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Ashwini Vaishnaw

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Ashwini Vaishnaw
Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 June 2024
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byAnurag Singh Thakur
Union Minister of Railways
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 July 2021
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byPiyush Goyal
Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 July 2021 (2021-07-07)
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byRavi Shankar Prasad
Union Minister of Telecommunications
In office
7 July 2021 – 11 June 2024
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byRavi Shankar Prasad
Succeeded byJyotiraditya Scindia
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office
28 June 2019
ConstituencyOdisha
Deputy Secretary, Prime Minister's Office
In office
2003-2004
Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee
Personal details
Born (1970-07-18) 18 July 1970 (age 54)
Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
Political party Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse
Sunita Vaishnaw
​
(m. 1995)​
[1]
Children2
Parents
  • Dau Lal Vaishnaw (father)
  • Saraswati Vaishnaw (mother)
EducationBEng
M.Tech
MBA
Alma mater
Occupation
Websitewww.ashwinivaishnaw.in
Source: rajyasabha.nic.in

Ashwini Vaishnaw (born 18 July 1970) is an Indian politician, former IAS officer and a businessman who is serving as the 39th Minister of Railways, the 35th Minister of Information and Broadcasting and the 2nd Minister of Electronics and Information Technology since 2024.

Earlier, he served as the 39th Minister of Railways, the 35th Minister of Information and Broadcasting, the 2nd Minister of Electronics and Information Technology since 2024. He is also a Member of the Rajya Sabha from Odisha representing Bharatiya Janata Party since 2019.

Early life and education

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Vaishnaw is originally a resident of Jeewand Kallan village of Pali district, Rajasthan. Later, his family settled in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.[3] [4][5]

Vaishnaw did his schooling at St. Anthony's Convent School, Jodhpur, and at Mahesh School, Jodhpur.[6] He graduated from MBM Engineering College (JNVU) Jodhpur in 1991 with a gold medal in an electronic and communications engineering course and then completed his M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur in Industrial and management engineering, before joining the Indian Administrative Service in 1994 with an all-India rank of 27.[7] In 2008, Vaishnaw left for the US to do his MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[8]

Civil servant

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In 1994, Vaishnaw joined the Indian Administrative Service in the Odisha cadre.[9] He worked extensively in different parts of Odisha including serving as the District Collector of Balasore and Cuttack districts. At the time of super cyclone 1999, he managed to collect data related to real timing and place of cyclone, by collecting that data Government of Odisha took safety measurements for people of Odisha. [9] He worked in Odisha till 2003 when he was appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After his brief stint in the PMO where he contributed to creating the public-private-partnership framework in infrastructure projects, Vaishnaw was appointed as Vajpayee's private secretary after the BJP-led NDA lost the election in 2004.[10]

In 2006, he became deputy chairman of Mormugao Port Trust, where he worked for next two years.[11]

Business and entrepreneurship

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He took an educational loan to complete his MBA at the Wharton Business School. He realized that it would barely take him months to payback the educational loan and eventually left civil service in 2010 to join private sector and open an Industry. He gained an MBA degree to get insights on how to run a successful business.[12]

After his MBA, Vaishnaw came back to India and joined GE Transportation as Managing Director.[13] Subsequently, he joined Siemens as the Vice President - Locomotives & Head Urban Infrastructure Strategy.[14]

In 2012, he set up Three Tee Auto Logistics Private Limited and Vee Gee Auto Components Private Limited, both automotive components manufacturing units in Gujarat.[7]

Political career

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Vaishnaw taking charge as Minister of Railways in New Delhi on 8 July 2021.

Vaishnaw is currently a Member of Indian Parliament, representing Odisha state in the Rajya Sabha. He won the Rajya Sabha election unopposed with the help of Biju Janata Dal members in Odisha.[15][16] Vaishnaw was appointed as member of Committee on Subordinate Legislation and Petitions and Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests.[17][18]

In 2019, Vaishnaw argued in the Parliament that the economic slowdown faced then by India was cyclical in nature and was not a structural slowdown, and that it was likely to bottom out by March 2020 and would be followed by solid growth. Vaishnaw firmly believes that the way to build the country is to put the money in investment rather than in consumption.[19]

Vaishnaw also supported the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on 5 December 2019 in Rajya Sabha. He believed the step of reducing or rather rationalizing the tax structure would increase the competitiveness of Indian industry and would also develop the capital base of the Indian industry. While supporting, he further argued that the particular rationalization of tax structure would help corporates de-leverage and increase the retained earnings and reserves and surplus, which would lay the foundation for the structural growth of the economy.[20]

Apart from these, he has also spoken on issues ranging from Ship Recycling Bill to Women Protection in Rajya Sabha to further the public discourse on those issues.[21][22]

Cabinet Minister in Modi 2.0

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In 2021, Vaishnaw took the dual charge of Ministry for Railways as well as Ministry for IT.[23] As union telecom minister, he launched the Sanchar Saathi portal in May 2023.[24]

Cabinet Minister in Modi 3.0

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Vaishnaw assuming charge as the Minister of Railways at Rail Bhavan for the second time.

In June 2024, in the 22nd cabinet reshuffle, he was given the responsibility of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.[25][26][27]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Shri Ashwini Vaishnav | National Portal of India". www.india.gov.in. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav embraces engineer on finding out they are alumnus of the same college". 10 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Statewise Retirement". 164.100.47.5. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  4. ^ "PM Modi Cabinet Expansion: जाति, क्षेत्र और समुदाय- पीएम मोदी की नई कैब‍िनेट के जरिये साधे जाएंगे सारे समीकरण". News18 Hindi (in Hindi). 7 July 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  5. ^ "मोदी की नई टीम में ये हैं 20 सबसे युवा चेहरे, कोई वकील तो किसी को मिल चुका है संसद रत्न पुरस्कार". Asianet News Network Pvt Ltd (in Hindi). Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  6. ^ "Ashwini Vaishnaw – Education". Ashwini Vaishnaw. 11 April 2024.
  7. ^ a b "BJP's Ashwini Vaishnaw elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Odisha". Hindustan Times. 29 June 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  8. ^ Ashwini Vaishnav RS Candidature Fuels BJD-BJP Deal Talk Odisha Bytes - 23 June 2019
  9. ^ a b "Ashwini Vaishnav RS Candidature Fuels BJD-BJP Deal Talk". ODISHA BYTES. 21 June 2019. Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  10. ^ Gupta, Moushumi Das (25 June 2019). "The ex-IAS officer who is bringing Narendra Modi and Naveen Patnaik together". ThePrint. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  11. ^ "In Odisha, BJD-BJP consensus candidate for Rajya Sabha bypoll joins BJP". Hindustan Times. 22 June 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  12. ^ "BJP's Ashwini Vaishnaw elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Odisha". Hindustan Times. 29 June 2019. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  13. ^ Mohanty, Meera (24 June 2019). "Naveen Patnaik's support to BJP man raises brows". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  14. ^ "Bureaucrats prefer MBA degree for better career prospects". www.businesstoday.in. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  15. ^ "2 from BJD, 1 from BJP elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha". www.theweekendleader.com. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  16. ^ "Odisha: Amar Patnaik, Sasmit Patra and Ashwini Baishnab elected to Rajya Sabha". Business Standard India. 28 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  17. ^ "Jual Oram to head parliamentary panel on defence". The Times of India. 15 September 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  18. ^ "Rajya Sabha Committees constituted; Prasanna Acharya to head the Committee on Petitions". OdishaDiary. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  19. ^ "Growth may have slowed, but there's no recession, says Nirmala Sitharaman". @businessline. 27 November 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  20. ^ "SYNOPSIS OF DEBATE - Rajya Sabha" (PDF). Rajya Sabha Official Website. 5 December 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 November 2020.
  21. ^ CHAIRMAN, DEPUTY; YAJNIK, AMEE; VAISHNAW, ASHWINI; ROY, SUKHENDU SEKHAR; SATHYANANTH, VIJILA; YADAV, RAM GOPAL; ACHARYA, PRASANNA; SINGH, RAMCHANDRA PRASAD; PRAKASH, BANDA; SOMAPRASAD, K.; SIVA, TIRUCHI; SHANMUGAM, M.; VISWAM, BINOY; TUNDIYA, MAHANT SHAMBHUPRASADJI; REDDY, T. SUBBARAMI; SINGH, VEER; KUMAR, KANAKAMEDALA RAVINDRA; SINHA, R. K.; MISTRY, MADHUSUDAN; LOKHANDWALA, JUGALSINH MATHURJI (8 January 2021). "The Recycling of Ships Bill, 2019". Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  22. ^ Service, Uniindia News. "Bill to recycle ships introduced in Rajya Sabha". Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  23. ^ "एक्शन मोड में नए रेल मंत्री:अश्विनी वैष्णव ने मंत्रालय में काम करने के समय में बदलाव किया, अब दो शिफ्टों में होगा काम; रेलवे की कमाई बढ़ाने पर फोकस". Dainik Bhaskar (in Hindi). 2021.
  24. ^ Livemint (17 May 2023). "Sanchar Saathi online portal to track, block lost mobile phones launched". mint. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
  25. ^ "Modi cabinet rejig: Full list of new ministers". India Today. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  26. ^ ""One Of The Most Brilliant...": Wharton Classmate On New IT Minister". NDTV.com. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  27. ^ Barik, Satyasundar (8 July 2021). "New Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has a vast experience in bureaucracy and corporate world". The Hindu. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of Communications
7 July 2021 – 9 June 2024 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Electronics and Information Technology
7 July 2021 – Present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Minister of Railways
7 July 2021 – Present 		Incumbent
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