Ashok Kumar Lahiri is an Indian economist and a member of the

West Bengal Legislative Assembly The West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in the B. B. D. Bagh area of Kolkata, the capital of the state. Members of the Legislative assembly are directly elected by t ...

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

Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India ThChief Economic Adviser (CEA)is a post in Government of India and is equivalent to rank of Secretary to the Government of India. The CEA is the ex-officio cadre controlling authority of the Indian Economic Service. The CEA is head of Econom ...

reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...

at the

Delhi School of Economics Delhi School of Economics (DSE), popularly referred to as "D School", is a Higher Educational Institution within the University of Delhi. The Delhi School of Economics is situated in University of Delhi's North Campus in Maurice Nagar. Establ ...

, chairman of

Bandhan Bank Bandhan Bank Ltd. is a banking and financial services company, headquartered in Kolkata. Bandhan Bank is present in 34 out of 36 states and union territories of India, with 5,646 banking outlets and more than 2.77 crore customers. Having re ...

, executive director at the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field offic ...

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. Based in New Delhi, India, the centre conducts research on public finance and contributes to the process of policy ...

and had stints with the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

and the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

, 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 Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

Education

Lahiri is an alumnus of the economics department of the

Presidency University, Kolkata Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...

Economist

Lahiri has served as

, chairman of

, economic adviser in the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

, executive director at the

, director of the

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, premier 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. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in December2002, 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 and Manmohan Singh.

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 ( IAST: ) 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, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...

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

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