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Who is Jayant Sinha?
Jayant Sinha is the Minister of State for Civil Aviation in the Narendra Modi government.
Early life and education
Jayant Sinha was born on April 21, 1963 in Jharkhand. In his early days, he was educated at St Michael's High School in Patna and St Columba's School in Delhi. Jayant Sinha passed the JEE examination in the first attempt in 1980 and secured admission in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. In October 2015, he was awarded the IIT Delhi's Distinguished Alumni Award.
After graduating from IIT Delhi in 1985, Sinha enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania and completed a Master of Science in Energy Management & Policy in 1986. Later, Sinha also attended Harvard Business School and obtained an MBA with Distinction in 1992.
Political career
Political career
Jayant Sinha was a Minister of State for Finance earlier but was shifted out in the wake of a controversy over a tea party he hosted for several bank and government officials. The event was said to be a matter of conflict of interest. He is the son of veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha. Yashwant Sinha was External Affairs Minister and Finance Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government during 1999-2004.
The business consultant and investment-banker-turned-politician, was elected as a Member of Parliament in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh constituency. Sinha's prior business experience includes 12 years with McKinsey & Company as a partner at Boston and Delhi offices. At McKinsey, Sinha co-led the global Software and IT Services practice. He was most recently a partner at Omidyar Network. Sinha is married to Punita Kumar-Sinha, an investment manager and former senior managing director at The Blackstone Group.
Sinha wrote an article to counter his father's claims against the performance of the Modi government. Earlier, Sinha came under fire when he was present at a function in which politicians accused of cow protection-related violence were in attendance. He is currently a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance as well as the Public Accounts Committee.
In November 2017, an investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism cited his name in the list of politicians named in the "Paradise Papers" expose.
The BJP has retained Jayant Sinha in the Hazaribagh constituency for the Lok Sabha elections 2019. He is seen as one of the top performers in the Narendra Modi Cabinet and might climb up the ladder to more important portfolios if the BJP returns to power after the elections.