Manmohan Singh, India’s first Sikh prime minister and architect of the major economic reforms that paved the way for the country’s emergence as a global powerhouse, has died aged 92.

A statement from the hospital attributed Singh’s death to “age-related illnesses.”

The government announced seven days of mourning and a state funeral for Singh. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to him, saying: “India mourns the loss of one of its most respected leaders.”

Singh, dubbed India’s “hesitant prime minister” because of his shyness and penchant for operating behind the scenes, was seen as an unlikely choice to lead the world’s largest democracy. But when Congresswoman Sonia Gandhi led her party to a surprise victory in 2004, she turned to Singh as prime minister.

Famous for his trademark sky blue turbans and homespun white kurta-pyjamas, Singh became the country’s first non-Hindu prime minister. He served a rare full two terms as prime minister in India’s turbulent politics and is credited with driving rapid economic growth that lifted tens of millions of Indians out of poverty.

Singh was born in 1932 in Gah, a village in what is now Pakistan. His early life was marked by hardship and he had to walk for miles to go to school.

His family was uprooted during the partition of the subcontinent after independence from Britain in 1947 and emigrated to the holy Sikh city of Amritsar in India.

Singh, one of 10 siblings, was so determined to get an education that he studied under streetlights at night to escape the noise in his shared home. His brother Surjit Singh recalled that his father “used to say Manmohan would be the Prime Minister of India” because he “always had his nose in a book.”

His hard work paid off when he received scholarships to study economics at Cambridge and later at Oxford, where he received his doctorate.

He then held important government positions, including as head of the Indian central bank. He later worked for the International Monetary Fund.

Singh was thrust into politics in 1991 when India, facing one of the worst economic crises ever, was on the brink of default. The then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao appointed Singh as his finance minister.

In a monumental shift, Singh broke away from the Soviet economic planning model of India. He quoted Victor Hugo: “No power in the world can stop an idea whose time has come,” before adding that “the emergence of India as a major economic power of the world happens to be such an idea.”

He abolished the restrictive “License Raj” that dictated what products factories could produce and what types of bread could be sold, devalued the rupee to boost exports, opened key industrial sectors to private and foreign investment, and reduced taxes. The bold moves ushered in rapid growth and earned Singh the nickname of India’s economic “liberator.”

The same skillful business leader also shaped his first term as prime minister. He led an economy that grew by more than 8%, championed landmark initiatives such as the India-US civil nuclear deal that ended India’s nuclear isolation, and launched ambitious social programs. But his second term was marred by a series of massive corruption scandals that undermined public trust in his government.

These scandals led to accusations that Singh, although personally incorruptible, did not have the authority to control his coalition partners. His former adviser Sanjaya Baru wrote a comprehensive treatise in which he said it appeared that Singh “upheld the highest standards of probity in public life but did not impose them on others.” Singh’s apparent deference to Sonia Gandhi led to accusations that he was her “puppet”.

Singh, who leaves behind his wife Gursharan Kaur and three daughters, famously described politics as “the art of the possible” and said towards the end of his second term as prime minister that “history will be kinder to me than the media”.