Jairam Ramesh

Jairam Ramesh (born 9 April 1954) is an Indian politician belonging to Indian National Congress.

He is a Member of Parliament representing Karnataka state in the Rajya Sabha.

Jairam Ramesh was born 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'.

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.

Jairam graduated from IIT Bombay in 1975 with a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering.

Between 1975–77 he studied at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and received a Master of Science in Public Policy and Public Management.

In 1977–78, he started on the Doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he enrolled in the inter-disciplinary course on technology policy, economics, engineering, and management.

However, he did not continue with the program.

He is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Asia Society.

In 1978, Jairam joined the World Bank for a short assignment.

He returned to India in December 1979 and worked as assistant to economist Lovraj Kumar at the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices.

He married K. R. Jayashree on 26 January 1981.

He currently resides at Lodi Gardens, Rajesh Pilot Marg, New Delhi.

From 1983 to 1985 he was Officer on Special Duty in the Advisory Board of Energy.

He then worked in the Planning Commission (advisor to Abid Hussain), Ministry of Industry and other economic departments of the Central Government, including: analysing energy policy during 1983–85, reorganising the CSIR in 1986 and implementing technology missions during 1987–89.

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.

Jairam participated in India's economic reforms in 1991 and 1997.

He was advisor to the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission in 1992–94, served on special mission to Jammu and Kashmir during 1993–95 and was advisor to Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram between 1996–98.

Jairam has been a Visiting Fellow and Affiliated Researcher of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi, since 2002.

He was previously the Indian Minister of State (Independent Charge) at the Ministry of Environment and Forests from May 2009 to July 2011.

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.

Till his election to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in July 2016, his permanent residence was at Khairatabad, Hyderabad, Telangana.

His wife died in early 2019.

Since childhood, Jairam has been strongly influenced by Jawaharlal Nehru.

He was fascinated by Nehru's anglicised, supposedly modern approach to life, his bringing change 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 saw as anti-modern, anti-science and anti-West.

As he grew older and read Gandhi more and viewed him in the political and historical context in which he operated, he came to appreciate and acknowledge Nehru much more.

He has also studied Rabindranath Tagore deeply.