Jitendra Singh | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of State forPrime Minister's Office | |
| Assumed office 26 May 2014 | |
| President | Ramnath Kovind Droupadi Murmu |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Union Minister of State forPersonnel, Public Grievances and Pensions | |
| Assumed office 26 May 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Union Minister of State for theDepartment of Space andDepartment of Atomic Energy | |
| Assumed office 26 May 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences | |
| In office 7 July 2021 – 18 May 2023 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Harsh Vardhan |
| Succeeded by | Kiren Rijiju |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 8 November 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Jaipal Reddy |
| Succeeded by | Harsh Vardhan |
| Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region | |
| In office 9 November 2014 – 7 July 2021 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | V. K. Singh |
| Succeeded by | G. Kishan Reddy |
| Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology | |
| Assumed office 7 July 2021 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Harsh Vardhan |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 8 November 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Jaipal Reddy |
| Succeeded by | Harsh Vardhan |
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| Assumed office 5 June 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Chaudhary Lal Singh |
| Constituency | Udhampur,J&K |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1956-11-06)6 November 1956 (age 69) |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Devender Singh Rana(brother) |
| Residence |
|
| Alma mater | |
| Profession | Physician |
| Website | www |
Jitendra Singh Rana (born 6 November 1956) is an Indian physician and politician who is serving as the 18thMinister of Science and Technology and 12thMinister of Earth Sciences since 2024. ForPrime Minister's Office;Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions;Department of Atomic Energy andDepartment of Space.[2] He was elected to18th Lok Sabha fromUdhampur with the majority of 124,373 votes.[3]
He is aBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive member and was the chief spokesperson for the union territory ofJammu and Kashmir.[4][5] He won theUdhampur seat in the Indian general election,2014 and2019 with highest ever margin of votes[6] for the16th Lok Sabha and17th Lok Sabha.[7]
Singh was born inJammu, in the erstwhileIndian state ofJammu and Kashmir, into aHinduDogra Rajput family as the elder child[8] to parents Rajinder Singh and Shanti Devi.[9][10] His family belongs to theMarmat area in theDoda district.[11]
Singh is a doctor, and he did his schooling atScindia School,Gwalior, passing out in 1972.[12] He completed his medical education atStanley Medical College,Chennai, andAll India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.[13]
Singh married Manju Singh. They have two sons.[9]
Besides being a medical doctor, Singh has also worked as a newspaper columnist. Initially he wrote forKashmir Times. Subsequently, he switched toDaily Excelsior,[10] which is the largest circulated newspaper ofJammu and Kashmir. His weekly columnTales of Travesty used to feature in the editorial section of the newspaper until hiselection to the Lok Sabha in 2014.[14]
He was a professor of diabetes and endocrinology,[15] Life Patron,[16] Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI); Founder Executive Member, Diabetes in Pregnancy Study India, a consultant, clinical practitioner, author of eight books, and a newspaper columnist. He is the ex-chairman for the National Scientific Committee Diabetes and the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India.
In 2008, Singh was appointed spokesperson of the Shri Amarnathji Sangharsh Samiti, an umbrella organisation of right wing parties during theAmarnath land transfer controversy.[10] During his stint with the organisation, he took premature retirement as a professor ofendocrinology in theGovernment Medical College, Jammu to join theBharatiya Janata Party in 2012.[17][18] However, the party refused to make him a candidate for the2009 Indian general election.[19]
In March 2014, the party announced that Singh would contest the upcominggeneral election fromUdhampur constituency in his native Jammu.[20] His primary competitor wasGhulam Nabi Azad of theIndian National Congress party who was a formerchief minister of the state.[21] Singh was elected to theLok Sabha after defeating Azad by a margin of 60,976 votes. Singh was polled 487,369 votes while Azad was polled 426,393 votes.[22]
On 26 May 2014, Singh was appointedMinister of State in thePrime Minister's Office, Minister of State forPersonnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Minister of State forDepartment of Atomic Energy andDepartment of Space. He also became the Union Minister of State (Independent charge) in theMinistry of Science and Technology andMinistry of Earth Sciences.[9][2]
In March 2019, the party renominated Singh as its candidate from the Udhampur constituency for the upcominggeneral election. His main rival wasVikramaditya Singh of the Congress party and supported byJammu and Kashmir National Conference party - Vikramaditya Singh was also the grandson ofHari Singh, the last monarch of theformer princely state. Jitendra Singh fought the election on his "development report card".[23] Notable campaigners for him included Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, party presidentAmit Shah,Home MinisterRajnath Singh,Ram Madhav and cricketerGautam Gambhir.[24] Jitendra Singh was re-elected to the Lok Sabha after defeating Vikramaditya Singh by approximately 350,000 votes. Jitendra Singh was polled 7,15,406 votes compared to his rival's 3,66,123 votes.[25]
On 31 May 2019, it was announced that Singh had retained his ministries in theSecond Modi ministry.[26] Singh was re-elected in 2024 and retained his ministries inThird Modi ministry.
_for_Science_and_Technology_and_Earth_Sciences%2c_in_New_Delhi_on_May_28%2c_2014.jpg)
As a minister of science and technology, Singh launched India's first indigenously maderesearch vessel named "Sindhu Sadhana" on 14 July 2014 fromMormugao harbour inGoa.[27] In a written response to the Lok Sabha on 31 July, he announced that India had signed cooperative arrangements with 33 countries for "peaceful use of outer space". He further added that areas of co-operation includedremote sensing of earth,launch services, satellite communication,telemetry,space exploration andspace law.[28] He further launched India's first home-made broad spectrumconfocal microscope on 7 October atNew Delhi.[29] He announced that the government was considering increasing the retirement age of scientists to 62 years.[30] The ministry increased the stipend of researchers by 50% at the end of the month.[31] On 8 November 2014, Singh was replaced byHarsh Vardhan, another doctor as the minister of science and technology and earth sciences.[32]
During Singh's ministership, the fourthIndian Regional Navigation Satellite System was launched byISRO in April 2015 which would provide "navigation and communication facility to all the surrounding countries".[33] On 29 April 2018, he along with ISRO chairmanK. Sivan confirmed that India would send a crewed mission to the moon by 2022 as proposed by Prime Minister Modi.[34]
During Singh's tenure as the minister of personnel, public grievances and pension, theUnion Public Service Commission refused to count the marks of English comprehension in theCivil Services Aptitude Test. This violated the status quo of the question paper as suggested by theArvind Varma committee.[35] Interviews were discontinued for lower tier government jobs as well the need of attestation by a gazetted officer was also discontinued.[14] On 20 March 2019,Pinaki Chandra Ghose, a formerSupreme Court judge was appointed as India's firstLokpal.[14][36]
%2c_Prime_Minister%25E2%2580%2599s_Office%2c_Personnel%2c_Public_Grievances_%2526_Pensions%2c_Atomic_Energy_and_Space.jpg)
On 8 November 2014, in a cabinet reshuffle, Singh was appointed Minister of State (Independent charge) in theMinistry of Development of North Eastern Region and replacedV.K. Singh.[37] In the ministry, he introduced the use of satellite imaging for surveying and building roads and for "preparation of utilisation certificates with fool-proof accuracy". He advisedSarbananda Sonowal, theChief Minister of Assam to utilise the Assam Remote Sensing Application Centre to construct smart cities and in urban development.[38] On 23 November 2015, Singh announced that the central government has decided to makeMizoram a "bamboo state" and the ministry proposed steps for the commercial utilisation of the state's bamboo potential.[39]
In January 2016, he said that theNortheast India was "emerging destination for new Startups". In theStartup India scheme launched by Modi, the ministry added an additional incentive, "venture" funds. This fund would provide the aspiring entrepreneurs "relief from financial liabilities" and thus according to Singh, youth from other parts of India would "participate in the development of the North-Eastern States".[40]
In September 2018,Pakyong Airport,Sikkim's first greenfield airport was inaugurated by Modi. Previously, Singh had set up a deadline of 2017.[41][42] In the same month, he announced that an airport would also be built inArunachal Pradesh.[43]
On 17 November 2014, the party announced that Singh was appointed the head of the 18-member Election Campaign Committee for the upcominglegislative assembly election in his native state.[44] He formulated the strategy for the party.[10] However, no party managed to get a majority in the election.[10] The media speculated that Singh might become the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir as he had the support ofNarendra Modi andAmit Shah and was popular amongst the Hindus ofJammu.[45] The party negotiated withJammu and Kashmir National Conference party in order to form a coalition government. However, talks fell flat when the National Conference rejected the demand of a Hindu chief minister for which Singh was a front runner.[10]
Singh said that theArticle 370 of the Constitution of India, which gave a special status to the state ofJammu and Kashmir was temporary in nature and quoted India's first prime ministerJawaharlal Nehru for the same.[46] He alleged that Congress and National Conference parties had fooled the people of the state "in the name of Article 370". He further criticised former chief ministerSheikh Abdullah for misusing the article to lengthen the term of the assembly.[47]
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