Prime Minister turns 80: A look at Manmohan Singh's illustrious career graph

Wednesday, September 26, was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 80th birthday. The PM has spent more than half of these 80 years in the Establishment in various capacities: an uninterrupted stretch, divided between civil service, RBI, Planning Commission, Parliament & Union Cabinet.

He turns 80 when he’s being viewed as making efforts to alter his and his government’s style and substance. The next few months will tell us whether he will succeed. But whatever the outcome, his 40-plus years in public service are a remarkable story.

ET takes a look:

1971

Armed with a DPhil degree from the University of Oxford and a three-year stint at UN’s New York secretariat, Singh lands his first sarkari job. He
is named economic adviser in the ministry of foreign trade, now commerce ministry. Surprise, surprise - the IAS lobby lets him be

1981

Singh becomes the quintessential babu. As member-secretary in the Planning Commission, he demonstrates a gift for sharp economic thinking. What about a mixed economy model? The netas are impressed. He is rewarded with two plum posts: RBI governor and Planning Commission deputy chairman in the next five year



1991

A watershed year for Singh. The technocrat joins politics. Singh is as surprised as the rest of us when he’s chosen finance minister in June. He is elected to Rajya Sabha in September in faraway Assam. PV Narasimha Rao gives him carte blanche to usher in reforms. The rest, as they say, is history

2001

Elected to Rajya Sabha for a third term. Singh comes into his own as a politician as leader of the Opposition in the Upper House. Learns to give it back to jibes from the Opposition. Becomes close to Sonia Gandhi who was leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha.