2004 to 2014, died on Thursday evening at the age of 92 in a hospital in New Delhi.
He will also be officially cremated, although an official date is yet to be confirmed. A senior Congress party member suggested that it would be held on Saturday.
“As a mark of respect to the deceased dignitaries, it has been decided that seven days of official mourning will be observed across India,” the Indian government said in a statement on Friday, which will continue till January 1.
“It has also been decided that the last rites of late Dr. Manmohan Singh will be performed,” he said, adding that the national flag would also be flown at half-mast.
India’s cricket team, taking on hosts Australia in the fourth Test, took to the field on Friday wearing black armbands as a mark of respect for Singh.
Architects of Economic Reforms
The former prime minister was a modest technocrat who in his first term oversaw an economic boom in Asia’s fourth-largest economy. He was praised but his second term ended with major corruption scandals, slow growth and high inflation.
Singh’s unpopularity in his second term, and the weak leadership of Rahul Gandhi, son of Nehru-Gandhi, the current leader of the opposition in the lower house, led to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first landslide victory in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-brick village of Gah, in what is now Pakistan, Singh studied economics to find a way to alleviate poverty in the vast country and once held elected office before assuming the country’s highest office. Didn’t happen.
He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he earned a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
Singh held senior civil service positions, served as the Governor of the Central Bank and held various jobs with international agencies such as the United Nations.
He was tapped by the then Congress Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao in 1991 to steer India out of the worst financial crisis in its modern history.
Singh steered the economy through nine percent growth in his first term, lending the country the international clout it had long sought.
He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the US which he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.