Minister of Human Resource Development (May 2019 – Present): Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
Date of birth: Pokhriyal was born on July 15, 1959.
Place of birth: He was born at Pinani in Uttarakhand.
Parents: His mother is Vishambhari Devi and his father is Paramanand Pokhriyal.
Spouse: He is married to Kusum Kanta Pokhriyal and together they have 3 daughters named Arushi Nishank, Shreyashi, and Vidushi. Mrs. Pokhriyal passed away on November 11, 2012.
Political party: He is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He happens to be one of the senior members of the party.
Education: Pokhriyal completed his MA (Master of Arts) from the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University at Srinagar in Uttarakhand.
Career: Apart from his political career, Pokhriyal has been a prolific literary figure with a number of books, poems, stories, novels, personality development work, children’s literature, tourism related work, and other writings. In fact, he has written 44 books in Hindi. Some of these have been translated into other Indian languages as well as English.
Political milestones: In 1991, he was elected to the 11th UP (Uttar Pradesh) legislative assembly from the Karnaprayag constituency for his first term. In 1993, he was elected to the 12th UP legislative assembly from the same constituency. In 1996, he was elected for his 3rd term to the 13th UP legislative assembly from Karnaprayag as well.
At that time, Uttarakhand region was a part of UP, and he served as the Cabinet Minister of Uttaranchal Development from 1997 to 1999 in UP. During this time, Kalyan Singh happened to be the CM (Chief Minister) of UP. He also worked as the Cabinet Minister of Culture and Religious Affairs from 1999 to 2000. This time around Ram Prakash Gupta was the CM of UP. In 2000, Pokhriyal became a member of the Interim Uttarakhand Assembly from Karnaprayag again. This was the time when the state of Uttarakhand was carved out of UP. From 2000 to 2002, he worked as the Cabinet Minister of 12 departments that included the likes of finance, rural development, health, education, planning, drinking water, science, language, and revenue. In 2007, he was elected to the 2nd Uttarakhand legislative assembly from Thalisain. This was his first term from that particular constituency. In this regard, he handled the same portfolios that he had handled in the previous term till 2009.
In 2009, he became the 5th CM of Uttarakhand. He is till date the youngest CM of the state. In 2012, Pokhriyal was elected as an MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) from the Doiwala constituency. In 2014, he was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha from the Haridwar constituency, after resigning from Doiwala. This time around he worked as the Chairperson of the Committee on Government Assurances, Member of the Standing Committee on Rural Development, and Member of the Consultative Committee of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In 2019, he was reelected to the 17th Lok Sabha from the same constituency. On May 30, 2019 he was allotted the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, replacing Prakash Javadekar.
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