Suresh Prabhu

Suresh Prabhu completed his schooling from Sharadashram Vidya Mandir, Dadar, Mumbai, followed by a Bachelor in Commerce with Honours from M. L. Dahanukar College, Vile Parle, Mumbai.[4] He received a Bachelor in Law degree from the New Law College (Ruparel College campus), Mumbai.[5] Prabhu is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He was All India 11th (eleventh) rank holder in CA exam.[4][6][7]

Prabhu has held several government and semi government positions, which includes the Chairmanship of Maharashtra State Finance Commission, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, Member of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Board, among others. He is a part of 16 global organizations and 9 strategic dialogues which include:

• Global Water Partnership
• GLOBE, UK
• World Economic Forum (WEF)
• Global Industries Council
• UN Advisor
• United Nations Development Program
• United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
• Global Forum For Farmers, President
• Strategic Dialogues
• Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service
• Skolkovo Foundation
• Asia Energy Forum
• United Nations Committee of Biodiversity
• World Federation of UNESCO

He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of India’s International Movement to Unite Nations IIMUN.[8]

He was, at various times during the Premiership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1998 to 2004, Industry Minister, Minister of Environment and Forests, Minister of Fertilizers & Chemicals, Power, Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises. Currently a Member of Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, he has been a Member of Lok Sabha in the 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha between 1996-2009. His constituency comprised the district of Sindhudurg and parts of Ratnagiri district in the state of Maharashtra on the western coast of India.

As the Union Minister for Power, he won praise for his performance from The Indian Express.[3] As Minister of Power, Prabhu introduced major reforms in India's power sector.[9] He is credited with championing and enacting The Electricity Act, 2003 and the reforms that created securitization of dues from the states. He has been elected four times to the Lok Sabha, India's parliament, from Maharashtra since 1996.[3] However, he lost his seat in the 2009 general election.

He was also Chairman of the Task Force for Interlinking of Rivers with a status and rank of Union Cabinet Minister.[3] He was elected a member of the World Bank parliamentary network and chaired the South Asia Water regional group of the World Bank.[10] Asia week rated him as one of three future leaders of India.[11]

As a mark of protest against the cancellation of Narendra Modi's keynote address at the Wharton India Economic Forum 2013, he called off his own visit to the University.[3] The NDA government under the leadership of Narendra Modi appointed him first as the head of a high-level panel on power revamp — "Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal and Renewable Energy" in July 2014.[12] In August 2014, he was appointed PM Modi's Sherpa.

Prabhu taking charge as the Union Minister for Railways, in New Delhi on 10 November 2014

On 9 November 2014, he was sworn-in as Cabinet minister in the Narendra Modi government. He was the Union Railway Minister of India from November 2014 to September 2017.[13][14] As Minister of Railways he drew wide acclaim for making Indian Railways responsive towards passenger's needs. The system of real time complaint resolution of passengers through social media which he introduced saved many people from health hazards, harassment while travelling while becoming an effective tool for addressing other travel related problems.[15] His tenure is also remembered for enhancing cleanliness at railway stations across India, which were traditionally ill maintained, leveraging extra budgetary sources, introducing greater decentralisation, and enhancing transparency. He is also credited for discontinuing the historical practice of a separate railway budget.[16] He led Railways to achieve a quantum jump in infrastructure creation spending and improving connectivity, particularly in remote areas and challenging terrain like North Eastern India, Jammu and Kashmir etc. [17] During his tenure, broad gauge line commissioning substantially increased the average km broad gauge lines commissioned to 7.7 km/day against past average of 4.3 km/day. [18] He is also known for making India Railways more environment friendly by ensuring greater pace of electrification, installation of bio-toilets, commissioning of green corridors etc. India's first green rail corridor was launched under his tenure in Tamil Nadu. [19]

Prabhu taking charge as the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, in New Delhi on 4 September 2017

He has been the minister of Commerce and Industry since September 2017. He was elected as Rajya Sabha member from the state of Andhra Pradesh on 3 June 2016.[20] During his tenure, he took several steps to boost manufacturing in India, enhance exports, give impetus to the Startup ecosystem, pivoting multilateralism in India and enhancing ease of doing business. India achieved the 77^thposition in the World Bank’s EODB ranking, leaping up by 23 ranks. [21] He initiated the pilot District Level Development plan in six districts across five states with a focus on interventions critical to boosting manufacturing at the district level.[22] He drove policies which resulted in India registering its highest ever merchandise exports of over USD 330 bn in 2018-19 and achieved a massive USD 10 bn cut in trade deficit with China in 1 year; this was the first time in 30 years that trade deficit with China reduced.[23] He took continuous efforts towards making India a focal point in new power dynamics in trade multilateralism and organized a special mini Ministerial WTO meet in India.[24] He initiated the development of India’s first ever National e-Commerce Policy[25] and has been advocating the use of frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence for good governance. [26]

He took the charge as the Union Minister of Civil Aviation on 10 March 2018 in the Narendra Modi government after the Telugu Desam Party withdrew support to the government.[27]During his brief tenure of about one year, he introduced several policy reforms with the aim to make India civil aviation sector more vibrant, competitive and industry-friendly. He released India’s first ever National Air Cargo Policy, Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Policy,National Green Aviation Policy and Drone Policy. [28][29]. He also drove the implementation of the regional connectivity scheme or UDAN- More than 12 lakh passengers flown under UDAN till 31st January, 2019. In 28 months of UDAN, 69 unserved airports, 31 helicopters and 6 water drones awarded.[30]

Suresh Prabhu received the Goud Saraswat Brahmin Samaj Maharatha Award on 18 August 2016.[31][32]

He has constantly featured in the list of top five ministers in India from 2014 to 2017 in terms of both performance and accessibility in nation-wide surveys conducted by various institutions.[33][34]

• Awarded 'Indian of the Year 2017.[35]
• Declared "Best Member of Parliament in 13th Lok Sabha" in April 2004 by Aaj Tak, a leading TV Channel in India.
• Featured amongst top three Indian leaders of the future in the cover story, "Giant on the Move" (Sept 2000 issue) of the Hong Kong based Asiaweek Magazine.
• Ranked as the 2nd best performing Minister in India Today’s report (dated 27 August 2001) on the performance of key Ministers Of Govt. of India.

• "Students' Unrest" at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, Mumbai.
• "Causes and Consequences of Mass Unemployment of Youths" at the Central Committee for International Voluntary Services (CCIVS), UNESCO, Paris.
• "Problems of Youth in Third World Countries" at CCIVS, Monrovia (Liberia).
• "North-South Co-operation",paper read at an international seminar at New Delhi on behalf of Bharat Sevak Samaj.
• "Contribution of NGO's Towards Peace" - Asian Youth Seminar, New Delhi.
• Has published several columns on finance and economy in the daily "Mid Day" as well as articles in leading Marathi dailies.
• He has written extensively on socio-economic issues.

• Former Chairman, Saraswat Co-operation Bank. (former Chairman).
• Former Director, National Co-operative Union of India.
• Chairman, Manav Sadhan Vikas Sansthan, an NGO.
• Former Chairman, Konkan Kala academy.
• Former Trustee, Mumbai Marathi Granth Sangrahalaya
• Former Chairman, Adult Education Institute.
• Former Chairman, Maharastra State Table Tennis Academy
• Trustee, Khar Residents Association.
• Former Trustee, Manavendra Charitable hospital.
• Former Trustee, IFFCO Foundation.
• Senior Vice-President, Table Tennis Federation of India (present).
• Advisory Board Member, Eco Needs Foundation and its Eco Revolution movement.

• 2015 Railway Budget of India
• 2016 Railway Budget of India

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Suresh Prabhu.

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• Detailed Profile: Suresh Prabhu