The veteran leader, who was also credited for a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, died late Thursday at age 92.

Singh was known as a mild-mannered technocrat and was widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic liberalisation.

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.