Former Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri passes away at 63

The eminent economist breathed his last in Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on Sunday morning

Eminent economist and a former member of the Planning Commission of India, Saumitra Chaudhuri, passed away on Sunday morning at New Delhi’s Sir Gangaram Hospital, following a brief illness. He was 63.
 
Born on January 11, 1954, Chaudhuri was a member of the erstwhile Planning Commission of India from 2009. Before that, he had been a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council from 2005 onwards.
 
One of the longest serving members of the Planning Commission, Chaudhuri had also been in race to become the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but Raghuram Rajan was eventually chosen for the post.

 

Chaudhuri was the chairman of the Committee for Formulation of the All Industry Rates of Duty Drawback 2005–06 to 2009-10 in the Ministry of Finance, where he was still serving after getting an extension later.
 
With a basic degree in science, Chaudhuri had studied economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Before being part of Planning Commission, Saumitra Chaudhuri had worked as the economic advisor and research co-ordinator with ICRA Limited, a full-service credit rating agency, for sixteen years (1993–2009) and was executive editor of the research publication Money and Finance.

 
Chaudhuri had begun his career in the Bureau of Industrial Costs & Prices (BICP), Ministry of Industry (1981–83) and later served as a senior economist in the Joint Plant Committee, Department of Steel from 1981 to 1983.
 
Subsequently, he was associated with Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and State Bank of India (SBI) (1986–91), besides for short durations with the World Bank and UNIDO over two decades.
 
These apart, Chaudhuri was also a member of a high-level Committee set up by the Prime Minister to examine the Finances of Oil Companies and implications of the rise in crude oil prices [June–July 2008], chairman of the committee to review the ADR/GDR/FCCB scheme, finance ministry, from May 2007 to January 2008.

 
He was also a member of a high-level committee on estimation of savings and investments [December 2007 to December 2008] and member of the inter-ministerial committee set up to examine pricing and taxation issues for petroleum products [October 2005 to February 2006].
 
Chaudhuri had over 25 monographs and papers spanning issues of industry, the financial sector, regional development and fiscal policy.

He is survived and his sister and nephews.