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As an academician, and later as one of the most vocal advocates of India Inc, Mr Amit Mitra's transition from classrooms to boardrooms is now an old chapter of his personal history. His new avatar as a politician and as the Finance Minister of West Bengal gives the economist new room to work in.
During his campus days, his areas of specialisation were public economics, population economics and industrial economics. Now, he has to manage finances of a State, which has been running worrisome deficits since Independence.
A student of Dr Manmohan Singh and Professor K.N. Raj at Delhi School of Economics, Mr Mitra began his teaching career as a lecturer at IIT, Delhi. He then moved to the US on teaching assignments at Duke University in North Carolina and Franklin Marshall College in Pennsylvania.
His 17-year innings at FICCI saw him on the boards of IDBI, GAIL and the advisory board of India Fund of UTI. He has been a Non- Official Part-time Director at National Aviation Company of India Ltd since March 2010. Mr Mitra also served as an Additional Director of SAIL from March 25, 2003 to March 24, 2006. He served as an Independent Director of Bata India Ltd from February 2005 to April 26, 2006. He served as Director of IFCI until January 30, 2003.
He belongs to a family, which boasts of its political links. His father, Haridas Mitra, was a former Deputy Speaker of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly in the late 60s. Belanagar, a station on the Howrah – Bardhaman railway line, was named after his mother Bela Mitra for her contribution to the freedom struggle. Mr Mitra's maternal grandfather, Suresh Chandra Bose, was the elder brother of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
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