| Honorific Prefix: | Dr. |
| Ashok Lahiri | |
| Office: | Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly |
| Term Start: | 2 May 2021 |
| Constituency: | Balurghat |
| Predecessor: | Biswanath Chowdhury |
| Office1: | Member of the FifteenthFinance Commission |
| Alongside1: | Shaktikanta Das Ramesh Chand Anoop Singh |
| Termend1: | 26 November 2023 |
| 2Blankname1: | Chairman |
| 2Namedata1: | N. K. Singh |
| Office2: | 12thChief Economic Adviser to the Government of India |
| Appointer2: | Appointments Committee of the Cabinet |
| Predecessor2: | Rakesh Mohan |
| Successor2: | Arvind Virmani |
| Appointer3: | Appointments Committee of the Cabinet |
| Office3: | Director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy |
| Birth Name: | Ashok Kumar Lahiri |
| Birth Date: | 1951 8, df=y |
| Alma Mater: | |
| Occupation: | Economist, academician |
| Party: | Bharatiya Janata Party |
Ashok Kumar Lahiri is an Indian economist and a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Balurghat.[1] He is currently serving as a member of the FifteenthFinance Commission. Lahiri previously served as 12thChief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, reader at the Delhi School of Economics, chairman of Bandhan Bank, executive director at the Asian Development Bank and director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and had stints with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as a consultant and senior economist respectively. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Lahiri is an alumnus of the economics department of the Presidency University, Kolkata.[2]
Lahiri has served as Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India,[3] [4] chairman of Bandhan Bank, economic adviser in the Ministry of Finance, executive director at the Asian Development Bank, director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, reader at the Delhi School of Economics, consultant with the World Bank, and senior economist at the International Monetary Fund.
Lahiri served as the director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy for fouryears between February1998 and October2002.
Lahiri was appointed Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India (CEA) by the prime minister-led Appointments Committee of the Cabinet in December2002, and demitted the office of CEA in June2007, serving in the Ministry of Finance for more than fouryears. Lahiri served as the CEA under the premiership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh.[5]
Lahiri was appointed the non-executive, part-time chairman of the newly-formed Bandhan Bank in July2015;[6] [7] Lahiri resigned from his position as chairman in April2018 to serve as a full-time member of the FifteenthFinance Commission.[8] [9] [10]
Lahiri was appointed a part-time member of the FifteenthFinance Commission in November2017 by the President of India,[11] [12] [13] [14] Lahiri was elevated to a full-time member in April2018 and was accorded the status of a minister of state and served there till 26 November 2023.[15] [16]
He was declared as a candidate to contest from the Alipurduar constituency in the 2021 West Bengal election[17] but due to animosity among the local BJP members in Alipurduar, his name was later withdrawn from Alipurduar constituency in the list of candidates.[18] He was later declared as a candidate for the Balurghat constituency.[19]
He won against TMC candidate Shekhar Dasgupta by securing 36,143 votes.[20]