India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh dies

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India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who liberalised the economy and then led the country through a period of strong economic growth, has died.

Singh, 92, was being treated for age-related medical conditions, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said, as it announced his death on Thursday.

The Oxford university-trained economist set India on a path to becoming a fast-growing economy as finance minister from 1991 to 1996, when he opened up the country to more foreign trade and private investment.

Singh was then a surprise choice by the Congress party to be prime minister after it won parliamentary elections in 2004.

Alongside a growth rate of almost 7 per cent, Singh’s decade as premier was marred by accusations of widespread corruption against his party’s leaders, although his personal integrity was rarely questioned.

Singh was accused of inaction and opposition parties claimed he was subservient to Congress’s chief at that time, Sonia Gandhi.

Shortly before Congress lost elections to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party in 2014, Singh said in a speech to parliament that “history would be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter opposition parties”.

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