Manmohan's understated leadership set a fine example

His self-assured openness to all views was an inspiration for decision makers keen to resist groupthink

- RAHUL JACOB

A year into his undergraduate degree in economics at Cambridge, Manmohan Singh found his scholarship from Punjab University was not adequate for his expenses there. He occasionally had to resort to skipping meals or making do with a Cadbury's bar. He wrote an abject letter to a close friend asking for £12-13 in each of the coming two years. Two months later, a money order for £3 arrived. It was all his friend could afford in the budget-straitened 1950s. Soon after, the results of Manmohan Singh's first-year exams made him confident he would receive additional funding from his Oxbridge college. According to Daman Singh's memoir of her parents' lives, Strictly Personal, Singh immediately wrote to dissuade his friend from sending any more money.