On what would have been his 93rd birth anniversary, the man who dismantled India's licence raj gets a permanent home in the city his reforms helped build. Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced on Saturday, 26 September 2026, that he will unveil a statue of Dr. Manmohan Singh at Wipro Circle, in the heart of Hyderabad's IT corridor — a location whose very skyline is an argument for what the 1991 reforms made possible.

From licence raj to liberalisation: what Singh built

Revanth Reddy traced the arc of a career that spanned five decades of economic stewardship. Singh served as Chief Economic Adviser in 1971, then as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 1985, before arriving at his most consequential moment: the Union Budget of 1991, presented as Finance Minister under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao. That single budget — slashing import duties, dismantling industrial licensing, opening the door to foreign investment — rewired the Indian economy and seeded the IT boom that would eventually cluster around Hyderabad's HITEC City. Wipro Circle sits inside that boom.

As Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, Singh steered a second, quieter revolution: converting the promise of welfare into enforceable rights. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) guaranteed work; the Right to Education Act guaranteed schooling; the Right to Information Act guaranteed accountability; and the National Food Security Act guaranteed subsidised grain. 'He was the Prime Minister who made work, food, education and information our rights,' Reddy wrote.

Telangana's own debt to Singh's prime ministership

For Telangana, the tribute carries an additional, inescapable meaning. The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 — the legislation that gave Telangana statehood on 2 June 2014 — received presidential assent on 1 March 2014, in the final months of Singh's second term. Revanth Reddy acknowledged it directly: 'During his tenure as PM, we could achieve our dream of a separate statehood for Telangana.' The CM called Singh 'a humble, visionary son of India' and described the statue unveiling as 'a grateful state' honouring that legacy.

Wipro Circle: a deliberate, symbolic address

The choice of location is anything but incidental. Wipro Circle sits on the main arterial road running through Hyderabad's IT corridor — an area that grew from a patch of scrubland into a global technology hub largely because foreign capital, software exports and private enterprise were set free after 1991. Placing Singh's statue here roots an abstract policy legacy in physical, visible consequence. Every commuter passing the roundabout will see a direct link between a finance minister's budget speech and the office towers around them.

Across India, 26 September is regularly marked by political leaders of multiple parties recalling Singh's liberalisation and the UPA's social legislation. In Telangana, that commemoration folds in the state's own origin story, making the anniversary — and now the statue — local as much as national.