Haseeb Drabu

Haseeb A Drabu is professional economist with a diverse skill set and wide-ranging experience. He has worked as a lawmaker, policy planner, banker and an economic commentator.

Haseeb A Drabu
Former Finance Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
Personal details
Born1961
Gogji Bagh Srinagar
EducationMPhil
Alma materCentre for Development Studies (Trivandrum)
Occupationeconomist

In 2014, Drabu joined the J&K Peoples Democratic Party (J&KPDP) [1][2] Later in the year, he contested and won with a huge margin the elections to the Legislative Assembly of J&K from Rajpora Constituency in Pulwana district.[3] He continues to be a member of the Legislative Assembly of J&K.

His most recent engagement, 2015 to 2018, has been as finance minister, of J&K.

Under his watch as the finance minister of J&K, Jammu and Kashmir reached Rank 7 in fiscal management, leaving behind states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. This is as per the Public Affairs Index (PAI) by the Public Affairs Centre India, a not-for-profit research think tank. When he took over it was ranked 24th in financial management.[4]

In early 2015, J&K PDP founder & patron, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed chose Drabu as the interlocutor from his party to hammer out an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. After three months of negotiations with BJP, Drabu along with Ram Madhav of the BJP scripted the basis of the BJP-PDP alliance.[5] Soon after Drabu was dropped from the cabinet in March 2018,[6] the alliance broke and the BJP-PDP government in J&K fell.[7]

As a state finance minister, he was an active member of the GST council[8] in its most crucial phase of formulating and introducing the new tax regime in India.[9] It was his initiative that the historic meeting of the GST Council which approved the rate structure, was held at Srinagar; first time outside New Delhi.

As finance minister of J&K, he designed and negotiated a Rs 80,000 crore development package for J&K which was announced by the prime minister in May 2015.[10] He also negotiated the first-ever FDI to set up a logistics hub in J&K.[11] He introduced a new state budget structure and a new government payments system.

Drabu has been involved with national economic policy making in India for a decade at the highest level, including in the Planning Commission, Finance Commission and the Economic Advisory Council of the prime minister. He was instrumental in writing of the report of the Tenth Finance Commission which changed the fiscal federal relations in India.

He has worked as the Economic Advisor, the principal economic policy maker, at the state level for seven years. He was chairman and chief executive of a J&K Bank, a large private bank, for five years. Those five years are widely seen as having been transformational years for the bank.

He has been on the boards and also advised a clutch of top Indian corporates on the macroeconomic situation, emerging businesses, and risk management. With an abiding interest in corporate governance, he has helped family businesses set up a governance structure and create a governance code. In his avatar as editor of a business daily, he made his mark as a widely respected and incisive columnist on macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policy. He has been a regular commentator on economic issues for the last 25 years. He has written a widely read fortnightly column for Wall Street Journal partner in India, the business daily, Mint Method and Manner.[12] Prior to this he wrote a weekly column Back to Basics in the Business Standard [13] which was that time publishing in partnership with Financial Times, London.

While he is known to be the foremost expert on J&K economy, he has an abiding interest in the political economy and history of J&K. He has written extensively on various dimensions of the Kashmir issue in leading local daily Greater Kashmir. He wrote a weekly column for Greater Kashmir from 2011 till 2015 on political, governance, constitutional, fiscal and cultural issues of Jammu & Kashmir.[14]

References
  1. "Economist Drabu joins PDP". Greater Kashmir. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  2. Wani, Riyaz. "A Radical Banks On His Integrity | Tehelka - Investigations, Latest News, Politics, Analysis, Blogs, Culture, Photos, Videos, Podcasts". old.tehelka.com. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  3. "PDP Candidate for Rajpora Dr Haseeb Drabu show victory sign after winning the Assembly... | The Hindu Images". thehinduimages.com. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  4. "In fiscal management, J&K climbs from rank 24 to rank 7". Greater Kashmir. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  5. "BJP-PDP alliance in J&K: How two men worked out the deal and became friends". The Indian Express. 16 March 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  6. "Too Good To Play Number 2". Outlook (India). Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  7. "BJP-PDP fallout: Mehbooba erred in sacking Haseeb Drabu, says analyst as Mufti tries to keep flock together". Firstpost. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  8. Padmanabhan, Anil (18 May 2017). "Why the GST Council meet in Srinagar is important". Mint. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  9. "Cracked House". Kashmir Life. 22 March 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  10. "Modi announces Rs.80,000-crore package for Jammu and Kashmir". The Hindu. PTI. 7 November 2015. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 1 November 2019.CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. "Dr Drabu signs J&K's first ever FDI MoU in Dubai". Kashmir Life. 11 February 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  12. Drabu, Haseeb (27 February 2018). "15th Finance Commission: Mandate sans Mission". Mint. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  13. Drabu, Haseeb A. (19 February 2004). "Toying with capitalism". Business Standard India. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  14. Drabu, Haseeb (13 February 2014). "Speech sans substance" (PDF). Greater Kashmir. Retrieved 2 November 2019.

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/too-good-to-play-number-2/299924 https://www.firstpost.com/politics/bjp-pdp-alliance-falls-apart-mistake-to-sack-haseeb-drabu-say-jammu-and-kashmir-leaders-as-mehbooba-tries-to-keep-flock-together-4550171.html https://kashmirlife.net/dr-drabu-signs-jks-first-ever-fdi-mou-in-dubai-164868/ https://kashmirlife.net/cracked-house-issue-51-vol-09-168860/

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