Dr N K Singh, Chairman, 15th Finance Commission

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Dr N K Singh is a renowned politician, economist and former top bureaucrat. He was appointed the Chairman of the Fifteenth Finance Commission in 2017, prior to which he was a member of the Rajya Sabha from the state of Bihar. He served on the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and the Committee on Local Area Development Scheme, the Public Accounts Committee, the Consultative Committee on Finance, the Committee on Rules, the Housing Committee and the Parliamentary Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change. He was also on the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development and the Committee on Public Undertakings. He is presently Member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Dr Singh has been among the country’s top bureaucrats and handled important portfolios such as India’s Expenditure and Revenue Secretary, a Member of the Planning Commission as well as Secretary to the Prime Minister.

He was the principal interloculator with multilateral institutions during India’s Balance of Payment Crisis. Since then he has served in important advisory roles and headed several Task Forces on Telecom and Electricity and keenly engaged in the economic reforms strategy over the last 20 years.

Dr Singh is on the Governing bodies of research organisations like the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), the International Management Institute (IMI) and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

Dr Singh has a wide range of national and international experience having interacted closely with multilateral organizations like World Bank, IMF, ADB, UNCTAD, GATT, WTO, UNDP and OECD. Additionally, he has taken up various international responsibilities in the UN, World Economic Forum, Indian Embassy (Tokyo), IMF etc.

Dr N K Singh has a Master’s Degree in Economics and was teaching Economics at the prestigious St. Stephen’s College, Delhi prior to joining the Civil Service.

Dr Singh has lectured widely at eminent universities like Columbia, Yale, Stanford and London School of Economics.

He has authored two Books entitled, “Politics of Change” and “Not by Reason Alone” and has continuously been a repute of columnist in leading Indian dailies, The Financial Express, Hindustan Times, Hindustan and The Indian Express.