Minister of Textiles and Minister of Women and Child Development
NAME – Smriti Zubin Irani
PROFESSION- Politician
BORN – 23rd March 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH – New Delhi
FATHER’S NAME – Ajay Kumar Malhotra
MOTHER’S NAME- Shibani Bagchi
SPOUSE – Zubin Irani
SIBLINGS – 2 sisters
CHILDREN – 2(1 Daughter and 1 Son)
EDUCATION- Schooling at Holy Child Auxilium School, New Delhi. And she enrolled in the School of Open Learning at the University of Delhi, Delhi.
POLITICAL PARTY- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT- She is the youngest minister in the Government of India and the first woman to serve as Minister of the Union for Human Resources Development and Minister for Textiles.
AWARDS- Young Global Leader by World Economic Forum (WEF) in the year 2015.
Smriti Zubin Irani is the current Minister of Textiles and Minister of Women and Child Development. She is a politician belonging to BJP.
BACKGROUND- Smriti Irani was born to Ajay Kumar Malhotra and Shibani Bagchi, a member of Jana Sangh and her grandfather was a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). She has two sisters. She’s married to Zubin Irani, a businessman and they have two children.
UPBRINGING & EDUCATION- Schooling from Holy Child Auxilium School through the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in 1993, and Bachelor of Commerce Part-1, School of Open Learning (Correspondence), University of Delhi – 1994.
WALK OF LIFE- She started her career in acting, appeared in many television series and also in music videos. She also produced a couple of shows. Smriti Irani was also a contestant of Miss India 1998, a beauty pageant. She started her political career in 2003. She joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and in the year 2004, she became the vice-president of the Maharashtra Youth Wing.
In the 14th Lok Sabha elections, she contested against Kapil Sibal and lost from Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi. She was Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National Secretary and All India President of Mahila Morcha. Smriti Irani was a member of parliament from Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha in the year 2011.
She lost the 2014 general elections against Rahul Gandhi from the Amethi constituency of Uttar Pradesh. In the same year, she was appointed the Minister of Human Resource Development. She was additionally tasked with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India) in 2017 when Mr. Venkaiah Naidu resigned from the post.
MAJOR INITIATIVES TAKEN- Under the leadership of Smriti Irani, various schemes were launched such as
- Udaan Yojana and Pragati Scheme a platform for girl students aspiring to study engineering and help them in the preparation of entrance exam.
- National Institute Ranking Framework for ranking of higher educational institutions.
- Samarth Scheme for the textile industry for skill development.
- Bhartiya Poshan Krishi Kosh, to create a deposit of various crops in 127 agroclimatic zones of the country.
CAREER TIMELINE-
1999 to 2013- Actor
2011-Elected to Rajya Sabha
September 2011 to May 2014-Member, Standing Committee on Coal and Steel.
August 2012 to May 2014-Member, Parliamentary Forum on Disaster Management.
Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Urban Development.
May 2014 to July 2016-Union Cabinet Minister, Human Resource Development.
July 2016 to 18 July 2017-Union Cabinet Minister, Textiles.
July 2017 to May 2018-Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting.
August 2017- Elected to Rajya Sabha.
August 2017 to May 2019- Member, Rajya Sabha.
May 2019 -Elected to Lok Sabha.
May 2019 to present-Union Cabinet Minister, Women and Child Development; and Textiles.
CONTROVERSIES- In April 2004 affidavit to the EC, Irani said that she had completed her undergraduate degree in 1996 through a correspondence or distance education program at the University of Delhi. In 2014, before the parliamentary elections, she claimed to have obtained a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the School of Open Learning at the University of Delhi. Ms. Irani claims to possess a degree from Yale University however, the university clarified that she had only attended a week-long program, India-Yale Parliamentary Leadership Program, in 2013.