Popular economist Sanjeev Sanyal, who is also a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, is being considered for the post of Finance Minister in West Bengal, according to reports. The key Finance Ministry portfolio is currently being overseen by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, along with the Home, Education, Health, Industry, and Commerce departments.
This comes as no surprise, as the Bharatiya Janata Party is no stranger to bringing seasoned bureaucrats into top political roles. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri are two prominent examples.
Who is Sanjeev Sanyal?
Sanjeev Sanyal currently serves as a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council and has held the rank of Secretary to the Government of India since 2022. Before this, he spent five years as the Principal Economic Adviser to the Finance Minister. Over the years, he has represented India at major international platforms such as the OECD and G7, and also co-chaired the G20 Framework Working Group, contributing significantly to the G20’s Global Action Plan during the pandemic.
Since entering government service in 2017, Sanyal has played an active role in several key policy reforms and was honoured with the KPS Menon Memorial Award in 2023 for his contributions to public service.
Prior to his tenure in government, Sanyal spent more than two decades in global financial markets, including serving as Chief Economist for South and Southeast Asia and later as Managing Director at Deutsche Bank. A graduate of Shri Ram College of Commerce, he later attended University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received the Eisenhower Fellowship in 2007 for his work on urban systems.
Apart from his policy and financial career, Sanyal is also a bestselling author known for books such as Revolutionaries and The Ocean of Churn. He has written nearly 250 articles for leading publications, while Revolutionaries is currently being adapted into a series for Amazon Prime Video. His literary work has earned multiple honours, including the Kalinga Book Award and the Skoch Award for Economics.
(With inputs from sanjeevsanyal.com/)
