I T IS FITTING that Manmohan Singh, who unshackled Indian trade and industry as the country’s finance minister in 1991, was the son of an importer. His father’s firm in Peshawar brought dry fruit and spices to India from Afghanistan.

A state funeral has begun for Manmohan Singh, the former Indian prime minister widely regarded as the architect of the country’s economic reform program

Manmohan Singh, who has died aged 92, was the technocrat behind the economic reforms that led to India’s emergence as a world power, first as finance minister and latterly as prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014.