Minister of Law and Justice; Minister of Communications; and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology (May 2019 – Present): Ravi Shankar Prasad
Date of birth: Prasad was born on August 30, 1954.
Place of birth: He was born at Patna in Bihar in a Kayastha family.
Parents: His father is Thakur Prasad who served as a senior advocate in the Patna High Court. In addition, he was also one of the prominent founders of Jan Sangh that later went on to become Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His sister is Anuradha Prasad, who is married to Rajeev Shukla, an Indian politician, political commentator, journalist, and Chairman of the IPL (Indian Premier League).
Spouse: He is married to Maya Prasad. They have a daughter and a son.
Political party: Prasad is a member of the BJP.
Education: Prasad is a graduate of the Patna University from where he earned his BA (Bachelor of Arts) and MA (Master of Arts) degrees in political science. He also got his LLB (Bachelor of Law) degree from this university.
Career: Before he became a political figure, Prasad practised as a lawyer at the Patna High Court from 1980 onwards. In fact, he is still working in that capacity. He became the designated senior advocate of the court in 1999. In 2000, he became a senior advocate at the Supreme Court.
Prasad has been a well-known lawyer as well and represented LK Advani who has been the Deputy Prime Minister of India. He also took part in the Narmada Bachao Andolan Case.
Political milestones: One of the major political milestones of the career of Ravi Shankar Prasad was when he became a Lok Sabha MP (Member of Parliament) from the Patna Sahib constituency on May 23, 2019.
From April 3, 2000 to May 29, 2019 he was a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar as well. From May 30, 2019 he has been the Union Minister of Communications. He has served twice as the Union Minister of Law and Justice. His first such term lasted from May 26, 2014 to November 9, 2014. His second stint at this post started from July 5, 2016. He has been serving as the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology from July 5, 2016 in NDA’s first term and now in Modi2.0 too.
Prasad has also served as the Union Minister of Coal and Mines, Union Minister of Law and Justice, and the Minister of Information and Broadcasting at the time when the NDA government was headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In 2018, the Economic Times named him as one of the top 20 leaders in the world when it came to e-governance and digital technology. In his tenure, India has been able to improve its digital coverage by an appreciable margin – special mention needs to be made of the rural areas of the country in this particular regard. His department has also worked on areas such as data privacy and cyber security.
It has also undertaken a number of e-governance programmes and these can be easily regarded as the cornerstones in India’s goal of achieving a digital future.
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