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Nishank assumes charge as HRD Minister

Last Updated 31 May 2019, 16:37 IST

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, who served as an 'acharya' (teacher) in RSS-affiliated school Saraswati Shishu Mandir in 80s, is the new Human Resource Development (HRD) minister in Modi 2.0 government.

He assumed charge of the ministry on Friday and held a meeting with its senior officials, both from the school education and adult literacy department and the department of higher education.

Prakash Javadekar, who held the HRD ministry portfolio in the previous Modi government, has been given charge of the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry and the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).

Nishank, a prolific Hindi writer and a poet, is a graduate in Arts from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University Srinagar (Garhwal), Uttarakhand and has acquired a PhD and D Lit degrees.

His appointment as the Union HRD minister in the second term of Modi government is seen as a precursor to bringing changes in the country's education system that the RSS and it affiliates have been pushing for.

Nishank comes with more that two decades of administrative experience as a minister in undivided Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

He served as a minister in the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh.

Nishank remained at the helm of affairs in Uttarakhand serving as the State's fifth chief minister from June 27, 2009, to September 2011.

He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014 from Haridwar constituency. He has retained this seat, emerging victorious in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from here for the second consecutive time.

Improving quality and standard of education and teachers as well as filling up of vacant positions of the teachers—both in schools and higher education institutions across the country—are among the key challenges that the Nishank faces as he takes charge of the HRD ministry.

During the previous regime of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the HRD ministry remained at the centre of controversy over a range of issues, including PhD scholar Rohit Vemula's suicide in Hyderabad university and grant of Institute of Eminence (IoE) tag to the Reliance Foundation's yet-to-be-set-up Jio institute.

“I have nothing to say as of now,” Nishank told reporters after he took over the HRD minister.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Dhotre, a BJP MP from Akola in Maharashtra also assumed charge as Minister of State for the HRD.

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(Published 31 May 2019, 12:10 IST)

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