Shegufta Bakht Chaudhuri (known as S B Chaudhuri; 1931 – 11 November 2020) was a Bangladeshi economist who served as the fourth governor of
Bangladesh Bank
Bangladesh Bank ( bn, বাংলাদেশ ব্যাংক) is the central bank of Bangladesh and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union. It is fully owned by the Government of Bangladesh.
The bank is active in developing green banki ...
, the central bank of Bangladesh during 1987–1992, and was also the advisor of the first caretaker government of Bangladesh in 1996.
Background
Shegufta's father was Dewan Mamun Chaudhuri and his paternal grandfather was Khan Bahadur Wasil Chaudhuri.
[ His mother was Syeda Zebunessa Khatun, daughter of Khan Bahadur Syed Sikandar Ali. Writers ]Syed Mujtaba Ali
Syed Mujtaba Ali ( bn, সৈয়দ মুজতবা আলী; 13 September 1904 – 11 February 1974) was a Bengali writer, journalist, travel enthusiast, academic, scholar and linguist. He lived in Bangladesh, India, Germany, Afghanistan ...
and Syed Murtaza Ali
Syed Murtaza Ali (1 July 1902 – 9 August 1981) was a Bangladeshi writer. He was the elder brother of writer and linguist Syed Mujtaba Ali. He is noted for his works relating to the histories of Chittagong, Sylhet and Jaintia.
Background and e ...
were Shegufta's maternal uncles.[ He traced his maternal descent from Shah Ahmed Mutawakkil, a local holy man and a Syed of Taraf, though apparently unrelated to Taraf's ruling Syed dynasty.]Habiganj District
Habiganj ( bn, হবিগঞ্জ, Hobigonj), formerly known as Habibganj ( bn, হবিবগঞ্জ, Hobibgonj), is a district in north-eastern Bangladesh, located in the Sylhet Division. It was established as a district in 1984 as a succe ...
in the Division of Sylhet
Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. He was the eldest of five siblings, having had one younger brother and four sisters. S.B. Chaudhuri was known for being an honest and humble man who naturally shied away from the limelight.
Education
He received a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Dhaka
The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...
in the early 1950s. His Masters in International Relations at the same university was not completed due to illness. He later received a MPA (Master of Public Administration) from John F. Kennedy School of Government
The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...
in 1967.
Career
He was initially a journalist at the ''Morning News'' newspaper in the early 1950s before joining the Pakistan Taxation Service in 1955 after completing the CSS
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...
examinations. He served in different branches of the Pakistan Government service as a section officer and then as a deputy secretary before he went to attend the Harvard School of Government. He was subsequently employed in a number of roles in the Pakistan and later Bangladesh governments. These include:
*First Secretary (Commercial Attaché) at the Pakistan Embassy at Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
, Yugoslavia, 1967–70.
*Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, Govt. of Pakistan, 1970–71.
*Director-General, Export Promotion Bureau, Govt. of Bangladesh for a brief period.
*Chief Controller of Imports and Exports, Govt. of Bangladesh, 1973-1974
*Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Secretary of Internal Resources Division, Ministry of Finance, 1974–77
*Chairman, National Board of Revenue, Govt. of Bangladesh, 1981–87
*Governor, Bangladesh Bank, 1987–92.
After he retired from Bangladesh Bank, he started a column with the '' Daily Star'' titled "Along My Way". He served as an Adviser (the equivalent of a cabinet minister) for three months in the caretaker government of 1996, which ran the country and supervised the parliamentary elections. He was also the Adviser to City Bank, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, from to 1998.
Death
Shegufta Bakht Chaudhuri died on 11 November 2020 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was survived by his wife late Nargis Chaudhuri, son and daughter as well as three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
References
1931 births
2020 deaths
People from Nabiganj Upazila
University of Dhaka alumni
Murari Chand College alumni
20th-century Bangladeshi economists
Governors of Bangladesh Bank
Advisors of Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
Harvard Kennedy School alumni
21st-century Bengalis
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