Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind KejriwalArvind Kejriwal is the 7th and current chief minister of Delhi. Born in Haryana, Kejriwal is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

He worked for the Indian revenue service (IRS) as a joint commissioner in the income tax department.

He is well known for his efforts to enact and implement the Right to Information (RTI) act at grassroots level and his role in drafting a proposed Jan Lokpal Bill

Arvind Kejriwal

Kejriwal won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006 for his contribution to the enactment of the Right to Information Act

In 2006, after resigning from the IRS, he donated his Magsaysay award money as a corpus fund to found an NGO, Public Cause Research Foundation

In 2012, he launched the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and he defeated Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency in the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly election. Following the election, he took office as Chief Minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013

Early and personal lifeKejriwal was born in Siwani village in Bhiwani district in the Indian state of Haryana on 16 August 1968 to Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devii, a well-educated and well-off couple

He has a younger sister and a brotherHis father was an electrical engineer who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, and whose work led to many changes in.

Kejriwal spent most of his childhood in north Indian towns such as Sonepat, Ghaziabad and Hisar. He was educated at Campus School in Hisar

Kejriwal studied mechanical engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and then from 1989 he worked for Tata Steel

He left that job in 1992, to study for the Civil Services Examination, and spent some time in Kolkata, at the Ramakrishna Mission in North-East India and at Nehru Yuva Kendra

Kejriwal is married to Sunita, who is also an IRS officer and his batch mate. The couple have a daughter and a son

Kejriwal is a vegetarian & has been practicing Vipassana for many years

Early and personal life

Kejriwal joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1995 after qualifying through the Civil Services Examination

In 2000, he was granted two years' paid leave to pursue higher education on condition that upon resuming his work he would not resign from the Service for at least three years

Failure to abide by that condition would require him to repay the salary given during the leave period. it was resolved when he paid his way out of the Service with the help of loans from friends

Early Career

He rejoined in 2003 and worked for 18 months before taking unpaid leave for 18 months

In February 2006, he resigned from his position as a Joint Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi

The Government of India claimed that Kejriwal had violated his original agreement by not working for three years. Kejriwal said that his 18 months of work and 18 months of unpaid absence amounted to the stipulated three year period during which he could not resign and that this was an attempt to malign him due to his involvement with Team Anna, a strand of the Indian anti-corruption movement. The dispute ran for several year until, in 2011, it was resolved when he paid his way out of the Service with the help of loans from friends

Early Career

Kejriwal believes "Change begins with small things“

In December 1999, while still in service with the Income Tax Department, he helped found a movement named Parivartan (which means "change"), focused on assisting citizens in navigating income tax, electricity and food ration matters in parts of Delhi

The Parivartan organization exposed a fake ration card scam in 2008 but, according to a founder member, did not have a great impact generally and was largely moribund by 2012

Parivartan

Together with M/s. Manish Sisodia & Abhinandan Sekhri, Kejriwal established the Public Cause Research Foundation in December 2006, donating the prize money he had received from the Ramon Magsaysay Award as a seed fund. This new body paid the employees of Parivartan.

Kejriwal has used the Right to Information Act in corruption cases in many government departments including the Income Tax Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Public Distribution System and the Delhi Electricity Board

Right to Information

Together with M/s. Manish Sisodia & Abhinandan Sekhri, Kejriwal established the Public Cause Research Foundation in December 2006, donating the prize money he had received from the Ramon Magsaysay Award as a seed fund. This new body paid the employees of Parivartan

Kejriwal has used the Right to Information Act in corruption cases in many government departments including the Income Tax Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Public Distribution System and the Delhi Electricity Board

Kejriwal was the civil society representative member of the committee constituted by the Government of India to draft a Jan Lokpal bill

Right to Information

Kejriwal established the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in November 2012 as he believed that electoral politics was the next logical step in the fight against corruption

The party name reflects the phrase Aam Aadmi, or "common man”

He became one of the five most mentioned Indian politicians on social networking sites

In the Delhi election, Kejriwal defeated incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency of New Delhi by a margin of 25,864 votes

Political career

Awards 2004: Asoka Fellow, Civic Engagement 2005: Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award, IIT Kanpur for his campaign for bringing transparency in Governance

2006: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership 2006: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in Public Service 2009: Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kharagpur for Eminent Leadership

2009: Awarded a grant and fellowship by the Association for India's Dev.

2010: Policy Change Agent of the Year, Economic Times Awards along with Aruna Roy

2011: NDTV Indian of the Year along with Anna Hazare 2013: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2013-Politics Publication

SWARAJ. (2012)

Awards & Publication