Rafi Ahmed Kidwai

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai (18 February 1894 – 24 October 1954) was a politician, an Indian independence activist and a socialist. Kidwai served as Minister of Agriculture in the interim government of India and as first Minister of Communications in the first cabinet of independent India. He was also the first Member of Parliament for Bahraich and before that a member of the Constituent Assembly.

Biography Rafi Ahmed Kidwai was born on 18 February 1894 in a middle class family in the village of Masauli, in Barabanki district (now in Uttar Pradesh).

Legacy The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award was created in 1956 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to recognize Indian researchers in the agricultural field. Awards are distributed every second year, and take the form of medals, citations, and cash prizes. In his famous autobiography, Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned that Rafi Ahmad Kidwai was part of District Congress Committee and had signed a book containing recommendations to solve agrarian problem in United Provinces of British India in 1931.

According to Parliament of India or Rajya Sabha website, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai profile says:

"An eminent patriot, valiant freedom fighter and brilliant administrator, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai was a man of drive, quick decisions and firm action".

In November 2011, the Postal Staff College in Ghaziabad was named as the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai National Postal Academy.

There is also a street named after him in Kolkata.

There is a road named after him in Wadala Mumbai.

The Parliament of India has a portrait of Kidwai in a Committee Room.

Rafi Ahmed Kidwai also played a major role in donating 20 acres of the campus land and Rs. 100,000 for the radiotherapy machine for the establishment of cancer care hospital in Bangalore Karnataka state, India which is named after him - Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.