Ashwini Vaishnaw is an Indian politician and former IAS officer who is currently serving as the 39th Minister of Railways, 55th Communications and 2nd Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India since 2021 and a member of the Rajya Sabha representing Odisha since 2019. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Earlier in 1994, Vaishnaw joined the Indian Administrative Service in the Odisha cadre, and has worked extensively in Odisha.

Education and work

Vaishnaw is originally a resident of Jeewand Kallan village of Pali district, Rajasthan. Later, his family settled in Jodhpur.

Vaishnaw did his schooling at St. Anthony's Convent School, Jodhpur, and at Mahesh School, Jodhpur. He graduated from MBM Engineering College (JNVU) Jodhpur in 1991 with a gold medal in an electronic and communications engineering course and then completed his M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, before joining the Indian Administrative Services in 1994 with an all-India rank of 27. In 2008, Vaishnaw left for the US to do his MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

After his MBA, Vaishnaw came back to India and joined GE Transportation as Managing Director. Subsequently, he joined Siemens as the Vice President - Locomotives & Head Urban Infrastructure Strategy. Previously, he has also worked as deputy chairman of the Mormugao Port Trust, and thus has experience in both public and private sector enterprises.

In 2012, he quit the corporate sector and set up Three Tee Auto Logistics Private Limited and Vee Gee Auto Components Private Limited, both automotive components manufacturing units in Gujarat.

Years in civil services

In 1994, Vaishnaw joined the Indian Administrative Service in the Odisha cadre, and has worked extensively in different parts of Odisha including serving as the District Collector of Balasore and Cuttack districts. At the time of super cyclone 1999, he managed to collect data related to real timing and place of cyclone, by collecting that data Government of Odisha took safety measurements for people of Odisha. He worked in Odisha till 2003 when he was appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. After his brief stint in the PMO where he contributed to creating the public-private-partnership framework in infrastructure projects, Vaishnav was appointed as Vajpayee's private secretary after the BJP-led NDA lost the election in 2004.

In 2006, he became deputy chairman of Mormugao Port Trust, where he worked for next two years.

He took an educational loan to complete his MBA at the Wharton Business School. He realized that it would barely take him months to payback the educational loan and eventually left civil service in 2010 to join private sector and open an Industry. He gained a MBA degree to get insights on how to run a successful business.

Political career

Vaishnaw is currently a Member of Indian Parliament, representing Odisha state in the Rajya Sabha. He won the Rajya Sabha election unopposed with the help of Biju Janata Dal members in Odisha. Vaishnaw was appointed as member of Committee on Subordinate Legislation and Petitions and Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests.

In 2019, Vaishnaw argued in the Parliament that the economic slowdown faced then by India was cyclical in nature and was not a structural slowdown, and that it was likely to bottom out by March 2020 and would be followed by solid growth. Vaishnaw firmly believes that the way to build the country is to put the money in investment rather than putting money in consumption.

Vaishnaw also supported the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on 5 December 2019 in Rajya Sabha. He believed the step of reducing or rather rationalizing the tax structure would increase the competitiveness of Indian industry and would also develop the capital base of the Indian industry. While supporting, he further argued that the particular rationalization of tax structure would help corporates de-leverage and increase the retained earnings and reserves and surplus, which would lay the foundation for the structural growth of the economy.

Apart from these, he has also spoken on issues ranging from Ship Recycling Bill to Women Protection in Rajya Sabha to further the public discourse on those issues.

Cabinet Minister

In July 2021, in the 22nd cabinet reshuffle, he was given the responsibility of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Communications.