Ashok Lavasa

Ashok Lavasa (IAST: ) (born 21 October 1957) is a retired 1980 batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Haryana cadre and was one of the two Election Commissioners of India. He has also served as the Finance Secretary of India, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Secretary of India and Civil Aviation Secretary of India. He served as the vice president of Asian Development Bank (ADB) from August 2020 to August 2023.

Education Ashok Lavasa did his schooling from Belgaum Military School. He is a graduate (BA Honours) from Delhi University and a postgraduate (MA) in English from Hindu College, Delhi of Delhi University. He has an MBA degree from Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia, He assumed office on 1 January 2014, He assumed office on 29 August 2014, He assumed office on 30 April 2016,

Post-retirement

Election Commissioner of India Post-retirement, Lavasa was appointed as one of the two Election Commissioners of India in January 2018. He assumed charge as Election Commissioner on 23 January 2018.

Lavasa made headlines in 2019 after a dissenting opinion on a panel's ruling of complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah during the Lok Sabha election campaign.

Six complaints were filed against PM Modi. Lavasa disagreed with his panel colleagues in some of these cases.

He soon stopped attending meetings, saying "minority decisions" were being "suppressed in a manner contrary to well-established conventions observed by multi-member statutory bodies".

In December 2019, Lavasa in an article in the Indian Express wrote: "The honest, however, go on regardless, perhaps driven by an inner force that borders on recklessness. A society that creates hurdles which exhaust the honest or wound them paves the path for its own perdition".

This was two months after an income tax notice was sent to his wife, Novel S Lavasa, over alleged discrepancies in filings. Sources had said the information had been sought "related to foreign exchange". Mrs Lavasa said she had "paid all taxes due" and "disclosed all income" and that she was cooperating.

He served as vice president of Asian Development Bank (ADB) from 31 August 2020 to 31 August 2023.

Work

Lavasa, Ashok (2021): An Ordinary Life: Portrait of an Indian Generation. Harper India