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.

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.

By Devjyot Ghoshal and Matthias Williams NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Described as a "reluctant king" in his first stint as prime minister, the soft-spoken Manmohan Singh, who died on Thursday at the age of 92,