Jairam Ramesh

Jairam Ramesh (born 9 April 1954) is a senior Indian politician to the Indian National Congress. He is a Member of Parliament representing Karnataka state in the Rajya Sabha. In July 2011, Jairam was elevated to the Union Council of Ministers of India and appointed Minister of Rural Development and Minister (additional charge) of the new Ministry 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 Indian Minister of State (Independent Charge) at the Ministry of Environment and Forests from May 2009 to July 2011.

Personal Jairam Ramesh was born in a Iyengar family on 9 April 1954 in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, India. His father was C. K. Ramesh, and his mother, Sridevi Ramesh. His father was a professor of civil engineering in IIT Bombay. He considers himself a practising Hindu with Buddhism ingrained and calls himself a 'Hind-Budh'.

Since childhood, Jairam has been strongly influenced by Jawaharlal 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 was Mahatma Gandhi, whom he earlier saw as anti-modern, anti-science and anti-West.

Education Jairam attended St. Xavier's School, Ranchi in 1961–1963 from grade 3 to 5. In his youth, he was intrigued by the ideas of Paul 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 read Asian Drama, one of the early books of Gunnar Myrdal and wrote to him at the Stockholm 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.

In 1990, he worked as an "Officer on Special Duty" during the National Front administration of the V.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 in Manmohan Singh's finance ministry in the P. V. Narasimha Rao administration.

From 2000 to 2002, Jairam served as deputy chairman, State Planning Board, Government of Karnataka and on the Economic Advisory Council of Andhra Pradesh. He also served on the eminent persons group of the Union Ministry of Power and other key government committees.

Jairam was part of the 19-member 'Foundation Day Committee' of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), under the chairmanship of party president Sonia Gandhi, for planning the 2010 year-long celebrations of the 125th anniversary of the Congress Party.

On 12 July 2011, Jairam was promoted to Cabinet Minister and reassigned to charge of the Ministry for Rural Development and on 13 July 2011 was named Minister (Additional Charge) of the new Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

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).

On 16 June 2022, Jairam was appointed Head of Media, including Social & Digital Media of Indian National Congress Party.

Jairam Ramesh became a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha on a ticket from Indian National Congress Party.

Election History Rajya Sabha

Controversies

During his tenure, he falsely accused the villagers of Pithampur in Madhya 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.

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 with black money syndicate as per an article published in The Caravan under the title of The D Companies. Jairam was out on bail issued in May 2019 by Delhi High Court.

Journalism Jairam's been a columnist for the Business Standard, Business Today, The Telegraph, Times of India and India Today, sometimes under the pen-name "Kautilya".

He has also anchored a number of popular television programmes on business and the economy, including Business Breakfast and Crossfire. Jairam is the author of the books:

Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India (2005), Foreword by Strobe Talbott. Mobilising Technology for World Development (Co-editor, 1979) To The Brink and Back : India's 1991 Story (2015) One History, New Geography (2016) Indira Gandhi: A Life in Nature (2017) Intertwined Lives: P.N. Haksar & Indira Gandhi (2018) A Chequered Brilliance: The Many Lives of V.K. Krishna Menon (2019) THE LIGHT OF ASIA (2021)