Jairam Ramesh | |
|---|---|
 Jairam in 2012 | |
| Union Minister of Rural Development | |
| In office 13 July 2011 – 26 May 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh |
| Preceded by | Vilasrao Deshmukh |
| Succeeded by | Gopinath Munde |
| Union Ministry of Environment and Forests | |
| In office May 2009 – 12 July 2011 | |
| Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh |
| Preceded by | Manmohan Singh |
| Succeeded by | Jayanthi Natarajan |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha[1] | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Aayanur Manjunath |
| Constituency | Karnataka |
| In office 22 June 2004 – 21 June 2016 | |
| Preceded by | Yadlapati Venkata Rao |
| Succeeded by | Y. S. Chowdary |
| Constituency | Andhra Pradesh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1954-04-09)9 April 1954 (age 71) |
| Political party | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse | |
| Residence | New Delhi |
| Alma mater | IIT Bombay (B.Tech.) Carnegie Mellon University (M.S.) |
| Occupation | Politician |
As of 25 January, 2007 Source:[1] | |
Jairam Ramesh (born 9 April 1954) is a senior Indian politician to theIndian National Congress. He is aMember of Parliament representingKarnataka state in theRajya Sabha. In July 2011, Jairam was elevated to theUnion Council of Ministers of India and appointedMinister of Rural Development and Minister (additional charge) of the newMinistry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. However, in the cabinet reshuffle in October 2012, he was divested of the portfolio of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. He was previously the IndianMinister of State(Independent Charge) at theMinistry of Environment and Forests from May 2009 to July 2011.[a]
Jairam Ramesh was born in a Kannadiga family on 9 April 1954 inChikmagalur, Karnataka, India.[8][9] His father was C. K. Ramesh, and his mother, Sridevi Ramesh. His father was a professor of civil engineering inIIT Bombay.[3][10] He considers himself a practisingHindu withBuddhism ingrained and calls himself a 'Hind-Budh'.[3]
He married K. R. Jayashree on 26 January 1981.[3] He currently resides atLodi Gardens, Rajesh Pilot Marg, New Delhi. Till his election to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in July 2016, his permanent residence was atKhairatabad,Hyderabad,Telangana. His wife died in early 2019.[5]
Since childhood, Jairam has been strongly influenced byJawaharlal Nehru. He was fascinated by Nehru's anglicised, supposedly modern approach to life, changes brought by him in a traditional society and his alleged liberal, humanist, rational approach to life, women and civic matters. He considers himself a product of the Nehruvian era in many ways. An additional influence wasMahatma Gandhi, whom he earlier saw as anti-modern, anti-science and anti-West.[11] As he grew older and readGandhi more and viewed him in the political and historical context in which he operated, he came to appreciate and acknowledge Gandhi much more. He has also studiedRabindranath Tagore deeply.[11][12]
Jairam attendedSt. Xavier's School, Ranchi in 1961–1963 from grade 3 to 5. In his youth, he was intrigued by the ideas ofPaul Samuelson on issues such as population and growth, that got him thinking of economics and issues of life. When Ramesh was 17, in 1971, he readAsian Drama, one of the early books ofGunnar Myrdal and wrote to him at theStockholm International Peace Research Institute. Myrdal sent him a reply and asked to stay in touch.Asian Drama was very influential to Jairam's understanding of development planning in India.[12]
Jairam graduated fromIIT Bombay in 1975 with aB.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering. Between 1975 and 1977 he studied atCarnegie Mellon University'sHeinz College and received aMaster of Science inPublic Policy andPublic Management. In 1977–78, he started on the Doctoral program at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology, where he enrolled in the inter-disciplinary course on technology policy, economics, engineering, and management .[5] However, he did not continue with the program.
He is a member of the International Council of the New York-basedAsia Society. Jairam has been a Visiting Fellow and Affiliated Researcher of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, since 2002.[5]
In 1978, Jairam joined theWorld Bank for a short assignment. He returned toIndia in December 1979 and worked as assistant to economistLovraj Kumar at the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices. From 1983 to 1985 he was Officer on Special Duty in the Advisory Board of Energy. He then worked in thePlanning Commission (advisor toAbid Hussain),Ministry of Industry and other economic departments of theCentral Government, including: analysing energy policy during 1983–85, reorganising theCSIR in 1986 and implementing technology missions during 1987–89.[13]
In 1990, he worked as an "Officer on Special Duty" during theNational Front administration of theV.P. Singh government. He reorganised India's international trade agencies in 1990 and was OSD to the Prime Minister in 1991. But he was removed from PMO within few weeks. In 1991 he worked inManmohan Singh's finance ministry in theP. V. Narasimha Rao administration.[5]
Jairam participated in India's economic reforms in 1991 and 1997. He was advisor to the Deputy Chairman of thePlanning Commission in 1992–94, served on special mission toJammu and Kashmir during 1993–95 and was advisor to Finance MinisterPalaniappan Chidambaram between 1996 and 1998. The central government invited him to join the official delegation to theWorld Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999.[14]
From 2000 to 2002, Jairam served as deputy chairman, State Planning Board, Government ofKarnataka and on the Economic Advisory Council ofAndhra Pradesh. He also served on the eminent persons group of the Union Ministry of Power and other key government committees.[5]
Jairam also served as Secretary in theAll India Congress Committee, Deputy Chairman of theKarnataka Planning Board (2000–2002), member of theRajasthan Development Council (1999–2003), and Economic Advisor to the government of the state ofChhattisgarh (2001–03).[14] He was a member of the Congress Party's electoral strategy team for the 2004Lok Sabha cycle.[5]
In June 2004, he was elected to representAdilabad District, Andhra Pradesh in theRajya Sabha. Following the formation of the Congress-ledUnited Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2004, he joined theNational Advisory Council, where he helped put together UPA'sNational Common Minimum Program. From August 2004 – January 2006 he was a member of three committees of Parliament: thePublic Accounts Committee, the Standing Committee on Finance and the Committee on Government Assurances and was a member of the Court of theJawaharlal Nehru University.[5]
In February 2009, with the15th Lok Sabha elections approaching, he led the party's Poll Strategy Panel. At that time he resigned his posts asMinister of State for Power and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.
Following his 2009 re-election to the Indian Parliament, on 28 May 2009 Jairam was given independent charge of Environment and Forests as Minister of State in the Congress-led administration. He was chief negotiator for India at the2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference held inCopenhagen,Denmark, between 7 and 18 December 2009.[15]
Jairam was part of the 19-member 'Foundation Day Committee' of theAll India Congress Committee (AICC), under the chairmanship of party presidentSonia Gandhi, for planning the 2010 year-long celebrations of the 125th anniversary of the Congress Party.[16]
On 12 July 2011, Jairam was promoted toCabinet Minister and reassigned to charge of theMinistry for Rural Development and on 13 July 2011 was named Minister (Additional Charge) of the newMinistry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.[5][17]
Jairam has accepted the offer to serve as a member of the International Advisory Board (IAB) which gives strategic policy advice to the executive director of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on the programmatic direction of International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC).[18]
On 16 June 2022, Jairam was appointed Head of Media, including Social & Digital Media of Indian National Congress Party.[19]
Jairam Ramesh became a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha on a ticket from Indian National Congress Party.[20]
| Position | Party | Constituency | From | To | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (1st Term) | INC | Andhra Pradesh | 22 June 2004 | 21 June 2010 | 5 years, 364 days | |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2nd Term) | 22 June 2010 | 20 June 2016 | 5 years, 364 days | |||
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (3rd Term) | Karnataka | 1 July 2016 | 30 June 2022 | 5 years, 364 days | ||
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (4th Term) | 1 July 2022 | 30 June 2028 | 5 years, 365 days | |||
During his tenure, he falsely accused the villagers ofPithampur inMadhya Pradesh of secretly smuggling out toxic waste from Carbide factory and dumping it. Later he had to apologise and also assured that he would not repeat such action and will take villagers in consultation.[21]
On 19 December 2020, Jairam tendered apology to Vivek Doval and his family in regard to defamation case filed by latter, after Jairam accused Vivek Doval of dealing withblack money syndicate as per an article published inThe Caravan under the title ofThe D Companies. Jairam was out on bail issued in May 2019 by Delhi High Court.[22]
Jairam's been a columnist for theBusiness Standard,Business Today,The Telegraph,Times of India andIndia Today, sometimes under the pen-name "Kautilya".
He has also anchored a number of popular television programmes on business and the economy, includingBusiness Breakfast andCrossfire.Jairam is the author of the books:
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