Speaker
 

Mr Yashwant Sinha
Minister of External Affairs, Government of India

Mr. Yashwant Sinha was born at Patna, the capital city of Bihar, India on 6th November, 1937. He received his school and university education at Patna. He obtained his Master Degree in Political Science in 1958 from Patna University and was placed in the 1st class. Subsequently, he taught Political Science in the Patna University from 1958 to 1960.

Mr Sinha joined the elite Indian Administrative Service in 1960 through a tough competitive examination and spent over 24 years holding important posts during his service tenure, a substantial part of which was spent in Finance & Commerce Departments. He is not new to diplomacy either. From 1971 to 1973, he was First Secretary (Commercial) in the Indian Embassy, Bonn, Germany. Subsequently, he worked as Consul General of India in Frankfurt from 1973 to 1974.
Mr Sinha left the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1984 and joined active politics as a member of the Janata Party. He was elected to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of Indian Parliament in 1988. Subsequently, he became the Finance Minister of India in Mr. Chandrasekhar's cabinet from November, 1990 to June, 1991.

Mr Sinha was elected to the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of Indian Parliament in 1998 from the Hazaribagh Parliamentary constituency by the highest margin of votes ever in that constituency. He also secured the largest number of votes ever received by a candidate in that constituency and led from every segment of the constituency. He was one of the few leaders who were returned to Parliament with an even higher margin of votes in the elections held in September, 1999.
Mr Sinha became Finance Minister of Government of India in the Cabinet of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee in March, 1998 and again in his Cabinet formed after the elections of 1999. He continued in that position until July 1, 2002. He held the reigns of the Ministry of Finance during very trying times. Economic reforms initiated in the early 1990s were still in a preliminary stage and national and international economy was facing many unprecedented challenges. His farsightedness, hard work and courage to resist populist pressures saw the economy graduate to a stage of all time low inflation of less than two per cent, a positive current account balance, significantly reduced external debt qualifying India to a "less indebted countries" category, substantially reduced NPAs of public sector banks and a healthy GDP growth rate amidst global recession. Under his astute leadership, India earned the distinction of the "World's New Growth Cushion" by the IMF.

Mr Sinha is a widely travelled person. He has represented India in major international conferences and meetings of United Nations, Bretton Woods Institutions and bilateral economic cooperation. He is known internationally for his contribution to evolution and strengthening of the new international financial architecture through his advocacy of the cause of eradication of poverty, universalization of education, health for all, freer world trade and adoption of international best financial practices by world nations. He was the first Indian to be elected Chairman of Development Committee of World Bank and IMF in August, 2000 and facilitated inter-governmental consensus building on developmental issues. He was elected Chairman of the G-20, a group of systemically important countries from the point of view of the world economy. He was the first Finance Minister from the non G-8 countries to chair this Committee.

Mr Sinha has been appointed External Affairs Minister on July 1, 2002 against the backdrop of a new geo-political reality of the post 9/11 world. Mr. Sinha's ascendance to the office of External Affairs Minister is expected to bring, inter alia, economy on to the forehand of Indian diplomacy.

Mr Sinha has a wide range of interests including reading, gardening, travelling and listening to music. Mr Sinha is married to Nilima, a prominent writer of children's books. She is currently President of the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children (AWIC) and a Member of the Executive Committee of the International Board on Books for the Young (IBBY), an Association consisting of 65 member nations devoted to promoting international understanding through children's literature. They have three children, a daughter and two sons.

He was the Coordinator for South Asia Technology Network of the Commission of European Communities at Brussels, Vice Chairman, State Planning Commission of Gujarat in the rank of Minister and Special Advisers to the Secretary General of UN Conference on Environment and Development, Member of the Governing Body of the International Institute of Labour Studies at Geneva and the Scientific Council of the Association Futuribles, Paris.

He is Chairman, Standing Policy Planning Committee of Governing Body of ICAR; President of the Human Development Institute, India Water Partnership and Shirdi Sai Rural Institute, Loni, Planning Commission, Chairman, Expert Group of Cauvery Dispute, constituted by the Prime Minister of India, and is Consultant to the Mekong River Commission. He has been Senior Adviser Consultant to FAO, UNFPA, ILO, ESCAP World Bank and UNDP and Visiting Professor at the prestigious Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Paris in 1995, and Distinguished Fullbright Lecturer in the US in 1994.