Sushil Kumar Modi
Bihar's long-serving deputy chief minister and finance minister, who helped build consensus for GST, honoured posthumously with the Padma Bhushan in 2025.
Sushil Kumar Modi served in all four of India’s legislative houses: the Bihar Assembly and Council, and both houses of Parliament. He was named for the Padma Bhushan in 2025, posthumously, in the field of public affairs, from Bihar [1].
From student politics
Modi was born on 5 January 1952 [2]. He was general secretary of the Patna University Students’ Union from 1973 to 1977, took part in the Jayaprakash Narayan movement and was imprisoned for 19 months during the Emergency [2]. He worked with the RSS and the ABVP, becoming the ABVP’s all-India general secretary [2].
Bihar’s finance minister
He was elected to the Bihar Assembly from Patna in 1990 and served as leader of the opposition from 1996 to 2004 [2]. He was deputy chief minister and finance minister of Bihar from 2005 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2020, the state’s longest-serving finance minister [2]. The citation credits him with turning Bihar into a revenue-surplus state and introducing a gender budget [2].
As chairman of the empowered committee of state finance ministers from 2011 to 2013, he played a key role in building consensus for the Goods and Services Tax [2]. He also served in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and campaigned for organ donation and blood donation for thalassemia patients [2].
Sushil Kumar Modi died on 13 May 2024 [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2025: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2025: citation for Sushil Kumar Modi — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 12 October 2026.
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