Ananth Kumar

HN Ananth Kumar
Ananth Kumar addressing the Media on the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), in New Delhi on May 12, 2017
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 July 2016
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Venkaiah Naidu
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 May 2014
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Srikant Kumar Jena
Member of the Indian Parliament for Bangalore South
Incumbent
Assumed office 1996
Preceded by	K. Venkatagiri Gowda
Minister of Civil Aviation
In office 19 March 1998 – 13 October 1999
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Chand Mahal Ibrahim
Succeeded by	Sharad Yadav
Personal details
Born	(1959-07-22) 22 July 1959 Bengaluru, India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s)	Tejaswini
Children	2 daughters
Alma mater	Karnataka University
Website	ananth.org

Ananth Kumar (born 22 July 1959) is an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Since 1996 he has represented Bengaluru South constituency in the Lok Sabha. AnanthKumar is holding charge of two key ministries - serving as Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers since May 2014 and as Minister of Parliamentary Affairs since July 2016 in the Narendra Modi government.

Politics

Having been influenced by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he was a member of its student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. During the Emergency, he was imprisoned along with thousands of other student activists by the Indira Gandhi government.^[1] He was elected as the State Secretary of the ABVP and later, became its National Secretary in 1985. He later joined BJP and was nominated as the State President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was then made National Secretary of the party in 1996.^[1]

He was elected from Bengaluru South Lok Sabha constituency to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996. In 1998 he was re-elected and was inducted into the Union Cabinet headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Minister for Civil Aviation and he was the youngest cabinet ministry in that Government. In 1999, he was re-elected to a 3rd Consecutive term and became a cabinet minister in the National Democratic Alliance government. He handled various ministries like Tourism, Sports & Youth Affairs, Culture, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.^[1]

He became the President of the Karnataka state unit of BJP in 2003 and led the state unit which became the single largest party in the Legislative Assembly and won the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in 2004 in Karnataka . In 2004, he was appointed National General Secretary of the BJP contributing to building the party in MP, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and other states.

On 26 May 2014, Kumar was appointed Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers in the cabinet of the current Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.^[2]

6th time MP from Bengaluru South: 20 years & counting in service of the constituency

There were mid term elections in 1998 and 1999, leading to 5 terms totalling to 20 years instead of 25 years.. From 1996 to 2016, Sri Ananth Kumar has completed glorious two decades of service without a break in the prestigious constituency of Bengaluru South. And incidentally, BJP as a party has held on to this constituency for a silver jubilee years, (25 years) from 1991 to 2016..

Significant achievements

1. By moving to 100% Neem Coated Urea, he created a revolution in fertilizers in India.- Annual savings of over 10,000 Cr INR is achieved due to stopping of diversion of subsidised Urea from farming to Industry^[3]
2. Price reduction of 85% on cardiac stents, leading to savings of over 4,500/- Cr INR per year^[4] from over 1.5 lakhs per stent, to 27,890/- pro poor initiative of stent price cap
3. Price reduction of 69% on Knee Implants, leading to savings of over INR 1,500 Cr p.a from 1.5 to2.5 lakh to the new price of 54,500/-
4. Focus on Affordable Quality Healthcare for all, by opening over 3600 Jan Aushadhi Kendras (1Jun2018) from mere 99 in May 2014, leading to savings of over 500 Cr INR for the common man.^[5]
5. Suvidha – Bio-degradable & environment friendly sanitary pads at just 2.50 per piece from 5 June 2018, launched on 8th Mar 2018 – international women’s day
6. Taking India on the way to becoming net exporter of fertilizers from currently being a net importer by 2022, by reviving 6 closed fertilizer plants with over 48,000 cr investment
7. A historic record in passing GST bill in Parliament, without BJP having a majority in the Rajya Sabha. This along with very high productivity of both houses has been a significant achievement on the Governance aspect.
8. The historic GST mid night launch in Central Hall of the Parliament will count as one of the highpoints in his political career. His ability to forge consensus across all parties, get the bill passed in both the houses of Parliament, get more than 50% of states endorse the same within 3 weeks and finally, support the Finance ministry in launching this on 1 July 2017.^[6]

Social leadership - Adamya Chetana Foundation

1. His focus on society is seen in his commitment to support the less privileged children by ensuring that they get food everyday in schools. This initiative by Adamya Chetana through Mid day meals program, has its focus on Anna-Akshara-Arogya.^[7]
2. Over 44 cr hot, tasty and nutritious meals have been served to children till end of AY 2018. (May 2018) ^[8][9]
3. His concern for nature and our culture is seen in his focus on Prakruti - Sanskruti.^[10][11][12]
4. Prakruti - The launch of Green Bengaluru 1:1 (to get Bengaluru back to its 1 tree per human ratio, from the current horrible 7 humans per tree as against the ideal 7 trees per human) and EcoChetana initiative to promote GreenLifeStyle not only in Bengaluru but all over the state, is testament to his focus on nature^[13]
5. Sanskruti - Promoting actively the Bengaluru culture - KempeGowda, Basavanna, Kadalekai Parishe, Karaga etc., are examples of his connect with the culture and language - Kannada (he was the first to speak in UN in Kannada)^[14][15]
6. Ragihalli - the village adopted by Ananth Kumar, as part of SAGY (Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana) has been ranked as one of the top ten by various magazines due to its development focus. Innovative ideas like Gau Chetana, intended at doubling rural income by 2022 is already a big hit here.^[16][17][18]

Personal life

Ananth Kumar was born on 22 July 1959 in Bangalore, Karnataka^[19] to H N Narayan Sastry and Girija Shastry.^[20] He graduated in faculty of Arts (B.A) from K S Arts College, Hubli affiliated to the Karnataka University and later, completed his bachelors in law (L.L.B) from J.S.S. Law College affiliated to the Karnataka University. He is married to Dr. Tejaswini and the couple have 2 daughters – Aishwarya and Vijeta.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ananth Kumar.

• Members of Fourteenth Lok Sabha – Parliament of India website
• Official website of Ananth Kumar