List of awards and honours received by Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh was an Indian economist, academic and politician who served as the prime minister of India for two consecutive terms (2004–09 and 2009–14).^[1] Singh held prominent posts in different organisations and received several honours for his work even before beginning his political career.^[2] He held various posts such as an advisor to the Foreign Trade Ministry, chief economic advisor in the Ministry of Finance, governor of the Reserve Bank of India, and deputy head of the Planning Commission.^[3] As the finance minister in the P. V. Narasimha Rao government in the 1990s, he carried out several structural reforms that liberalised India's economy.^[4] Singh was re-elected as the prime minister in 2009. He was the first prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.^[5] Singh was also the first and only Sikh to hold the office and the only prime minister of India to never win a direct popular election.

Singh at the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit, 2009

Born in 1932 in Gah (British India), Singh received his early education from the Hindu College, Amritsar, where his family migrated after the Partition of India. From 1966 to 1969, he worked for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).^[6] Later, Singh worked as a professor of International Trade at the Delhi School of Economics from 1969 to 1971.^[7] In 1972, he was appointed as the chief economic adviser to the Ministry of Finance. He became a secretary in the Finance Ministry in 1976. From 1980 to 1982, he worked for the Planning Commission of India.^[8] He served as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India from September 1982 to January 1985.^[9]

In 1985, Singh was appointed as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, a post he held until 1987.^[10] From 1987 to 1990, Singh worked as the secretary general of the South Commission, an independent economic think-tank based in Geneva, Switzerland.^[11][12] In 1990, Singh became the adviser on economic affairs to the prime minister, following his return to India. In 1991, he was appointed as the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Later that year, prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao appointed him the Finance Minister of India, in his government—a post Singh held until 1996. Despite strong opposition, as finance minister, he was successful in implementing reforms aimed at enhancing productivity and liberalising of India's economy.^[13] In 1993, Singh led Indian delegations to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Cyprus and to the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.

Singh was first elected to the upper house of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, in 1991 by the legislature of the state of Assam; he was re-elected in 1995, 2001, 2007, 2013, and 2019.^{[14][15][16][17]} In the 2004 general elections, the Indian National Congress party joined some allies to form the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and defeated the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party). Congress leader Sonia Gandhi recommended Singh's name for the post of prime minister and in May 2004, he became the 13th prime minister. In 2009, UPA was again successful in forming the government in the 15th Lok Sabha elections, and he was re-elected as the prime minister of India in 2009. Singh died in 2024.

National honours

Ribbon	Decoration	Country	Date	Note	Ref(s)
	Padma Vibhushan	India	1987	The second-highest civilian honour of India.	[18][19][20][21]

Foreign honours

Ribbon	Decoration	Country	Date	Note	Ref(s)
	Order of King Abdulaziz	Saudi Arabia	2010	Special Class, the second-highest civilian honour of Saudi Arabia.	[22]
	Order of the Paulownia Flowers	Japan	2014	Grand Cordon, the second-highest civilian honour of Japan.	[23][24][25][26]

Scholastic

Chancellor, visitor, governor, rector and fellowships

Year	Fellowship	Institution	Country	Ref(s)
1957	Wrenbury Scholar	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom	[27]
1976	Honorary Professor	Jawaharlal Nehru University	India	[28]
1982	Honorary Fellow	Indian Institute of Bankers		[29]
	Honorary Fellow	St John's College, Cambridge	United Kingdom	[30]
1985	President	Indian Economic Association	India	[31]
1986	National Fellow	National Institute of Education		[32]
1994	Honorary Fellow	All India Management Association		[33]
		Nuffield College, Oxford	United Kingdom	[34]
	Distinguished Fellow	London School of Economics		[35]
1996	Honorary Professor	Delhi School of Economics	India	[36]
1999	Fellow	National Academy of Agricultural Sciences		[37]
2005	Honorary Fellow	All India Institute of Medical Sciences		[38]

Honorary degrees

Year	Degree	University	Country	Ref(s)
1983	Doctor of Letters	Panjab University	India	[39]
1997	Doctor of Law	University of Alberta	Canada
2005	Doctor of Civil Law	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2006		University of Cambridge
2007	Doctor of Letters	University of Jammu	India	[40]
2008		University of Madras		[41]
		Benaras Hindu University		[42]
2010		King Saud University	Saudi Arabia	[43]
		Moscow State Institute of International Relations	Russia	[44]

Other awards

Year	Award	Country/Organisation	Notes	Ref(s)
1952	University Medal	Panjab University	For standing first in B.A. Honors (Economics)	[45]
1954	Uttar Chand Kapur Medal		For standing first in M.A. (Economics)	[46]
1955	Wright Prize for Distinguished Performance	St John's College, Cambridge		[27]
1956	Adam Smith Prize	University of Cambridge		[47]
1995	Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award	Indian Science Congress Association		[48]
1997	Nikkei Asia prize for Regional Growth	Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc.		[49]
	Justice K. S. Hegde Award	Justice K. S. Hegde Foundation		[50]
	Lokmanya Tilak Award	Lokmanya Tilak Smarak Mandir Trust		[51]
1999	H.H. Kanchi Shri Paramacharya Award for Excellence	Ramaswamy Venkataraman Centenarian Trust		[50]
2000	Annasaheb Chirmule Award	Annasaheb Chirmule Trust		[52]
2002	Outstanding Parliamentarian Award	Indian Parliamentary Group		[53]
2010	World Statesman Award	Appeal of Conscience Foundation		[54]

Recognition

Year	Recognition	Organisation	Ref(s)
1993	Finance Minister of the Year	Euromoney	[55]
	Finance Minister of the Year	Asiamoney	[46]
1994			[56]
2005	100 Most Influential People in the World	Time	[57]
2006	Indian of the Year	CNN-IBN
2009	36th Most Powerful Person in the World	Forbes	[58]
2010	18th Most Powerful Person in the World		[59]
	100 Most Influential People in the World	Time	[60]
2011	19th Most Powerful Person in the World	Forbes	[61]
2012	20th Most Powerful Person in the World		[62]
2013	28th Most Powerful Person in the World		[63]

Eponyms

• Dr Manmohan Singh Scholarship

See also

• List of Padma Vibhushan award recipients