Born on 28 August 1948, Raha graduated in Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering, specializing in Industrial Electronics from Jadavpur University in 1969, with several prizes including the medal for being the Best All-rounder graduate of the University. Later he did his MBA with Distinction at the University of Leeds in 1985, specializing in Strategic Marketing. He was also an alumnus of the Administrative Staff College, Henley.
Raha served on deputation in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India, as the Head of the Oil Coordination Committee, the nodal agency for planning, monitoring and control of Oil & Gas business under the Administered Pricing regime. On this assignment, he managed, among other things, national logistics, strategic planning, canalised imports/exports, administered pricing and reform strategy. He conceptualised the Petroleum Federation of India, the Chamber of Commerce for Oil and Gas Industry. He is a founding-member of the Petrotech Society, chartered to promote academics in India's Oil & Gas Industry.
IndianOil
Raha served IndianOil from 1970 to 2001. He served as Director , and concurrently, Director in-charge of Business Development, Information Technology and Corporate Communications of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. During his years in IndianOil, Mr. Raha handled field and staff assignments in Supply & Distribution, Plant Operations, Engineering, Sales, HR and Marketing. He created several Indian Firsts: networked on-line transaction processing across India, real-time automated product terminals, and modern Retail Outlets with Convenience Stores & ATM. Several of his innovations, especially in Logistics and LPG cooking gas marketing, became Industry standards. As Director, he set up India's first in-house MBA programme. He conceptualized and piloted the first global-scale ERP implementation in India. He created the IndianOil Foundation to protect, preserve and promote the archaeological heritage of India. He set up lubricant blending in Malaysia and retail marketing in Mauritius. He successfully managed privatization of Lubrizol India Ltd. He was Chairman or Director on several JVs including IndianOil Petronas Ltd. During 1999-2004, Mr. Raha played a key role in Petronet LNG Ltd., a PPP company for initiating LNG business in India.
Death
Raha died in New Delhi on 1 February 2010 of lung cancer. He is survived by his wife and two children, a daughter and a son.
Remembrance
Annually, UN Global Compact Network India organizes the Subir Raha Memorial Lecture. After his death, Subir Raha Oil Museum was established at the premises of ONGC HQ in Dehradun.
