Manmohan Singh's father may have believed his bookworm son would one day lead India, but the understated technocrat with the trademark blue turban, who died Thursday at the age of 92, never dreamed it would actually happen.

The country’s first Sikh prime minister, he introduced free-market reforms that turned India into an economic powerhouse and sought reconciliation with Pakistan.

India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program and a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, has died