Dr.Harsh Vardhan

Dr.Harsh Vardhan is an Indian Politician and is the Minister of Science and Technology, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and Minister of Earth Sciences in the BJP-led NDA government. He was born on 13-12-1954 to Om Prakash Goel and Sneh Lata Goel in Delhi.

He completed his schooling at Happy School, Daryaganj, in 1971. He did his MBBS and MS in ENT from GSVM Medical College, Kanpur in 1979, and 1983 respectively, and returned to Delhi to practice as an ENT surgeon. Vardhan married Nutan and they had two sons and one daughter.

Dr.Harsh Vardhan has been a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist from his childhood. He elected as Member of Delhi Legislative Assembly for Five consecutive Terms from the Krishna Nagar constituency in 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013. From 1993-1998, he worked as Minister of Health, Education, Law and Justice, and Legislative Affairs, Govt. of NCT of Delhi. As the State Minister of Health in 1994, he successfully implemented the pilot project of the Pulse Polio Programme which involved the mass immunization of 1 million children up to the age of 3 in Delhi.

In 1996, He became the State Minister of Education in the Government of Delhi. In 1997 as a Health minister. In 2013, Dr. Vardhan was named the Chief Minister candidate of BJP for the Delhi Assembly elections. BJP emerged as the single largest party but fell short of an absolute majority so they were unable to form the government. He was elected to 16th Lok Sabha from Chandni Chowk constituency in 2014.

On 10-November-2014, Harsh Vardhan became the new Union Minister for Science and Technology. From 27-May-2014 to 09-November-2014, he served as Union Minister For Health & Family Welfare in the government of India.

In 2017, He selected as the Union Cabinet Minister of Environment and Forest and Climate Change. He contested and won the Chandini Chowk Lok Sabha seat by defeating INC candidate Jai Prakash Agarwal by a margin of over two lakh votes in 2019.

On 30-May-2019, Harsh Vardhan was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term government. He is put in charge of the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Minister of Science and Technology, and Minister of Earth Sciences.

On 22-May-2020, He was appointed to the post of Chairperson of the Executive Board of the World Health Organization.

Fight against tobacco:

• Harsh Vardhan played a vital role in the Prohibition of Smoking and Non-Smokers Health Protection Act when it was passed in the Delhi assembly. This was one of the first anti-tobacco laws implemented by any state government.

Awards and Honours:

• IMA President’s Special Award of Appreciation by the Indian Medical Association in 1994.
• Director-General’s Polio Eradication Champion Award Commendation Medal by the World Health Organization in 1998.
• Polio Eradication Champion Award by the Rotary International in 2001.
• “Doctor of the Last Decade” (Swasthya Ratna) by Indian Medical Association’s New Delhi branch in 2002.

The Social Activist:

• A number of prestigious social organizations have honored Dr. Vardhan with awards. The Maharaja Agrasen Forum conferred on him the ‘Aggarwal Ratan Award’ in 1994.
• The Jain Mahasabha bestowed on him the ‘Ahimsa Samman’ in 1996. The ‘Sewa Shree Samman’ was conferred on him in 1996 for his outstanding achievements by Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister.
• The All India Conference of Intellectuals conferred on him the ‘Delhi Ratan Award’. The Acharya Kshemchand Suman Seva Samiti conferred on him the prestigious Acharya Suman Shree Samman for the year 2001.
• He has also received the Vocational Excellence Award from the Rotary Club of Delhi Uptown for his outstanding contribution to serving the community, with special mention of his dedication and commitment to providing relief to the victims of the Gujarat earthquake.

The Big idea Man:

• A major pioneering initiative of Dr. Vardhan was his implementation of WHO’s Essential Drug Programme, which revolutionized governments’ attitudes to public healthcare. Under the plan, the maximum budgetary outlay was apportioned to those drugs most needed by the people. Dr. Vardhan’s initiative came to be known as the ‘Delhi Model’ and was taken up by several foreign countries and at least a dozen state governments in India.