Manmohan Singh selected for Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (85) was selected Indira Gandhi Prize for peace, disarmament and development for his leadership of the country between 2004 and 2014 and for enhancing India’s stature globally.
He was unanimously chosen for the award by an international jury chaired by former President Pranab Mukherjee.

Manmohan Singh

Born on 26 September 1932 in Gah now in Punjab, Pakistan. His family had migrated to India during partition in 1947. He had obtained his doctorate in economics from Oxford. He had worked for UN during 1966–69.
He subsequently began his bureaucratic career when Lalit Narayan Mishra hired him as an advisor in Ministry of Commerce and Industry. In 1970s and 80s, he had held several key posts in Government of India, such as Chief Economic Advisor (1972–76), Reserve Bank Governor (1982–85) and Planning Commission head (1985–87).
In 1991, he was inducted in P. V. Narasimha Rao led Government as Finance Minister when India faced a severe economic crisis.  As a Finance Minister he had carried out several structural reforms that liberalised economy. He was 13th Prime Minister of India and was in office from May 2004 to May 2014. He is only the third Indian prime minister to complete two full terms as the PM.

Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development

The prestigious award accorded annually by Indira Gandhi Trust since 1986. It has been named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi. It is awarded to individuals or organizations in recognition of their creative efforts towards promoting international peace, development. It is also bestowed upon them for creating new international economic order and ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity and enlarging the scope of freedom. The award consists of monetary award of 25 lakh and a citation. Some of its earlier recipients are UNICEF (1989), Rajiv Gandhi (1991), M S Swaminathan (1999), Kofi Annan (2003), Angel Merkel (2013), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) (2014) and UN High Commission for Refugees (2015).

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2017