ANAND SHARMA
Indian politician Anand Sharma is the new Commerce and Industry minister of India. He was the junior foreign minister in the previous Manmohan Singh’s government. He is also a MP representing the state of Himachal Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha. His main challenge as a minister is to put India’s shrinking exports back on track.
BIOGRAPHY
Anand Sharma was born on 5th January,1953 in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. He was gained his LLB from the “Faculty of Law”, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla. He is married to Dr Zenobia Sharma and they have two children. He is a lawyer by profession. Early days, he was the famous leader of the student and youth movement in India and was one of the founders of NSUI, the student wing of the Indian National Congress. In 1984, he was first elected to the parliament at the age of 31 and in 1985, he was the president of the Indian Youth Congress. Sharma has been a member of the Rajya Sabha four times and also worked as chief spokesman of the congress party for six years. In 2006, he was elected as junior foreign minister and also hold independent charge of the information and broadcasting ministry in the outgoing government for several months. He has been a key organizer of several major international conferences, including the First Non-Aligned Youth Conference in 1985 in New Delhi. In addition, he was a chairman of the “Indian Anti-Apartheid Movement”, member of consultative committee, member of joint Parliamentary Committee on Lok Pal Bill, member of Consultative committee for the Ministry of Defence, member of government assurances, member of press council of India, member of parliamentary standing committee on defence, member of the Consultative committee for the Ministry of External Affairs, member of Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of member of Parliament, member of Business Advisory Committee. He is also involved with a number of social and sports organizations and also a member of the Sports Authority of India. He was also involved in work relating to autism and disabilities. His other interests include cricket, hiking, traveling, reading books on philosophy and history and listening to Indian and western classical music. Anad Sharma was received “The Order of the Companion of Volta”, top civilian honour of Ghana by President J A Koufour on 2008 in recognition of his commitment to South-South Cooperation and was also honored with the “Commander of the National Order of Merit”, highest civilian award by the President of Ivory Coast on 2009.
