If history is known to remember great people, it remembers them for the epoch-making changes they herald in a country's history. And Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, is one of those great personalities, whom history will remember for changing the very face of India. A harbinger of economic liberalisation, Manmohan Singh is the only Prime Minister in Indian history, who is more an economist, a visionary and an administrator than a politician per se. Often levelled as India's free-market reform architect and a close confidante of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh proved himself to be an able advisor to the Congress chief during the 2004 General Election. It was therefore no surprise that when Sonia had to look for someone, who is honest, sincere and devoid of controversy, her immediate choice was Dr Singh for India's Prime Ministership. A man known for his impeccable credentials, bureaucratic experience and exhaustive knowledge of international economics, Manmohan Singh is best known as the 'liberator' of Indian economy when he was the Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao government during 1991-96. He was instrumental in liberalising the economy and putting India on the path of globalisation. Gracious and mild-mannered, 71-year-old Manmohan Singh has held various positions of repute including that of Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Governor of the Reserve Bank and Advisor on Economic Affairs, besides taking international assignments at the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank, Dr Singh also had a brief stint at the UNCTAD Secretariat before being appointed as the Secretary General of the South Commission in Geneva. Known for his unfailingly polite nature, Manmohan Singh who is famous for his hard and forthright economic decisions, was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1991, and has represented the Congress since then. One of the biggest contributions of Dr Singh, after he became the Prime Minister, has been an emphasis on economic reform with a humane face. This literally means taking poor and down-trodden along in the march towards prosperity. Educated at Punjab University and at Oxford and Cambridge in UK, Dr Singh, a winner of the prestigious Adam Smith prize has proved himself a hard-core pragmatist in his foreign policy. It was therefore no wonder when he broke fresh grounds in the Indo-US nuclear deal. A former professor of Delhi School of Economics, Singh who is known for his unassuming personality and erudite scholarship, has also authored a book titled 'India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth' and a large number of articles in various economic journals. A voracious reader, Singh is credited with unshackling the country from the bureaucratic controls and taking India's economy from the brink of bankruptcy to a high growth path of 6-7 per cent, when he was the Finance Minister. A gold medalist all along his academic career, Dr Singh has won dozens of national and international awards including Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at the College, Euromoney Award, Finance Minister of the year and Padma Vibhushan award, to name only a few. A frugal eater by nature, Singh whose favourite food is fish dotes on his three grandsons and spends rest of his time reading and writing. Surely, with a person like him at the helm of affair, India can certainly feel safe, secure and look forward to a bright and prosperous future.