Kapil Sibal | |
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Kapil Sibal at 2007 World Economic Forum | |
Minister of Human Resource Development | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office 22 May 2009 |
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Preceded by | Arjun Singh |
Minister of Communications and Information Technology | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office 15 November 2010 |
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Preceded by | A. Raja |
Minister of Science and Technology | |
In office 22 May 2004 – 2010 |
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Succeeded by | Pawan Kumar Bansal |
Minister of Earth Sciences | |
In office 22 May 2004 – 2010 |
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Succeeded by | Pawan Kumar Bansal |
Member of Lok Sabha | |
Incumbent | |
Assumed office 2004 |
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Constituency | Chandni Chowk |
Personal details | |
Born | 8 August 1948 Jalandhar, Punjab |
Nationality | INDIAN |
Political party | Indian National Congress |
Spouse(s) | Nina Sibal (deceased)(1973-2000) Promila Sibal |
Children | 2 sons |
Residence | New Delhi |
Alma mater | University of Delhi (M.A./LL.B.) Harvard Law School (LL.M.) |
Profession | Politician & Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India |
Religion | Hindu |
Signature | |
Website | Kapil Sibal |
As of 5 June, 2011 |
Kapil Sibal (Punjabi: ਕਪਿਲ ਸਿਬਲ, Hindi: कपिल सिब्बल; born 8 August 1948) is an Indian politician and lawyer. He is currently the Minister of Communications and Information Technology.[1] He also held the two positions of Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences in the First Manmohan Singh Cabinet. He is also the Minister of Human Resources and Development in the current cabinet.
Sibal was first nominated in July 1988, as a Member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha, from the State of Bihar and served as Additional Solicitor General of India (December 1989 – December 1990) and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association on three occasions (1995–96, 1997–98 and 2001–2002).[2]
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Kapil Sibal joined the Bar association in 1970. A year later in 1973, he qualified for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), and was offered an appointment, but declined the offer. Instead he decided to set up his own law practice.[2][3] He was designated as a Senior Lawyer in 1983. He was also the Additional Solicitor General of India between 1989 and 1990.[2][4]
In August 2008, an anthology of Kapil Sibal's poems titled I Witness: Partial Observation was published by Roli Books, New Delhi.[5] He has also contributed several articles on various prominent issues such as security, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism in national dailies and periodicals. He won a landslide victory in the constituency of Chandni Chowk for the Indian National Congress against TV actor Smriti Irani of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Over the years, he has held several important positions in the Government of India and the Society, such as: Additional Solicitor General of India (December 1989–1990); Member, Board of Management, Indira Gandhi National Open University (1993); President, Supreme Court Bar Association (1995–96, 1997–98 and 2001–2002); Member, Rajya Sabha (July 1998); Member, Executive Council, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies (July, 2001); Member, Business Advisory Committee (August, 2001); Member, Committee on Home Affairs (January, 2002); Co-chairman, Indo-US Parliamentary Forum (2002); Member, Board of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (2002); Member, Programme Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Indian AIDS initiative (2003); Member, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention set up by the Human Rights Commission, Geneva.
He represented India in the Annual Meetings of the World Economic Forum in 2005 and 2009 held at Davos, Switzerland. He led the Indian delegation to the Annapolis Conference, USA, held to gather International support for establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli–Palestinian peace during November 2007. He led the Indian delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Bali in December 2007.
In the 2004 general elections, Sibal won the elections by a large margin from Chandni Chowk constituency in the National Capital Territory representing the Congress Party and was inducted into the Cabinet under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as Union Minister for Science, Technology and Earth Sciences. In the 2009 elections, he again won by a large margin from Chandni Chowk constituency and in the second Manmohan Singh government took charge of the key Human Resource Development ministry.
Minister Sibal has recently approved the creation of an Indian Institute of Technology Muddenahalli as part of the 11th 5 year plan.[6] He is also the person who introduced the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system in India for Class IX and Class X and he has also started the changes in the IIT JEE pattern. He has laid the foundation stone for IIT Patna
He has also announced an Indian touchscreen tablet computer, Akash which will be co-developed with private partnership. It may be available to students more than a year later for 1,500 (US$28.5). "This is our answer to MIT's US$100 computer," said Sibal. Satish Jha, chairman of OLPC India, the leading competitor to this venture, questioned his claim that a $35 laptop could be created in a year.[7] Five state Chief Ministers endorsed the OLPC initiative and the Chief Minister of Rajasthan himself inaugurated the project on the day Sibal showcased his future laptop. The event was attended by two members of the Union Cabinet.[8][9] This also lead to an open letter by Nicholas Negroponte offering him complete access to MIT and OLPC technologies to help realise India's dream to create a laptop of its own.[10] Though Sibal demonstrated the laptop in a TV interview and suggested that his tablet was for university students and not for the school children as yet, there were questions about India's contribution to it that may be open to scrutiny once the laptop reaches university students.
During his tenure as Telecom Minister his comment about the loss in the 2G spectrum scam being only notional and causing "zero loss"[11] created a public outcry[12] and he had to clarify it later.[13] Kapil Sibal was indicted by CAG for favoring M/S Phoenix Rose LLC by overlooking rules and regulations and handpicking that company for creating a database for over 5 lakh working professionals of People of Indian Origin settled in the US. CAG's report said that the project’s cost was $1,20,000 but three years after the initiation, the company has dumped the networking site, completing just over 16% of the targeted work.[14]
His move to regulate internet content[15] was strongly criticized across many social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.[16]
Kapil Sibal was married to Nina Sibal from 1973 until her death from breast cancer in 2000.[17] Amit and Akhil, Sibal's two sons from his first marriage, are both lawyers.[18] In 2005, Sibal married social activist Promila Sibal.[19][20]
Political offices | ||
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Preceded by Arjun Singh |
Minister of Human Resource Development 2009–present |
Incumbent |
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