Rajeev Chandrasekhar
Indian politician and technocrat (born 1964)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rajeev Chandrasekhar Menon (born 31 May 1964) is an Indian entrepreneur, owner of Asianet News Online Pvt Ltd and politician[1] currently serving as the state president of BJP Keralam.[2] He is the son-in-law of T. P. Gopalan Nambiar, the founder of the BPL Group. He joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2018 a day after being made the party's Rajya Sabha candidate for the biennial election to the upper house from Karnataka.[3] From 2006 to 2018, he served as an independent Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) representing Karnataka, winning elections in 2006 and 2012 with cross-party support from Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs. During these campaigns, allegations emerged that being a wealthy businessman he paid MLAs to secure their votes, a claim that surfaced amid broader reports of cash-for-votes in Karnataka's 2006 Rajya Sabha polls.[4] He is a former junior minister, Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Ministry of Jal Shakti. He lost his ministerial credentials after losing his elections in Thiruvananthapuram and was not offered a ministerial position in new coalition formed under National Democratic Alliance.
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Nitin Nabin
Rajeev Chandrasekhar | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, 2021 | |
| President of Bharatiya Janata Party, Kerala | |
| Assumed office 24 March 2025 | |
| National President | J. P. Nadda Nitin Nabin |
| Preceded by | K. Surendran |
| Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology | |
| In office 7 July 2021 – 9 June 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Minister | Ashwini Vaishnaw |
| Preceded by | Sanjay Dhotre |
| Succeeded by | Jitin Prasada |
| Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship | |
| In office 7 July 2021 – 9 June 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Minister | Dharmendra Pradhan |
| Preceded by | R. K. Singh |
| Succeeded by | Jayant Chaudhary (as MoS I/C) |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha | |
| In office 23 April 2006 – 2 April 2024 | |
| Constituency | Karnataka |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 May 1964 |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse | Anju Chandrasekhar |
| Relations | T. P. G. Nambiar (father-in-law) |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation |
|
| Title | Vice-Chairman of VIF Centre for Economic Chairman of Asianet News Online |
He has served as the national spokesperson and vice-chairman of the Keralam faction of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.[5][6] Chandrasekhar served as Member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, Member of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Member of the Joint Committee on Data Protection Bill, 2019 and Member of the Consultative Committee on MoE & IT, Ministry of Communications, Member of the Indian Council for World Affairs.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar served as a member of the Parliament, Standing Committee on Defence, Consultative Committee on Finance, the Central Advisory Committee for the National Cadet Corps, Co-chairman of District Development Coordination & Monitoring Committee, Bangalore Urban District. He served as member Rajya Sabha Select Committees for the GST[7] and Real Estate bills.[8] Chandrasekhar is the founder and Advisor to the Board of Jupiter Capital Pvt. Ltd.
Early life and education
Rajeev Chandrasekhar was born to Malayali Nair parents in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. His father, M. K. Chandrasekharan, was an Air Commodore of the Indian Air Force and was the trainer of Rajesh Pilot.[9][10] His family hails from Desamangalam in the Thrissur district of Keralam.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar studied at St. Paul's Convent School in Thrissur and completed his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya in Bengaluru. He then studied electrical engineering at the Manipal Institute of Technology.[11] He obtained his master's degree in computer science in 1988 from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.[12]
Career
Entrepreneur
In 1991, after returning to India, Rajeev Chandrasekhar married and joined his father-in-law's company, BPL Group. In 1994, he founded BPL Mobile. It was one of the major telecom companies in India then with licenses over places such as Mumbai. In July 2005, he sold his 64 per cent stake in BPL Communications to Essar Group for US$1.1 bn.
Chandrasekhar founded Jupiter Capital in 2005, with an initial investment of US$100 million. The investment firm has investments and managed assets of over US$800 million in technology, media, hospitality, and entertainment.[13]
In April 2013, Chandrasekhar was awarded an Honorary degree by Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, for his work as an entrepreneur.[14]
As per the affidavit submitted by Rajeev Chandrasekhar before Election Commission of India in 2018, he has an annual income of 28 crores and family assets valued at 65 crores.[15] He also held equity shares in six unlisted companies: Vectra Consultancy Services, SPL Infotech PTE, Jupiter Global Infrastructure, Minsk Developers, RC Stocks & Securities and Sanguine New Media. In addition to this he indirectly has stakes in Axiscade Engineering Technologies, Jupiter Capital Private Limited, Mistral Solutions, Assystem Axiscades, Tayana Digital, Hindustan Infrastructure Projects & Engineering Pvt Ltd.[13][16]
Media
In late 2006, Chandrasekhar entered into a media foray due to investments made in Asianet Communications through his firm Jupiter Capital Private Limited.[17] In late 2008, he entered into a joint venture with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp as Asianet Star Communications.[18] In 2008 May, he started Asianet News Online Private Ltd. (ANOPL) which holds media outlets Asianet News, Asianet Suvarna News, and online portal Newsable. In 2016, through ANOPL, he invested nearly 60 crores in ARG Outlier Media, the holding company of Republic TV.[19][20] In May 2019, ANOPL diluted the share holding in Republic TV after Chandrasekhar became a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha as Bharatiya Janata Party member in 2018.[21][22]
Politics
In the Second Modi ministry Chandrasekhar became a Minister of State following the cabinet reshuffling in July 2021.[23] He was the Minister of State for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and Ministry of Jal Shakti. Earlier he was a national spokesperson of BJP.[5] He was announced as the BJP candidate from the Trivandrum constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala.[24] He lost to the then incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor by 16,077 votes.[25]
Member of Parliament
Chandrasekhar was an Independent member of Rajya Sabha representing Karnataka from April 2006 to April 2018.[26][27] In April 2018, he was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka for a third six-year term as a BJP member.[28]
Personal life
Awards and accolades
- Honoured by Army's Western Command GOC-in Commendation for his work for the Armed Forces and Veterans.
- India Today magazine ranked him #41st in India's 50 Most Powerful People of 2017 list.[31]
| Year | Name | Awarding organization | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | IIT Global Service Award. | Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. | [32] |