Former President Pranab Mukherjee, will be honoured with India's highest civilian award, Bharat Ratna by President Ram Nath Kovind.

Mukherjee's life-long political career spanned about five decades, during which he held various key posts in the Congress as well as in the governments led by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

Mukherjee emerged as the trouble-shooter for the Congress. He held several important portfolios in Congress governments. He was the minister for Commerce from 1993 to 1995, Minister of External Affairs from 1995 to 1996, Minister of Defence from 2004 to 2006 and once again the Minister of External Affairs from 2006 to 2009. He was the Minister of Finance from 2009 to 2012 and Leader of the Lower House of Parliament from 2004 to 2012 till he resigned to contest election to the office of the President.

Pranab Mukherjee, the former President of India has also served on the Board of Governors of the IMF, World Bank, ADB and African Development Bank. He has led the Indian delegations to the Commonwealth Finance Ministers' Conferences in 1982, 1983 and 1984; UNGA in 1994, 1995, 2005 and 2006, the Conference of Commonwealth Heads of Government at Auckland in 1995, the Non-Aligned Foreign Minister's Conference at Cartagena in 1995 and the Conference to mark the 40th anniversary of the Afro -Asian Conference in Bandung in 1995.

Born on December 11, 1935, in a Bengali family in Mirati, a village in Birbhum district in West Bengal, Mukherjee completed his Masters in Political Science and History and LLB degree from University of Calcutta.

A prolific reader, Shri Mukherjee has authored several books on the Indian Economy and on Nation Building. The many awards and honours conferred on him include India’s second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhusan in 2008, the Best Parliamentarian Award in 1997 and Best Administrator in India Award in 2011.

After being selected for India's highest civilian award, former President, popularly known as 'Pranab Da', had expressed his gratitude on being conferred with the Bharat Ratna saying "I've received much more from the people and from this country than I have given to it".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had congratulated Mukherjee for his decades of service to the country. "Pranab Da is an outstanding statesman of our times. He has served the nation selflessly and tirelessly for decades, leaving a strong imprint on the nation's growth trajectory. His wisdom and intellect have few parallels. Delighted that he has been conferred the Bharat Ratna," he had tweeted.

Source: The Economic Times

BDST: 1718 HRS, AUG 08, 2019

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