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{{Indian name|Jairam|Ramesh}}{{short description|Indian politician}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2014}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Jairam Ramesh
| image = Jairam ramesh.jpg
| alt = Jairam Ramesh
| caption = Jairam in [[Gurgaon]] in 2009
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|4|9|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Chikmagalur]], [[Mysore State]], [[India]] <br />(now in [[Karnataka]], [[India]])
| residence = New Delhi
| office = [[Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/congress-wins-3-rajya-sabha-seats-from-karnataka-bjp-gets-1-1418017|title=Nirmala Sitharaman Wins Rajya Sabha Seat From Karnataka, Congress Gets 3|website=NDTV.com}}</ref>
| term_start = 1 July 2016
| term_end = 02 April 2022
| constituency = [[Karnataka]]
| predecessor = [[Aayanur Manjunath]], [[Bharatiya Janata Party|BJP]]
| office1 = [[Ministry of Rural Development (India)|Minister of Rural Development]]
| primeminister1 = [[Manmohan Singh]]
| term_start1 = 13 July 2011
| term_end1 = 26 May 2014
| predecessor1 = [[Vilasrao Deshmukh]]
| successor1 = [[Gopinath Munde]]
| office2 = [[Ministry of Environment and Forests (India)|Ministry of Environment and Forests]]
| primeminister2 = [[Manmohan Singh]]
| term_start2 = May 2009
| term_end2 = 12 July 2011
| predecessor2 = [[Manmohan Singh]]
| successor2 = [[Jayanthi Natarajan]]
| office3 = [[Indian Parliament|Member of Parliament]] ([[Rajya Sabha]]) for [[Andhra Pradesh]]
| term_start3 = June 2004
| term_end3 = 21 June 2016
| constituency3 = [[Adilabad District]], Andhra Pradesh
| alma_mater = [[Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay|IIT Bombay]] ([[B.Tech.]])<br />[[Carnegie Mellon University]] ([[M.S.]])<br />[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| profession = [[Economist]]
| party = [[Indian National Congress]]
| date = 25 January
| year = 2007
| source = https://web.archive.org/web/20090207114108/http://164.100.24.167:8080/members/website/Mainweb.asp?mpcode=1935
}}

'''Jairam Ramesh''' (born 9 April 1954) is an Indian economist, historian and politician belonging to [[Indian National Congress]]. He is a [[Member of Parliament (India)|Member of Parliament]] representing [[Karnataka]] state in the [[Rajya Sabha]]. In July 2011, Jairam was elevated to the [[Cabinet of India|Union Council of Ministers of India]] and appointed [[Ministry of Rural Development (India)|Minister of Rural Development]] and Minister (additional charge) of the new [[Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (India)|Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation]]. However, in the cabinet reshuffle in October 2012, he has been divested of the portfolio of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. He was previously the Indian [[Minister of State]] [[Council of Ministers of the Republic of India#Minister of State .28Independent Charges.29|(Independent Charge)]] at the [[Ministry of Environment and Forests (India)|Ministry of Environment and Forests]] from May 2009 to July 2011.{{efn|<ref name="UtubeJR">{{citation
|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRIgnknbXY#at=37
|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/3NRIgnknbXY |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|title=Who is Jairam Ramesh
|publisher=NDTV
|work=Utube
|place= Video 3:29
|date=13 July 2011
|access-date=8 August 2011}}{{cbignore}}
</ref><ref name="HT">{{Cite web|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/144203.aspx|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022095348/http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/144203.aspx|url-status=dead|title=Hindustan Times – Somethin' Special;Jairam Ramesh|archivedate=22 October 2012}}</ref><ref name="difficult">{{cite web |title=What makes it so difficult to box Jairam Ramesh |url=http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/times-of-india-the/mi_8012/is_20100829/difficult-box-jairam-ramesh-india/ai_n54978494/ |date=2010-08-29 |work=Times of India}}</ref><ref name="Secretariat"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/jairam-ramesh-quits-union-cabinet/428008/ |title=Jairam Ramesh quits ministry, to devote full time to poll |publisher=IndianExpress.com}}</ref><ref name="NewKeralaJR">
{{cite web
|url=http://www.newkerala.com/news/2011/worldnews-25916.html
|title=Profile of Jairam Ramesh: Green activist, technocrat and no-nonsense politician
|location=New Delhi
|date=7 December 2012
|work=newKerala.com
|access-date=8 August 2011}}</ref>}}

== Personal ==
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]].<ref name="HT" /><ref name="fivebattles">{{Cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/politics/the-five-battles-that-defined-jairam-ramesh-25923.html|title=The five battles that defined Jairam Ramesh|date=15 June 2011|website=Firstpost}}</ref> He considers himself a practising [[Hindu]] with [[Buddhism]] ingrained and calls himself a 'Hind-Budh'.<ref name="HT" />

He married K. R. Jayashree on 26 January 1981.<ref name="HT" /> He currently resides at [[Lodi Gardens]], Rajesh Pilot Marg, New Delhi. 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.<ref name="Secretariat">{{cite web
|url=http://164.100.47.5/newmembers/Website/Main.aspxu
|title= WebPage of Shri Jairam Ramesh
|year=2009
|work=Members of Rajya Sabha
|publisher= Rajya Sabha Secretariat
|access-date=28 December 2009
|location=New Delhi}}
{{dead link|date=January 2013}}
</ref>

Since childhood, Jairam has been strongly influenced by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]. He was fascinated by Nehru's modern approach to life, his bringing change in a traditional society and his liberal, humanist, rational approach to life, religion, men and civic matters. He considers himself a product of the Nehruvian era in many ways. An additional influence was [[Mohandas Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi]], whom he originally saw as anti-modern, anti-science and anti-West.<ref name="Bapu Complete Life History"/> As he grew older and read [[Mahatma Gandhi|Gandhi]] more and viewed him in the political and historical context in which he operated, he came to appreciate and acknowledge Gandhi much more. He has also studied [[Rabindranath Tagore]] deeply.<ref name="Bapu Complete Life History">{{cite web
|url=http://www.bapu.sughosh.in/2012/10/561/
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130108054021/http://www.bapu.sughosh.in/2012/10/561/
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=8 January 2013
|author=Sughosh India
|title=Jairam Ramesh on Mahatma Gandhi
|date=10 October 2012
|work=Quotes on Mahatma Gandhi
|publisher=Sughosh India
|access-date=10 October 2012
|location=Kota
}}
</ref><ref name="Firstpost2">{{cite web
|url=http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/politics-blogs/in-politics-80-is-downhill-20-is-upswing-jairam-ramesh-55596.html
|author=Janaki Lenin
|title=In politics, 80% is downhill, 20% is upswing: Jairam Ramesh
|date=8 August 2011
|work=Jairam Ramesh Interview – Part II
|publisher=First Post
|access-date=8 August 2011
|location=New Delhi}}
</ref>

==Education==
Jairam attended [[St. Xavier's School, Ranchi]] in 1961–1963 in classes 3 to 5. He read [[Paul Samuelson]] (an American economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1970) and found him very interesting. His presentation, the substance of issues such as population and growth got him thinking of economics and the larger issues of life. Also when he was 17, in 1971, he read ''Asian Drama'', one of the early books of [[Gunnar Myrdal]] (a Swedish economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1974) and wrote to him at the [[Stockholm International Peace Research Institute]]. Myrdal sent a very nice reply and said to stay in touch with him. ''Asian Drama'' was very influential to Jairam's understanding of development planning in India.<ref name="Firstpost2"/>

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 had planned to study technology policy, economics, engineering, and management, as part of the newly established interdisciplinary technology policy programme.<ref name="Secretariat"/> Family exigencies required him to return to India and that program remained incomplete.

He is a founding member of the [[Indian School of Business]] in [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]] and is a member of the International Council of the New York-based [[Asia Society]]. Jairam has been a Visiting Fellow and Affiliated Researcher of the [http://www.icsin.org/facility.html Institute of Chinese Studies], New Delhi, since 2002.<ref name="Secretariat"/>

==Career==
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. From 1983 to 1985 he was Officer on Special Duty in the Advisory Board of Energy. He then worked in the [[Planning Commission (India)|Planning Commission]] (advisor to [[Abid Hussain]]), [[Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India)|Ministry of Industry]] and other economic departments of the [[Government of India|Central Government]], including: analysing energy policy during 1983–85, reorganising the [[Council of Scientific and Industrial Research|CSIR]] in 1986 and implementing technology missions during 1987–89.<ref name="RameshUPA">
{{cite web
|url = http://www.iitbombay.org/news/Current/Jairam-Ramesh-UPA-Ministry
|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130415033724/http://www.iitbombay.org/news/Current/Jairam-Ramesh-UPA-Ministry
|url-status = dead
|archive-date = 2013-04-15
|title = NEWS → CURRENT → JAIRAM RAMESH IN UPA MINISTRY
|publisher = Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay
|author = IIT Bombay Heritage Find & IIT Bombay Alumni Association
|year = 2009
|work = Alumni Directory
}}
</ref>

In 1990, he worked as an "Officer on Special Duty" during the [[National Front (India)|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#Finance Minister of India|Manmohan Singh]]'s finance ministry in the [[P. V. Narasimha Rao|Narasimha Rao]] administration.<ref name="Secretariat"/>

Jairam participated in India's economic reforms in 1991 and 1997. He was advisor to the Deputy Chairman of the [[Planning Commission (India)|Planning Commission]] in 1992–94, served on special mission to [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]] during 1993–95 and was advisor to Finance Minister [[Palaniappan Chidambaram]] between 1996–98. The central government invited him to join the official delegation to the [[World Trade Organization]] meeting in Seattle in 1999.<ref name="Ramesh">{{cite web
|url=http://www.jairamramesh.in/profile/profile.html
|title=Profile
|last=Ramesh
|first=Jairam
|year=2001
|work=Website of Jairam Ramesh
|access-date=28 December 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102163231/http://www.jairamramesh.in/profile/profile.html
|archive-date=2 January 2010
|url-status=dead
}}</ref>

From '''2000–2002''', 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.<ref name="Secretariat"/>

Jairam also served as Secretary in the [[All India Congress Committee]], Deputy Chairman of the [[Karnataka]] Planning Board (2000–2002), member of the [[Rajasthan]] Development Council ('''1999–2003'''), and Economic Advisor to the government of the state of [[Chhattisgarh]] (2001–03).<ref name="Ramesh"/> He was a member of the Congress Party's electoral strategy team for the 2004 [[Lok Sabha]] cycle.<ref name="Secretariat"/>

In June 2004, he was elected to represent [[Adilabad District]], Andhra Pradesh in the [[Rajya Sabha]]. Following the formation of the Congress-led [[United Progressive Alliance]] (UPA) government in 2004, he joined the [[National Advisory Council]], where he helped put together UPA's [[Common Minimum Programme|National Common Minimum Program]]. From August 2004 – January 2006 he was a member of three committees of Parliament: the [[Public Accounts Committee (India)|Public Accounts Committee]], the Standing Committee on Finance and the Committee on Government Assurances and was a member of the Court of the [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]].<ref name="Secretariat"/>
[[File:Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.jpg|thumb|200px|Jairam With Prime Minister [[Manmohan Singh]], during a multilateral meeting of US President [[Barack Obama]] with Singh and the other leaders of the [[G4 bloc|BASIC Bloc]]: Chinese Premier [[Wen Jiabao]], Brazilian President [[Lula da Silva]] and South African President [[Jacob Zuma]] during the United Nations Climate Change Conference, 18 Dec 2009.]]

In February 2009, with the [[15th Lok Sabha]] elections approaching, he led the party's Poll Strategy Panel. At that time he resigned his posts as [[Minister of State]] for Power and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.

Following his 2009 re-election to the Indian Parliament, on 28 May 2009 Jairam was given independent charge of Environment and Forests as Minister of State in the Congress-led administration. He was chief negotiator for India at the [[2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference]] held in [[Copenhagen]], [[Denmark]], between 7 and 18 December 2009.<ref name="Copenhagen">{{cite news|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/copenhagen-accord-does-not-affect-sovereignty-govt/557776/|title=Copenhagen Accord does not affect sovereignty: Govt|date=22 December 2009|work=Indian Express.com|publisher=The Indian Express Limited.|access-date=28 December 2009|location=New Delhi}}</ref>

Jairam as 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.<ref name="pm">{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article71297.ece|title=PM, Sonia to lay foundation for Cong HQ tomorrow|last=PTI|date=27 December 2009|work=The Hindu|access-date=29 December 2009}}</ref> One

On 12 July 2011, Jairam was promoted to [[Cabinet minister (India)|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 (India)|Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation]].<ref name="Secretariat"/><ref name="Jairam">{{cite news
|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2220917.ece
|title=Jairam elevated to Cabinet, moved out of Environment
|work=The Hindu
|publisher=Kasturi & Sons Ltd
|access-date=12 July 2011}}
</ref>

He was instrumental, as minister for environments and forests in 2011, in banning the use of bulls as performing animals. This then led to the ban of Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu in 2016.

During his tenure, he falsely accused the villagers of Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh to secretly smuggle out toxic waste from Carbide factory and dump it. Later he had to apologise and also assured that he would not repeat such action and will take villagers in consultation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/ramesh-apologises-for-dumping-of-carbide-waste/articleshow/6154769.cms|title=Ramesh apologises for dumping of Carbide waste|website=The Economic Times}}</ref>

Currently, Jairam has been appointed as a member of a board which provides strategic policy advice to a key UN agency on environmentally-sound technologies for developing nations.

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).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jairam-ramesh-joins-uneps-international-advisory-board/article6690762.ece|title=Jairam Ramesh joins UNEP’s International Advisory Board|date=14 December 2014|website=www.thehindu.com}}</ref>

On 19th Dec 2020, Jairam tendered apology to Vivek Doval and his family in regard to defamation case filed by later after Jairam accused Vivek Doval for 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/jairam-ramesh-tenders-apology-vivek-doval-delhi-court-closes-defamation-case|title=[BREAKING] Jairam Ramesh tenders apology to Vivek Doval; Delhi court closes defamation case|website=Bar and Bench}}</ref>

==Journalism==
Jairam s been a columnist for the ''[[Business Standard]]'', [[Business Today (Business Magazine)|''Business Today'']], [[The Telegraph (Kolkata)|''The Telegraph'']], ''[[Times of India]]'' and ''[[India Today]]'', sometimes under the pen-name "[[Chanakya|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]].<ref name=chindia>Jairam Ramesh. Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India. New Delhi, India Research Press, 2005. {{ISBN|978-81-87943-95-2}}</ref>
* ''Mobilising Technology for World Development'' (Co-editor, 1979)<ref name=weiss>{{citation
|author = C. Weiss and R. Jairam
|url = https://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/handle/123456789/4466
|archive-url = https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20110706183437/http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/handle/10625/4466
|url-status = dead
|archive-date = 2011-07-06
|title = Mobilising technology for world development
|publisher = Praeger
|place = New York
|year = 1979
}}
</ref>
* ''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)

==See also==
* [[Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India)]]
* [[Ministry of Power (India)]]

==References==
{{Notelist}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Jairam Ramesh}}
* [http://indianaturally.blogspot.com/2009/06/interview-with-jairam-ramesh.html An interview with Jairam Ramesh] 27 June 2009
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090207114108/http://164.100.24.167:8080/members/website/Mainweb.asp?mpcode=1935 Rajya Sabha biodata]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090410105740/http://nac.nic.in/profile/jairam.htm National Advisory Council Profile]
* [http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/04spec2.htm Profile on Rediff.com]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110407090924/http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/category/thesaurus/governance-and-institutions/governance/government-india-goi/ministry-environment- Resources on Ministry and Environment and Forests (MoEF)]
{{Cabinet of Manmohan Singh}}
{{Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (India)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramesh, Jairam}}
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians from Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian economists]]
[[Category:Union ministers of state of India]]
[[Category:IIT Bombay alumni]]
[[Category:Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy alumni]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:People from Chikkamagaluru]]
[[Category:Members of the Cabinet of India]]
[[Category:Rajya Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Lok Sabha members from Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:Telugu politicians]]
[[Category:Scientists from Andhra Pradesh]]
[[Category:14th Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:15th Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:16th Lok Sabha members]]
[[Category:Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka]]

Jairam Ramesh - Revision history

UpdateBot at 15:30, 3 April 2022