source : Times of India
Oxford University Press (OUP) has announced that it will publish former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s collective works in six volumes to document the evolution of his thoughts over more than half-a-century as an academic, policy-maker and politician. The multi-volume set will also offer insights into the mind of an influential figure in India’s political and economic history.
“The six volumes will focus on bringing together the essays and lectures of Dr Singh on an area of work — India’s export trends and the prospects for self-sustained growth, trade and development, international economic order and equity in development, economic reforms and speeches, press-conferences, interviews during his tenure as the prime minister. Each volume will be introduced by an expert in the field, such as Dr C. Rangarajan, Professor K. Sundaram, Professor Nicholas Stern with Shantanu Singh, and Professor Rudrangshu Mukherjee. The set of volumes would conserve and reflect on the life and work of an academic who has had a deep imprint on India and its economy,” the publisher said.
Manmohan Singh, born in 1932 in the Punjab province of undivided India, excelled in his academic life. Completing his education from Punjab University and Cambridge, Singh earned his PhD from Oxford. Cutting short a brief stint at the United Nations secretariat at New York, he joined the Delhi School of Economics as a professor, thereby firmly establishing his academic credentials.
Singh was India’s finance minister from 1991 to 1996, during which, he launched a series of radical measures to revive and reform the economy. He became the Prime Minister in 2004 at the head of the United Progressive Alliance coalition government that was returned to power in 2009 but bowed out after the 2014 general elections.
Manmohan Singh holds the rather unique distinction of being the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to office after completing a full five-year term. He is also the first Prime Minister outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to have hoisted the tricolour at the Red Fort on Independence Day, August 15, on 10 successive occasions.
