Ashok Kumar Lahiri is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

who is a member of the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paścimabaṅga Vidhānasabhā'') is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of West Bengal, located in eastern India. It consists of 294 members directly elected from single-seat ...

from

Balurghat Balurghat is a city and municipality located in the Dakshin Dinajpur district of West Bengal, India, serving as the district headquarters. Strategically positioned on National Highway 512, it is well-connected by road and rail, facilitating trad ...

. He is currently serving as a member of the FifteenthFinance Commission. Lahiri previously served as 12th

Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India The Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (CEA) advises the government on economic matters and is responsible for the preparation of the Economic survey of India tabled in Parliament of India, Parliament before the Union budget of I ...

, reader at the

Delhi School of Economics Delhi School of Economics (DSE), popularly referred to as D School, is an institution of higher learning within the Delhi University. The Delhi School of Economics is situated in University of Delhi's North Campus in Maurice Nagar. Establishe ...

, chairman of

Bandhan Bank Bandhan Bank Ltd. is a banking and financial services company, headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. History Bandhan was set up in 2001 as a not-for-profit entity with the objective of financial inclusion and women empowerment. It started i ...

, executive director at the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

and director of the

National Institute of Public Finance and Policy The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) is an autonomous research institute under India's Ministry of Finance (India), Ministry of Finance. History Based in New Delhi, India, the centre conducts research on public finance ...

and had stints with the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

and the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution funded by 191 member countries, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It is regarded as the global lender of las ...

, as a consultant and senior economist respectively. He is a member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

Education

Lahiri is an alumnus of the economics department of the

Presidency University, Kolkata Presidency University, formerly Presidency College, is a public state university located in College Street, Kolkata. Established in 1817 as the ''Hindoo College'', it was later renamed ''Presidency College'' in 1855 and functioned as a leadi ...

Economist

Lahiri has served as

, chairman of

, economic adviser in the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

, executive director at the

, director of the

, reader at the

, consultant with the

, and senior economist at the

Director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy

Lahiri served as the director of the

for fouryears between February1998 and October2002.

Chief Economic Adviser

Lahiri was appointed

(CEA) by the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

-led

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) is a high-level committee within the Government of India responsible for appointing senior officials to key positions in the central government and public sector undertakings. and demitted the office of CEA in June2007, serving in the

for more than fouryears. Lahiri served as the CEA under the premiership of

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian poet, writer and statesman who served as the prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months from 1998 ...

and

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (26 September 1932 – 26 December 2024) was an Indian economist, bureaucrat, academician, and statesman, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jaw ...

Chairman of Bandhan Bank

Lahiri was appointed the non-executive, part-time chairman of the newly-formed

in July2015; Lahiri resigned from his position as chairman in April2018 to serve as a full-time member of the FifteenthFinance Commission.

Member of the FifteenthFinance Commission

Lahiri was appointed a part-time member of the FifteenthFinance Commission in November2017 by the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

, Lahiri was elevated to a full-time member in April2018 and was accorded the status of a

minister of state Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

and served there till 26 November 2023.

Politics

He was declared as a candidate to contest from the Alipurduar constituency in the 2021 West Bengal election but due to animosity among the local BJP members in Alipurduar, his name was later withdrawn from Alipurduar constituency in the list of candidates. He was later declared as a candidate for the Balurghat constituency. He won against TMC candidate Shekhar Dasgupta by securing 36,143 votes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lahiri, Ashok Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Presidency University, Kolkata alumni 20th-century Indian economists 21st-century Indian economists Chief Economic Advisers to the Government of India Indian bankers West Bengal MLAs 2021–2026 Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from West Bengal