Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Indian economist and civil servant
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Through India, British Raj and Delhi
Early life and education
Montek Singh Ahluwalia was born in Rawalpindi, British India, as the son of Jagmohan Singh, a clerk with the Defence Accounts Department, and Pushp Kaur. He was educated at St. Patrick's High School, Secunderabad, and at Delhi Public School in Delhi. He then graduated with a B.A. (Hons.) degree in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, of the Delhi University.
Ahluwalia was a Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford, where he studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, as a graduate, obtaining an M.A. degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. He then read for an MPhil at St Antony's College, Oxford. While at Oxford, he was president of the Oxford Union. He has received several honorary degrees, including an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford and an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. He is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College.
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Career
After graduating from University of Oxford, Ahluwalia joined the World Bank in 1968. At the age of 28, he became the youngest "Division Chief" in the World Bank's bureaucracy, in charge of the Income Distribution Division in the World Bank's Development Research Centre. After his return to India in 1979 he took up the position of Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance. He held several senior positions as a civil servant, including Special Secretary to the Prime Minister, Commerce secretary, Secretary Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry and Finance Secretary. In 1998 he was appointed Member of the Planning Commission. In 2001, he was chosen by the Board of International Monetary Fund to be the first director of the newly created Independent Evaluation Office, in which capacity he supervised several studies critical of various aspects of the functioning of the IMF. In June 2004, he resigned from the IMF position to take up as the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission as part of the United Progressive Alliance government in New Delhi.
As deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, he supervised the preparation of both the Eleventh Plan (2007–08 to 2011–12) titled "Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth" and subsequently also the Twelfth Plan (2012–13 to 2016–17) titled "Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth".
He has published a number of articles on various aspects of the Indian economy in academic journals. He is one of the authors of "Redistribution with Growth" by Chenery et al., published by Oxford University Press in 1974. He has also written on various aspects of India's economic reforms and on the inclusiveness of India's growth process.
In 2011 Ahluwalia was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour for public service by Mrs Pratibha Patil, then President of India.
In February 2020, he published his book Backstage: The Story Behind India’s High Growth Years with Rupa Publications. The book is a mix of personal reflections and national economic history, and sets forth Ahluwalia's ideas on issues of contemporary significance including education, rural development and energy.
He currently holds the position of Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress - a New Delhi based think tank. In June 2021, Ahluwalia was named to the high level advisory group formed jointly by IMF and World bank in the face of dual challenges of Climate Change and COVID-19 pandemic.
Personal life
Ahluwalia was married to fellow economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia and has two sons Pawan Ahluwalia and Aman Ahluwalia.