Ponnala Lakshmaiah

Ponnala Lakshmaiah (15 February 1944) is an Indian politician, who served as the minister for information technology and communications for the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. a member of the legislature assembly of Andhra Pradesh, and a Member of the All India Congress Committee. He was named President of the newly created Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on 11 March 2014. He is serving his fourth term in the Assembly from the Janagam Constituency in Warangal District.

Lakshmaiah was born in a village Quilashapur, Warangal, Hyderabad State into the family of P. Radhamma and P. Rama Kishtaiah. He is married to Aruna Devi and has two children. He earned an M.S Mechanical Engineering degree from the Oklahoma State University in 1969.

Having come in contact with the World Bank and its programs for developing countries, he was attracted by rural development projects in India. He returned to India and worked to generate rural employment in the region of his birthplace. The first project was improvements in areas such as poultry breeding, helping employ thousands of uneducated people. He also promoted development of the dairy industry.

Lakshmaiah began working with the Congress Party in 1980. In 1985, as a mark of protest against the atrocities perpetrated by T.D.P workers on Harijans of Karamchedu (Guntur Dist) and the indifferent attitude of the state government, he organised a public protest. In the 1992 Congress Plenary session at Tirupati, he successfully handled the foreign delegates, including prime ministers of neighboring countries.

In 1986, he launched a protest under the aegis "Samagra Pochampad Karyacharana Samithi" and worked with District Leaders to modify the irrigation scheme to benefit the chronically drought-prone area. Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao laid the foundation on 30 June 1993. The project was under execution in "Jalayagnam" at a cost of Rs. 30 billion.

Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that the Ponnala Foundation started by him would present an award to a mathematics genius every year in memory of Indian math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan in order to promote the subject among children.

• Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Alumnus - Oklahoma State University (School of business) - Hall of Fame