One of the world's most renowned Indian-born economists, Singh made fundamental academic contributions in the areas of modern business enterprise, de-industrialisation in advanced and emerging economies and the globalisation of financial and product markets.

[4] Singh was appointed as a member of the faculty of economics at University of Cambridge in 1965 and became a fellow of Queens' College.

Most of Singh's non-journal articles have also been peer-reviewed and included in important collections of handbooks produced by leading publishers such as Oxford University Press, or are included in books edited by Nobel Prize-winning economists such as Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz and Oliver Williamson.

In 2012, he was appointed to the highly prestigious Chair, named after the current Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh.

He was survived by sisters Parveen and Rani as well as Ann Zammit, a longtime collaborator who in his final days became his second wife.