Smriti Irani
Minister of Women and Child Development, Government of IndiaBirth DetailsMarch 23, 1976 | New Delhi
NationalityIndian
LeaguePolitician
EducationSchool of Correspondence and Continuing Education, University of Delhi
Smriti Irani's Journey so far ...
Before you go ...
- Born in a Bengali-Punjabi family, Smriti Irani was educated at New Delhi's Holy Child Auxilium School. She later enrolled for B.Com at Delhi University's School of Open Learning
- She went to Mumbai at the age of 18 and worked as a waitress and even tried modelling. She applied for the post of an air hostess in Jet Airways but was rejected
- Irani shot to fame in the TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi in 2000 where she was cast as the iconic Tulsi Virani and became a household name in India and abroad. She was partly responsible for making the serial a superhit
- Irani started as a BJP activist during her television days. Her grandfather was a Swayamsevak in RK Puram and her mother had been in the Jan Sangh. Inspired by Pramod Mahajan and Manisha Chaudhary, she eventually joined the BJP in 2003
- In 2004, she first contested a Lok Sabha election from Chandni Chowk in Delhi, but lost to Congress heavyweight Kapil Sibal
- She was elected to Rajya Sabha from Gujarat in 2011 and re-elected in 2017 for a second term
- She contested against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls but lost. However, she continued to cultivate Amethi in the next five years and this helped her reap electoral dividends — she emerged as a giant killer of 2019 by defeating the ex-Congress president in his home turf
- Irani became the youngest cabinet minister in 2014 after the BJP won a massive victory in the Lok Sabha polls and was assigned the high-profile Human Resource Development (HRD) portfolio, she was the first woman to hold this office. However, she was shifted out of the HRD Ministry to Textiles after a two-year tenure
- Her tenure saw some radical moves like scrapping Delhi University’s four-year undergraduate programme and the debate over rules for Institutes of Eminence and IIM autonomy
- In 2019, the firebrand actor-turned-politician was made Minister of Women and Child Development and Minister of Textiles in Modi Cabinet - a reward for her historic victory over Congress President in Amethi
- An eloquent speaker and an effective communicator, she is often the BJP's first choice for addressing the party's press conferences and defending it during debates in Parliament
- In the Union Cabinet reshuffle in July 2021, the charge of the Textile Ministry was given to Piyush Goyal. Prime Minister Modi reconstituted the powerful cabinet committees and included her as one of the new members of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs
- Within the BJP, she has served in various posts like National Secretary, National Executive member, Vice-President of BJYM’s Maharashtra unit, President of BJP Mahila Morcha
Before you go ...
- In 2015, Irani was named as the Young Global Leader from India by the World Economic Forum. It said she "rose from sweeping floors in a fast food restaurant to become a top politician in India"
- She started her own NGO named People for Change in 2007. The organisation provides scholarships to underprivileged students and has undertaken drinking water projects in rural Maharashtra
- Once when she courted arrest along with Nitin Gadkari and some other BJP leaders in Mumbai, wives of policemen came to the police station demanding why “Tulsi” had been arrested. She was released shortly after that
- She was a contestant in the Miss India Pageant in 1998
- Consecutively for seven years, she bagged the Best Actress Award from the Indian Television Academy
- She is married to a Parsi businessman, Zubin Irani, and is a mother of three children
Last Updated: 27/09/2021
Smriti Irani News
Trending In Profiles
Mukesh AmbaniRatan TataAnand MahindraSundar PichaiGautam AdaniElon MuskAnil AmbaniYogi AdityanathRakesh JhunjhunwalaRadhakishan DamaniNarendra ModiByju RaveendranNitin GadkariSmriti IraniKiran Mazumdar ShawJeff BezosNandan NilekaniJack DorseyWarren BuffettBill GatesDisclaimerThe content of this page has been aggregated from multiple websites. Some information can change over the passage of time.