Jyotiraditya Scindia | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2021 | |
| 43rdUnion Minister of Communications | |
| Assumed office 10 June 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Ashwini Vaishnaw |
| 10thUnion Minister of the Development of North Eastern Region | |
| Assumed office 10 June 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | G. Kishan Reddy |
| 32ndUnion Minister of Civil Aviation | |
| In office 7 July 2021 – 10 June 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Hardeep Singh Puri |
| Succeeded by | Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu |
| 34thUnion Minister of Steel | |
| In office 6 July 2022 – 10 June 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Ramchandra Prasad Singh |
| Succeeded by | H. D. Kumaraswamy |
| 30thUnion Minister of Power andCorporate Affairs | |
| In office 28 October 2012 – 26 May 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Manmohan Singh |
| Preceded by | Veerappa Moily |
| Succeeded by | Piyush Goyal |
| Member of Parliament,Lok Sabha | |
| Assumed office 4 June 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Dr. K. P. Yadav |
| Constituency | Guna, Madhya Pradesh |
| In office 2002 — 23 May 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Madhavrao Scindia |
| Succeeded by | Dr. K. P. Yadav |
| Constituency | Guna, Madhya Pradesh |
| Member of Parliament,Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 20 June 2020 – 4 June 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Satyanarayan Jatiya |
| Succeeded by | George Kurian |
| Constituency | Madhya Pradesh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (1971-01-01)1 January 1971 (age 55) |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party (2020–present) |
| Other political affiliations | Indian National Congress (2001–2020) |
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| Relatives | SeeScindia family |
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| Alma mater | Harvard University (B.A.) Stanford University (M.B.A.) |
| Occupation |
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Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia (born 1 January 1971;Hindi pronunciation:[d͡ʒjoːt̪ɪɾaːd̪ɪt̪jəmaːd̪ʱəʋ.ɾaːʋsɪn̪d̪ʱɪjaː]) is anIndian politician who is serving as the 56thMinister of Communications and 10thMinister of Development of North Eastern Region since 2024. He was aMember of Parliament in theRajya Sabha representing the state ofMadhya Pradesh from 2020 till his win in the2024 Lok Sabha elections.[1] He was aMember of Parliament in theLok Sabha, representing theGuna constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2002 until his defeat in the2019 Indian general election, and then since 4 June 2024. He is a former member of theIndian National Congress (INC) from 2001 to 2020 and a member of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2020. While a member of the INC, he was the Union Minister for Power and Corporate in thesecond Manmohan Singh ministry from 2012 to 2014.
Scindia is the son of politicianMadhavrao Scindia, and a grandson ofJiwajirao Scindia, the last ruler of theprincely state ofGwalior during theBritish Raj in India. Jyotiraditya was briefly the titular Crown Prince of Gwalior in 1971, until the privy purses and titles of Indian royals were abolished by the government in 1971.
Scindia was born on 1 January 1971 inMumbai toMadhavrao Scindia and Madhavi Raje Scindia. He originally belongs toKurmi caste.[2]
Scindia was educated atCampion School, Mumbai and atThe Doon School,Dehradun.[3] At Doon School, Scindia was a contemporary ofRahul Gandhi.[4] He then studied atSt. Stephen's College, Delhi. He later went toHarvard College, the undergraduateliberal arts college ofHarvard University, where he graduated with BA degree inEconomics in 1993. In 2001, he received aMaster of Business Administration from theStanford Graduate School of Business.[5][6][7]
Scindia is a grandson ofJiwajirao Scindia, the last Maharaja of theprincely state ofGwalior. His father Madhavrao was a politician and a minister in the government ofRajiv Gandhi. His mother, Madhavi Raje (Kiran Rajya Lakshmi Devi), hails from theRana dynasty ofNepal. He is married to Priyadarshini Raje of the prominentGaekwad dynasty ofBaroda (who studied atFort Convent School, Mumbai and laterSophia College.[8]
On 30 September 2001, the Guna constituency fell vacant due to the death of Scindia's father, the sitting MP Madhavrao Scindia, in an aeroplane crash inUttar Pradesh.[9] On 18 December, he formally joined the INC and pledged to uphold the "secular, liberal and social justice values" of his father.[10]
On 24 February, he won theby-election in Guna, defeating his nearest rival, Desh Raj Singh Yadav of the BJP, by a margin of approximately 450,000 votes.[11] He was re-elected in May 2004,[12] and was introduced to the Union Council of Ministers in 2007 as Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology. He was then re-elected in 2009 for a third consecutive term and became Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.[13]
He was appointed Minister of State for Communication in 2007 later as minister of state independent charge for Power in a cabinet reshuffle which drafted a number of younger politicians into the Indian cabinet, including two other scions of princely families,R. P. N. Singh andJitendra Singh.[14]
He was among the richest ministers in theUPA government with assets valued at₹25 crore (US$3.0 million) including investments in Indian and foreign securities worth over₹16 crore (US$2 million) and jewellery worth over₹5.7 crore (US$674,203).[15] In 2010, he filed a legal claim to be the sole inheritor of the property belonging to his late father worth₹20,000 crore (US$2 billion), however this was challenged in court by his aunts.[16][clarification needed]
He was tasked by theIndian Planning Commission with preventing a repetition of theJuly 2012 India blackout, thelargest power outage in history, which affected over 620 million people (about 9% of the world population).[17][18][19] In May 2013, he claimed that checks and balances had been put in place to prevent any recurrence of grid collapse and that India would have the world's largest integrated grid by January 2014.[20]
In 2014, he was elected from Guna.[21] In 2019, he lost his seat toKrishna Pal Singh Yadav. In 2019, he was appointed as General Secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh West along withPriyanka Gandhi Vadra.[22]
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Citing disgruntlement with the INC leadership, Scindia quit the Congress party on10 March 2020. The Congress party then released a statement claiming that he had been expelled for "anti-party activities." He joined the BJP on 11 March 2020.[23][24] Other MLAs loyal to him also resigned from the INC and their MLA posts. This led to the2020 Madhya Pradesh political crisis which in turn resulted in the resignation ofKamal Nath aschief minister on 23 March 2020. Nath's replacement,Shivraj Singh Chouhan, was sworn in aschief minister of Madhya Pradesh on 23 March 2020.[25]
On 19 June 2020, Scindia was elected a BJPRajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh.[26] On 7 July 2021, he was appointed as theMinister of Civil Aviation inSecond Modi ministry after a cabinet reshuffle in July 2021.[27]
In February 2022, he was appointed Prime Minister Modi's special envoy to Romania to oversee the evacuation of Indian nationals in Ukraine resulting from the ongoingRussian invasion of Ukraine. As a part ofOperation Ganga, he oversaw the evacuation efforts of students and Indian professionals throughBucharest andSuceava.[28]
Scindia is the chairman of the regionalMadhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA).[29] After thespot fixing scandal in theIndian Premier League was made apparent andSanjay Jagdale, a member of the MPCA, resigned from his post as secretary in theBoard of Control for Cricket in India, Scindia spoke out against corruption in Indian cricket.[30]
He is the president of the Board of Governors ofScindia School andScindia Kanya Vidyalaya which was founded by his great-grandfather,Madho Rao Scindia, in 1897.[31][32] He is a hereditary patron ofDaly College, Indore which was established in 1870 to educate the children of the royalty,nobility, and aristocracy of Central Indian princely states of theMarathas,Rajputs andBundelas.[33] He is also the chairman ofMadhav Institute of Technology and Science.[34] and President ofSamrat Ashok Technological Institute (SATI, Vidisha)[35]
| Lok Sabha | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forGuna 2002 – 2019 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of Power 29 October 2012 - 26 May 2014 (Minister of State with Independent charge) | Succeeded by Piyush Goyal (Minister of State with Independent charge) |
| Preceded by Hardeep Singh Puri (Minister of State with Independent charge) | Minister of Civil Aviation 7 July 2021 – Present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Minister of Steel 6 July 2022 – Present | Incumbent |
