Amit Mitra

Amit Mitra is an Indian economist and politician and the current Special Advisor to Chief Minister of West Bengal on Finance. Previously he was the Finance, Commerce & Industries Minister of the government of Indian state of West Bengal. He was the incumbent MLA in the West Bengal state assembly from the Khardaha state assembly constituency. Cited as a giant killer in the 2011 West Bengal state assembly election defeating Asim Dasgupta, the former West Bengal Finance Minister.^[1][2][3] Mitra previously served as the Secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Amit Mitra
Mitra in 2011
Cabinet Minister Government of West Bengal
In office 2011 - 2021
Governor	M. K. Narayanan D. Y. Patil Keshari Nath Tripathi Jagdeep Dhankhar
Department	Finance Planning and Statistics and Programme Monitoring
Chief Minister	Mamata Banerjee
Preceded by	Asim Dasgupta (Finance) Tapas Roy (Planning and Statistics and Programme Monitoring) Partha Chatterjee (Public Enterprises and Commerce and Industry) Bratya Basu (Information Technology and Electronics) Shyam Mukherjee (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise and Textile)
Succeeded by	Partha Chatterjee (Commerce and Industry and Information Technology and Electronics) Subrata Mukherjee ( Public Enterprises and Industrial Reconstruction ) Chandranath Sinha (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise and Textile) Mamata Banerjee (Finance) Tapas Roy (Planning and Statistics and Programme Monitoring)
Department	Finance (20 May 2011-9 Nov 2021) Planning and Statistics and Programme Monitoring (10 May 2021-9 Nov 2021) Information Technology and Electronics & e-Governance (2018-2021) Industrial Reconstruction (2014-2021) Public Enterprises (2014-2021) Commerce and Industry (2014-2021) Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise and Textile (2013-2021)
Member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly
In office 2011–2021
Preceded by	Asim Dasgupta
Succeeded by	Kajal Sinha (posthumously)
Constituency	Khardaha
Principal Advisor(Cabinet Rank) Chief Minister of West Bengal
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 Nov 2021
Personal details
Born	(1947-12-20) 20 December 1947 (age 77) Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Political party	All India Trinamool Congress
Spouse	Meera Balakrishnan
Children	1 daughter
Relatives	Bela Mitra (mother) Haridas Mitra (father)
Alma mater	Presidency College, Kolkata (B.A.) University of Delhi (M.A.) Duke University (Ph.D.)
Occupation	Economist Politician

Family

Son of Haridas Mitra, an independence activist and former Deputy Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and Bela Mitra. His maternal grandfather was Suresh Chandra Bose, elder brother of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Both Suresh Chandra Bose and Haridas Mitra were part of the secret service team of Azad Hind Fauj. Bela Mitra took charge of the secret service of Azad Hind Fauj from Haridas Mitra. Belanagar railway station in Howrah district on the Howrah-Bardhaman chord line, is named after her.^[4]

Education

Mitra went to Calcutta Boys' School and graduated from Presidency College when it was an affiliate of the University of Calcutta with a degree in Economics. He was a notable debater in West Bengal inter-college debate competitions.^[5] Mitra received a Masters from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi and, in 1978, a PhD from Duke University in the USA.^[4][6] Mitra is included in Duke University's list of distinguished alumni.^[6]

Early career

He taught at Duke University and Franklin & Marshall College for over a decade before returning to India. He received the prestigious Sears-Roebuck Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1990.^[7][8]

He joined the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and rose to be its secretary-general.^[4] He resigned as secretary-general of FICCI on 18 May 2011 upon his election as state assembly representative. ^[9] During his tenure, he transformed FICCI into a professional organisation to research and formulate India's policy during its economic liberalisation. The number of conferences organised by FICCI rose from 10 to 500 between 1994 and 2011 and its revenues saw an increase from Rs 3 crore to Rs 110 crore during the period Dr. Mitra presided over its activities.^[9]

He served as an Additional Director of Steel Authority of India Ltd from 25 March 2003 to 24 March 2006. At the request of Mamata Banerjee, the railway minister, he headed a panel to draw up business plans for the public-private partnership projects of the railways. He has been on the government's advisory committee on the World Trade Organization and the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council. He was associated with Planning Commission as a member of the expert group on equitable development.^[10][11]

Political career

Amit Mitra joined All India Trinamool Congress on the invitation of Mamata Banerjee^[12] and contested during the state assembly election of 2011 from the Khardaha state assembly constituency. He was attributed a giant killer after the election as he defeated state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta by a margin of 26,154 votes.^[13] Asim Dasgupta was elected from the Khardaha constituency previously five times in a row during the state assembly elections of 1987, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006.

Amit Mitra was sworn in as a minister on 20 May 2011 and was given the Finance and Excise portfolio.^[14][15]

Amit Mitra has opined that the ‘minimal capital expenditure’ made over a long period by the state government has led to the state of bankruptcy. He feels that the state's financial condition can be improved with a flow of investments and expansion of the state's existing industrial units.^[16]

Awards

Amit Mitra is a Padma Shree Award Winner from Government of India in the year 2008.^[17] The Japanese government conferred the `Order of the Rising Sun' on Amit Mitra in 2005 by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. The award was presented for his contribution towards promotion of friendly relations between India and Japan.^[18] He is also the recipient of highest civilian Awards conferred by President of the Republic of Italy in 2007.^[8]