Rajeev Chandrasekhar (born 31 May 1964) is an Indian entrepreneur and politician currently serving as the state president of BJP Kerala. He is a former junior minister,

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

for the

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) is an executive agency of the Government of India, Union Government of the India, Republic of India. It was carved out of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (I ...

, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and

Ministry of Jal Shakti The Ministry of Jal Shakti () is a ministry under the Government of India which was formed in May 2019 under the second Modi ministry. This was formed by merging of two ministries; ''the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga R ...

. From 2006 to 2024, he was also a member of parliament in the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

representing

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. He is a member of the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP). He has served as the national spokesperson and vice-chairman of the

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

faction of the BJP-led

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

. 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 and Real Estate bills. Chandrasekhar is the founder and Advisor to the Board of Jupiter Capital Pvt. Ltd.

Early life and education

Rajeev Chandrasekhar was born to

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

Nair The Nair (, ) also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes, described by anthropologist Kathleen Gough as "not a unitary group but a named category of castes". The Nair include several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom hi ...

parents in

Ahmedabad, Gujarat Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

. His father, M. K. Chandrasekharan, was an

Air Commodore Air commodore (Air Cdre or Air Cmde) is an air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes ...

of the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

and was the trainer of Rajesh Pilot. His family hails from Desamangalam in the

Thrissur district Thrissur (), anglicised as Trichur, is one of the List of districts of Kerala, 14 districts in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kerala. It is situated in the central region of the state. Spanning an area of about , th ...

. Rajeev Chandrasekhar studied at St. Paul's Convent School in

Thrissur Thrissur (, ), Renaming of cities in India, formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the List of most populous urban agglomerations in Ke ...

and completed his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya in

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. He then studied electrical engineering at

Manipal Institute of Technology Manipal Institute of Technology is a private engineering college under Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India. MIT is a constituent unit of Manipal Academy of Higher Education. The institute has 18 academic departments and awards unde ...

. He obtained his master's degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in 1988 from the

Illinois Institute of Technology The Illinois Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Illinois Tech and IIT, is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the m ...

in Chicago. Rajeev Chandrasekhar was handpicked by

Vinod Dham Vinod Dham is an Indian-American engineer, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is known as the 'Father of the Pentium Chip' for his contribution to the development of Intel, Intel's Pentium micro-processor. He is also a mentor and adviso ...

to join

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

and worked there from 1988 to 1991. At Intel he was part of the architectural team that designed the

i486 The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor introduced in 1989. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the i386, Intel 386. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the Inte ...

processor. He has also completed an advanced management program from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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 Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. In July 2005, he sold his 64 per cent stake in BPL Communications to

Essar Group Essar Group is an Indian Multinational company, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate company, founded by Shashi and Ravi Ruia, Shashi Ruia and Ravi Ruia in 1969. The company, known as Essar Global Fund Limited (EGFL), owns a vari ...

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. In April 2013, Chandrasekhar was awarded an

Honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

by Visvesvaraya Technological University,

Belgaum Belgaum (Kannada ISO 15919, ISO: ''Bēḷagāma'', ), officially known as Belagavi (also Belgaon), is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located near its northern western border in the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters ...

, for his work as an entrepreneur. As per the affidavit submitted by Rajeev Chandrasekhar before

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

in 2018, he has an annual income of 28 crores and family assets valued at 65 crores. 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.

Media

In late 2006, Chandrasekhar entered into a media foray due to investments made in Asianet Communications through his firm Jupiter Capital Private Limited. In late 2008, he entered into a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with Rupert Murdoch's

News Corp The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...

as Asianet Star Communications. In 2008 May, he started Asianet News Online Private Ltd. (ANOPL) which holds media outlets

Asianet News Asianet News is an Indian Malayalam-language free-to-air news channel, operated by the Asianet News Network, a subsidiary of Asianxt Digital Technologies. The channel is based in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Asianet News is currently one of th ...

Asianet Suvarna News Asianet Suvarna News is a Kannada news channel owned by Asianet News Network, a news media subsidiary of Asianxt Digital Technologies. The majority shareholder of the company is Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is a Rajya Sabha member from the Bhara ...

, and online portal Newsable. In 2016, through ANOPL, he invested nearly 60 crores in ARG Outlier Media, the holding company of Republic TV. In May 2019, ANOPL diluted the share holding in Republic TV after Chandrasekhar became a

Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha A Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha (abbreviated: MP) is the representative of the States and union territories of India, Indian states to the upper house of the Parliament of India which is known as "Rajya Sabha" (constitutionally "Cou ...

member in 2018.

Politics

In the

Second Modi ministry The Second Modi ministry, also called Modi 2.0 was the Union Council of Ministers of India, Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi that was formed after the 2019 Indian general election, 2019 general election whi ...

Chandrasekhar became a

following the cabinet reshuffling in July 2021. He was the Minister of State for the

, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and

. Earlier he was a national spokesperson of BJP. He was announced as the BJP candidate from the Trivandrum constituency for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Kerala. He lost to the then incumbent MP

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; born 9 March 1956) is an Indian politician, author, and former diplomat, who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is currently the Chairman of Committee on External Affairs. ...

by 16,077 votes.

Member of Parliament

Chandrasekhar was an Independent member of Rajya Sabha representing Karnataka from April 2006 to April 2018. In April 2018, he was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka for a third six-year term as a BJP member.

Personal life

Rajeev is married to Anju Chandrasekhar (m. 1991), the daughter of T. P. G. Nambiar, the founder of BPL Group and resides in

Koramangala Koramangala () is a southeastern neighbourhood of the Indian city of Bengaluru. One of the largest in that metropolis, it is a residential locality with wide, tree-lined boulevards and a mix of commercial structures and bungalows. Planned as a ...

. They have a son, Ved, and a daughter Devika. His mother Anandavalli Amma and father M. K. Chandrasekhar also reside in

Awards and accolades

*Honoured by Army's Western Command GOC-in Commendation for his work for the Armed Forces and Veterans. *''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'' magazine ranked him #41st in India's 50 Most Powerful People of 2017 list.

References

External links

*
Profile
on

website
Twitter handle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chandrasekhar, Rajeev Living people Indian billionaires Indian computer scientists Engineers from Karnataka Malayali people Politicians from Bengaluru Rajya Sabha members from Karnataka Illinois Institute of Technology alumni 1964 births Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Karnataka Rajya Sabha members from the Bharatiya Janata Party Hudson Institute Narendra Modi ministry Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Kerala