JAIRAM RAMESH is presently a Congress Member of Parliament representing Andhra Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha. He is a member of three committees of Parliament---the Public Accounts Committee, the Standing Committee on Finance and the Committee on Government Assurances--- and a member of the Court of JNU, New Delhi. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council (www.nac.nic.in) that is chaired by Smt. Sonia Gandhi. He helped put together the National Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) that came to power in May 2004. Earlier he was part of the Congress election strategy team for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

He was former secretary in the AICC, formerly deputy chairman Karnataka Planning Board (2000-2002), formerly member of the Rajasthan Development Council (1999-2003), formerly Economic Advisor to the government of Chattisgarh (2001-03).

He had also been invited by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to serve on its Economic Advisory Council. He also serves on the eminent persons group of the Union Ministry of Power and other key government committees.

Jairam has earlier been Advisor to the Finance Minister during 1996-98, Advisor to the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission 1992-94 and Advisor to the Prime Minister 1991. He has served in the Planning Commission, Ministry of Industry and other economic departments of the Central government. He has been entrusted with numerous special assignments like, for example in J&K during 1993-95, for reorganizing India's international trade agencies in 1990 and for implementing the technology missions during 1987-89, for reorganizing the CSIR in 1986 and for analyzing energy policy during 1983-85. The present central government invited him to join the official delegation to the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999.

He has authored a number of key government reports in areas as diverse as energy, technology, capital goods, industrial policy and telecom. He was a key player in the team that formulated and implemented India's economic reforms in 1991 and 1997. He serves on the boards of a number of public institutions in India and abroad. He has been a founding member of the Indian School of Business promoted by McKinsey in Hyderabad and is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Asia Society.

He writes a widely-read column on economics and public policy called Kautilya in The Times of India. He has also anchored a number of popular television programmes on business and the economy including Business Breakfast and Crossfire.

He studied public management at Carnegie Mellon University during 1975-77. He thereafter spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) studying technology policy, economics, engineering and management as part of the newly-established inter-disciplinary technology policy programme. His undergraduate degree is in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai in 1975. In 2001, IIT Mumbai presented him with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.


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Minimum Sleep Process
Manmohan Singh spent two sleepless nights to fix the portfolios. The face behind the charter with a “human face” had to lose sleep for 10 days to come up with the CMP that passed the CPM’s test.Jairam Ramesh, the architect of the common minimum programme, was not originally designated to author the programme. Singh was.

Gizmo Lovers
In the age of e-democracy, a politician's best friend is a gizmo. A personal computer, laptop, palmtop or sleek mobile phones are a passion with tech-savvy politicians.If the BJP sent out SMSes and telephone messages in Prime Minister Vajpayee's name, the Cong-ress generated tremendous response through its Web sites. "There are about 50,000 hits every day for our English Web site," said Vishvjit Prithvijit Singh, former Rajya Sabha member, who runs the e-campaign of the Congress.

Hindu Pundamentalist
JAIRAM Ramesh would like to be Prime Minister. "Every politician has that secret desire," claims India's latest Congressman, comfortable in his ethnic chic-and-crystal sitting room in Delhi, five days after joining the All India Congress Committee (AICC) as joint secretary.


Just A 10-Yr Hitch.
Jairam Ramesh is back in the big league. In an all-new role.


Everywhere man
He’s studied mechanical engineering at IIT Mumbai, public management at Carnegie Melon University, and spent a year at MIT studying technology policy, economics, engineering and management. But don’t expect Jairam Ramesh, currently secretary in the economic affairs department of the Congress, to tell you about it




If you have any queries, want to know more about me and my writings, feel free to write to me on jairam@jairam-ramesh.com. I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Copyright © 2000-2001 Jairam Ramesh. All rights reserved. Discaimer Illustrations by Ajit Ninan. All rights reserved.