Remembering Dr. Manmohan Singh

In Apr-24 Dr Manmohan Singh retired from public life. On Dec-24, at the age of 96, he passed away. And, this excerpt shared by Founding Fuel Insights is a great reminder to us of why this matters.

During his prime ministerial term, Dr. Singh's soft and considerate personality was often deemed "weak" by mainstream media. Singh predicted, in his final press conference as prime minister, that history would judge him kindly. Perhaps it already has.

Indeed, no other individual deserves more credit for the decades of economic liberalization that have lifted so many Indians out of poverty. Even as the economy impresses many as a bright spot for growth and progress, nobody who lived through Singh’s heyday as a policymaker in the 1990s and 2000s would deny that some energy, some momentum, has been lost.

Singh’s decade as prime minister was spent struggling with the global financial crisis, soaring oil prices, and his rancorous, left-leaning coalition. It is not hard to argue that, had he been granted the positive global climate and comfortable parliamentary majorities that Modi enjoys, he would have moved much quicker than his successor to implement the essential pro-growth reforms India needs.

Nor does Singh’s personal story — he walked miles to an Urdu-language school, studied by the light of a kerosene lamp, and eventually won a place at Oxford and an economics doctorate — speak to any sort of weakness. It would be truer to say he was cautious and careful about wielding power.

He's a leader that generations should remember. Because, as Jim Collins research for Good to Great revealed : The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results. …It is very important to grasp that Level 5 leadership is not just about humility and modesty. It is equally about ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great.

Business Standard - India Needs more Leaders like Manmohan Singh