Manmohan Singh birthday: Veteran Congress leader turns 88

New Delhi, Sep 26: Veteran Congress leader and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who ran a coalition government between 2004-2014, turned 88 today.

Before he became the prime minister, his brightest moment was ushering in the 1991 economic reforms under the Narasimha Rao government. Singh was Rao's finance minister.

The 1991 Budget is feted by many as one that laid the foundations of a modern India and the roadmap for pushing economic reforms in the country. However, the veteran Congress leader never stopped to share the credit with his boss PV Narasimha Rao.

"It was a hard choice and a bold decision and it was possible because Prime Minister Narasimha Rao gave me the freedom to roll out things, after he fully understood what was ailing India's economy at that time," Singh, who has also been held the post of the RBI Governor during his celebrated career, was quoted as saying at Rao' centenary celebrations.

Singh was born on September 26, 1932 in the Punjab province of Pakistan before the partition of India.

He studied at the Panjab University, University of Cambridge and obtained his doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford. He later taught at the Panjab University as well as Delhi School of Economics, and the University of Delhi.

He served as the 13th Prime Minister of India between 2004 and 2014 after the UPA defeated the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. The economist served as the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha from 1998 to 2004.