Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, who was finance minister of West Bengal, passed away on this day. He was a freedom fighter and an industrialist.
He had participated in the movement against the Partition of Bengal in 1905 and later, in the Non-Cooperation Movement. His ideas of economics were rooted in the freedom struggle. The Sarkar Committee Report, which he presided over, led to the establishment of the four Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
In 1936, he had organised the Krishak Praja Party with A.K. Fazlul Huq. In 1937, he had joined the first Huq ministry as finance minister. He became finance minister of West Bengal in 1948 and was chief minister for a few months in 1949. He had chaired a three-person expert committee to draft the sections on finance of the Indian constitution. He had risen from a low rank to become the president of Hindusthan Cooperative Insurance Society.
He headed chambers of commerce and held high positions in the most important educational institutions then, including Calcutta University and Presidency College.
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