Jayant Sinha Biography

About Jayant Sinha

Jayant Sinha, son of former Union Finance Minister and BJP stalwart Yashwant Sinha, is supposed to be among the next set of individuals who may be inducted in the Narendra Modi government. If everything goes as per plan, Jayant Sinha is all set to become the new minister of state in the finance ministry. As he was a fund manager for 25 long years (working mainly in Philadelphia and Boston of the US), Narendra Modi selecting him as a minister of state is natural. This 51-year-old business consultant turned politician, got elected as Member of Parliament in May 2014 from Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh constituency. He is a member of Standing Committee on Finance as well as Public Accounts Committee.

Jayant Sinha is a well-educated person, with good educational background to boast of. Before flying off to the US, Jayant did his Bachelor of Technology from IIT Delhi. Jayant Sinha has 25 years of professional experience under his belt and his work areas include management consultancy and investment fund management. At Delhi and Boston offices of McKinsey & Company, he has worked for 12 long years. He has also been associated with an important investment firm named Omidyar Network, where too he worked as a partner. His work responsibilities included operations and investment strategy. Jayant Sinha was the MD of Courage Capital for several years.

Jayant Sinha Early Life

Jayant’s father Yashwant Sinha was the Finance Minister of India during the first NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Jayant was born in Jharkhand’s Giridh and had to move frequently from one place to another due to his father’s transferable profession (who was an IAS officer before joining politics). He attended two schools – one in Patna (St. Michael's School) and another in Delhi (St. Columbus). In the year 1980 he got admitted to IIT Delhi after passing JEE on the first attempt.

While studying at IIT, he was also chosen as the student representative to its Senate. He represented his renowned institute in several inter-college events including Tennis, Theatre, Debates, and Quizzes. For two years (1983 and 1984), he was Delhi ‘B’ and Yuv Vani’s Radio Announcer.

After graduation, Jayant completed his MS in Energy Management & Policy from University of Pennsylvania . He met his life partner Punita during his IIT days and went on to marry her in 1986. The couple is blessed with two sons.

Jayant Sinha also did his MBA from one of the prestigious business schools of the world – Harvard Business School. He obtained his MBA degree in 1992.

Political Career of Jayant Sinha

Though Jayant Sinha came to the limelight after being nominated as the BJP candidate from Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh constituency during the 2014 Lok Sabha election, he was involved in policy making in Indian landscape and politics for more than 15 years. During his father’s tenure as Finance Minister of India from 1998 to 2002 he gave policy inputs to his father from time to time on many initiatives including lucid form of filing income tax returns and mortgage interest tax deduction. During the industry report generation of McKinsey-Nasscom in the years 2000 and 2005, he played important role and was one of the principal authors.

His direct introduction to politics was in the year 1998 when he actively assisted his father in election campaigns. He participated in provision and completion of projects including building of village roads, improvement in quality of drinking water, distribution of solar lanterns, fostering of self-help groups, and many others. His work mainly concentrated in Ramgarh district and his Lok Sabha constituency Hazaribagh.

He assumed prominence in politics when he worked closely with Narendra Modi and helped the now Prime Minister to formulate national economic policy. He also organised international business leaders' forum in February 2014 for Modi to share ideas with business honchos. In May 2014, Jayant Sinha won the Hazaribagh parliamentary seat with a margin of 1,59,128 votes.

After successfully getting involved in multiple parliamentary committees, he is expected to be inducted in the Narendra Modi ministry.
WBDB08.11.2014