Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat became the new Finance Minister of Nepal in February 2014, his sixth stint in this job intermittently since 1994. Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, a senior leader of Nepali Congress, combines a rare background of an active politician and a technocrat. Born in a middle class family in Nuwakot district of rural Nepal, he became politically active since early student days when he was imprisoned at the age of 14 while participating in a student demonstration. One of the leading student activists in his college and university days in Nepal, he was imprisoned several times by the autocratic monarchial regime in the sixtees and seventees. After his graduation in 1968 with a gold medal, he taught in a secondary school in the remote district in Lamjung and became its headmaster at the age of 19. In 1971, he became the General Secretary of Nepal Students Union, the largest students asociation affiliated with Nepali Congress – outlawed by the autocratic monarchil regime from 1961 until 1990.He did his Masters in Economics from Trivuban University in 1972 with a gold medal.
Despite being selected for scholarship, he was denied an opportunity to go abroad for advanced studies by the Panchayat government because of his political background. Instead, he was incarcerated for two years (1973-75) under Security Act without any charge sheet. After his release, he went to Gokhale Institute of Economics in Pune, India in 1976 for his Ph.D under a Government of India scholarship. He completed his degree in 1979.
