Scindia, Vaishnaw stand out for their educational qualifications

• Follow

The much-awaited reshuffle of the Cabinet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw the induction of 36 new ministers and promotion of 7 junior ministers. The 36 new ministers are well-equipped in terms of education and professional accomplishments. There are eight lawyers, four doctors, two ex-IAS officers, four MBA degree holders, and many engineers among them. Jyotiraditya Scindia, the new civil aviation minister, and Ashwini Vaishnaw, the new railway minister, are two who have caught more public attention.

The Scindia scion

Scindia had caused a political furore in March 2020 when he quit Congress and joined BJP, just a fortnight before the country went into a lockdown to control the spread of Covid-19.

Scindia holds a BA degree from Harvard University and got an MBA degree from Stanford University.

50-year-old Scindia is a member of the Rajya Sabha. His late father Madhavrao Scindia had held the same portfolio of civil aviation three decades ago. Scindia senior held civil aviation and tourism portfolios between 1991-93 under the P V Narasimha Rao government.

Jyotiraditya represented Guna Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh until 2019. He had held the portfolio of MoS for communications, commerce and industry and power in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.

Bureaucrat-turned- politician

Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will be at the helm of the Ministry of Electronics and IT. An IAS officer of 1994 batch, he holds an MTech degree from IIT-Kanpur. He completed his MBA from the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The 50-year-old technocrat is also a member of the Rajya Sabha, representing Odisha.

After successfully cracking the IAS, Vaishnaw served as a Collector in Odisha’s Balasore and Cuttack. He was serving in Odisha until 2003 when he got a chance to work as a Deputy Secretary in the Office of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He has also served as Managing Director of GE Transportation, and as the VP of GE Transportation at Siemens.