Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a principal leader of the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he served as the country's first prime minister for 16 years. Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the Cold War. A well-regarded author, the books he wrote in prison, such as Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929), An Autobiography (1936) and The Discovery of India (1946), have been read around the world.
The prime minister of India is the head of Union Council of Ministersof the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the executive. The prime minister has to be a (nominated) member of one of the houses of bicameral Parliament of India, alongside heading the respective house. The prime minister and his cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha.
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian politician and independence activist who served as the prime minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading the government formed by the Janata Party. During his long career in politics, he held many important posts in government such as the chief minister of Bombay State, the home minister, the finance minister, and the deputy prime minister.
Syama Prasad Mookerjee was an Indian barrister, educationist, politician, activist, social worker, and a minister in the state and national governments. Noted for his opposition to Quit India movement within the independence movement in India, he later served as India's first Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet after breaking up with the Hindu Mahasabha. After falling out with Nehru, protesting against the Liaquat–Nehru Pact, Mukherjee resigned from Nehru's cabinet. With the help of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party, in 1951.
Manmohan Singh was an Indian politician, economist, academic, and bureaucrat, who served as the prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He was the fourth longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Narendra Modi. A member of the Indian National Congress, Singh was the first Sikh prime minister of India. He was also the first prime minister since Nehru to be re-elected after completing a full five-year term.
Mobasher Jawed Akbar is an Indian journalist and politician, who served as the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs until 17 October 2018. Akbar is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, and was inducted into the Union Council of Ministers by PM Narendra Modi on 5 July 2016. He is also a veteran Indian journalist and author of several books. He was a Member of Parliament between 1989 and 1991, and returned to public life in March 2014 when he joined the BJP and was appointed national spokesperson during the 2014 general elections that brought the party back to office with a simple majority under the leadership of Narendra Modi. In July 2015 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand. During his long career in journalism, he launched, as editor, India's first weekly political news periodicals, including India Today, Headlines Today, The Telegraph, The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle, among others.
Kuldip Nayar was an Indian journalist, syndicated columnist, human rights activist, author and former High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom noted for his long career as a left-wing political commentator. He was also nominated as a member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament in 1997.
The National Security Advisor is the senior official on the National Security Council of India, and the chief advisor to the Prime Minister of India on national security policy and international affairs. In 2019, the term of Ajit Doval the current NSA was extended for another 5-year term, and has been assigned the rank of a Union Cabinet Minister and ranks at the seventh position in the Indian Order of Precedence.
Vishweshwar Nath Khare is a retired Indian judge who served as the 33rd Chief Justice of India, from 19 December 2002 to 2 May 2004. He also served as the Chancellor of the Central University of Jharkhand from 2017 to 2023. He was a judge of the Supreme Court of India from 21 March 1997 before he was elevated to the post of Chief Justice.
Arnab Ranjan Goswami is an Indian news anchor and journalist. He is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Republic Media Network.
Chandra Shekhar, also known as Jananayak, was an Indian politician and the prime minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with outside support from the Indian National Congress. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who had never held any prior government office.
Pankaj Pachauri is an Indian TV anchor and journalist. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Gonews, India's first app based TV News channel. Pachauri was associated with NDTV for 15 years. He was also associated with other international media houses including the BBC, India Today, The Sunday Observer and tha Patriot newspaper. He has been a member of the National Integration Council.
Diwan Bahadur Sir Narasimha Gopalaswami Ayyangar was an Indian civil servant and statesman, who served as the Prime Minister of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and later a minister in the first cabinet of independent India. He was a member of the drafting committee of the Constitution of India, the leader of the Rajya Sabha, a 'minister without portfolio' looking after Kashmir Affairs, and the Minister for Railways.
Amit Khare is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer from Bihar/Jharkhand cadre and is currently serving as the advisor to Prime Minister of India. He is noted for his role in bringing to light the Fodder scam, in which Rs. 940 crores were embezzled in Bihar over many years, and successive chief ministers Jagannath Mishra and Lalu Yadav have been imprisoned.
The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh is a 2014 memoir by Indian policy analyst Sanjaya Baru, who was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's media advisor from May 2004 to August 2008. Published by Penguin India, the book alleges that Singh was not entirely in control of his cabinet—or even the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Instead, significant power was wielded by the Congress party's president Sonia Gandhi, to whom Singh was completely "subservient". "There cannot be two centres of power", Baru remembers Singh explaining to him, "That creates confusion. I have to accept that the party president is the centre of power. The government is answerable to the party."
The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India is the administrative head of the Prime Minister's Office. The officeholder is generally a civil servant, commonly from the Indian Administrative Service and occasionally from the Indian Foreign Service.
In March 2020, a political crisis took place in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, due to the resignation of 22 sitting MLAs of the Indian National Congress party from the state's Legislative Assembly. It eventually led to the fall of the Kamal Nath government and the subsequent formation of the fourth Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh.
Simon Denyer is a British journalist, author, and wildlife conservationist. He served as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Washington Post and for Reuters, including in Beijing, New Delhi, Washington, Islamabad, Nairobi, New York and London.
