Manmohan Singh sworn in as India's first Sikh prime minister

(22 May 2004)
1. New Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh coming into Ashoka hall of Parliament to take oath as prime minister
2. Singh with former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani and former Congress prime minister Narasimha Rao (in whose cabinet Singh served as finance minister)
3. Singh greeting outgoing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
4. Trumpets announcing arrival of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
5. Kalam arriving
6. Various of Singh taking oath and signing documents
7. Wide shot of audience
8. Cabinet minister Pranab Mukerjee taking oath
9. Sonia Gandhi's daughter, Priyanka, with husband Robert
10. Leader of Congress's alliance partner, Laloo Prasad Yadav, taking oath
11. Sonia Gandhi with Rao and Advani
12. Vajpayee (right of screen), Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur and Communist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet
13. Congress leader Natwar Singh taking oath
14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister:
"It is a very educative experience. India is a country of great diversity and this cabinet reflects that diversity much more accurately than many of its predecessors."
(Reporter Q:) "What would be your priorities, your first task?"
(Singh A:) "This is a mandate for change, for strengthening the secular foundations of our republic, to carry forward the process of social and economic change which benefits the poorest sections of our communities particularly our farmers, our workers and to ensure we have a development strategy which is an inclusive strategy which empowers our people to realise their vast latent development potential."
15. Tilt down from chandelier to crowd
16. Various of Singh in his new office
17. Singh's wife Gursharan Kaur
18. Singh in Prime Minister's office

STORYLINE:

Oxford-educated economist Manmohan Singh, the eldest of 10 children born to a poor fruit-seller, became on Saturday India's first
prime minister drawn from the country's minority Sikh religion.

Singh, 71, shot to prominence as finance minister beginning in 1991, when India, burdened by an unsustainable fiscal deficit of close to 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, was on the verge of economic collapse.

Today, India's economy is roaring back, with GDP chugging along at an annual growth rate of 8 percent.

Politicians and economists on all sides credit Singh with setting the turnaround in motion, though some of the communists who will be supporting his Congress party-led coalition from the outside fought many of his policies.

But Singh believes the free market can't be counted on to help India's poorest, and promised "growth with a human face."

Besides the economy, Singh's government will face tough step-by-step negotiations with rival neighbour Pakistan to end five decades of violence and animosity, aiming to resolve their conflicting claims to the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

Pakistani officials arrive in India on Monday night for the next set of talks on measures to handle the two nations' nuclear weapons.

Singh was educated at Punjab University; Oxford, where he earned his Phd. in economics; and Cambridge.

He taught for nine years at Punjab University, then the Delhi School of Economics before joining the government as chief economic adviser, finance secretary and governor of the central bank.

Singh has never won an election, and is not a member of the most powerful lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha. He qualifies to be prime minister because he is an appointed member of the upper house, the Rajya Saba.



Sonia Gandhi declined the position of prime minister, naming Singh instead, but retained leadership of the party.

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