Rajkumar Dhoot

Rajkumar Dhoot, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) representing the State of Maharashtra, India and Immediate Past-President of the Apex Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) is also the Promoter & Co-Owner of the diversified Videocon Group of Companies. He is from the Shiv Sena party. He is a well-known industrialist and was born on 11 September 1955 at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. His father, the late Shri Nandlal Madhavlal Dhoot, was an Indian Industrialist and the founder of Videocon. His brother, Venugopal Dhoot is the Chairman & Managing Director of Videocon Industries Limited.

Mr. Rajkumar Dhoot was first elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2002 and served the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, Consultative Committees for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry & the Ministry of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation. He has been a regular member of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Finance & Special Invitee of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Communications & IT and for the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. He was a special invitee to the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India). In April 2008, he was re-elected to Rajya Sabha for a second term & had been a Member of the Standing Committee on IT apart from being a Member of the Hindi Salahkar Samiti of the Ministry of Textiles. He has been consecutively re-elected for a third term for the Rajya Sabha this year (2014).

At present, he is a Member of the Standing Committee on Health & Family Welfare. Apart from keenly raising pertinent issues of his home State Maharashtra through Parliamentary Questions, No-Day-Yet Named Motions, amendments on the Motion of Thanks on Presidents’ Address & other means of Parliamentary modes, he has also introduced key Private Members Bills in the Rajya Sabha. To cite some of the subjects raised by Mr. Dhoot for the development of Maharashtra - for the prevention of suicides of farmers of Maharashtra and rest of the Country and for their welfare, for the welfare of pavement dwellers and slum dwellers of Mumbai and rest of the Country and many other issues of public importance. He regularly writes to Union Ministers and Chief Minister of Maharashtra for the redressal of problems of Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra and other issues of public importance & he has succeeded in his endeavors.

Mr. Rajkumar Dhoot, being a 3rd term senior Parliamentarian actively campaigned with his party chief Shri Uddhav Thackeray and other Shiv Sena leaders in key cities of Maharashtra like Kolhapur, Nashik, Shirdi, Aurangabad, Ratnagiri amongst others before the General elections 2014 and also in the Maharashtra State Assembly Elections in 2014.

Mr. Dhoot, in the winter session of the Parliament in November 2014 introduced three bills - The Constitution (Amendment) Bill, 2014 (amendment of Article 371 on special provision with respect to the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, The Illegal Immigrants and Missing Foreign Nationals Identification and Deportation Authority of India Bill, 2014, and The Homeless Pavement Dwellers (Welfare) Bill, 2014.

At the end of two successful terms as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Dhoot was elected as the President of Apex Industry body, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) by its Managing Committee on 21 February 2012. He held this position till 19 July 2013 and was instrumental in leveraging the Apex Chambers’ contribution to the development of the Industry to a great degree, with several proactive and engaging events.

While Mr. Dhoot held office as the Senior Vice President of ASSOCHAM in 2011-12 and earlier was an active member of the Industry body, he also holds the unique distinction of being the first Parliamentarian to become the President of ASSOCHAM.

ASSOCHAM saw itself reaching new heights when Mr. Dhoot ended his distinguished tenure with the Annual event of ASSOCHAM in July 2013, which had the Prime Minister of India gracing the occasion as the Chief Guest. The week-long series of events were attended by several Union Cabinet Ministers, Members of the Opposition, MPs, Industrialists, Bankers and Eminent Mediapersons. Prominent among those who attended were Shri Rajnath Singh, President of the Key Opposition Party, BJP; Shri Uddhav Thackerey, President of the Shiv Sena; Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and IT; Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde, Union Home Minister; Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha; Dr. Veerappa Moily, Union Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister; Shri Jaipal Reddy, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Minister; Shri Sachin Pilot, MoS (I/C) for Corporate Affairs amongst others. Mr. Dhoot continues to be closely associated with ASSOCHAM as its Past President and plays an active role in its affairs.

Mr. Dhoot is the Former President of Marathwada Industries Association, now Chamber of Marathwada Industries & Agriculture (CMIA) which actively promotes industries in Marathwada region and is a Member of India-France Parliamentary Friendship Group.

For the past few years, Mr. Dhoot has been a regular and active participant at the prestigious Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, also known as the Winter Davos, which is held in the last week of January and is a global congregation of Business leaders, political, academic and other leaders of the Global society to shape global, regional and industry agendas.

Mr. Rajkumar Dhoot graduated with honors in commerce from S.B. College, Aurangabad. Apart from Trade and Politics, he has been vigorously involved in Social work which includes promoting Education for the Girl child, running a leading multi-Super Specialty Charitable Hospital (providing advanced treatment to many life-threatening diseases and conditions from pediatric to geriatric patients as charity), undertaking Road construction and having drinking-water distributed to people in drought afflicted areas.

In the early 1990s, people from rural areas in Maharashtra used to give minimum education to their daughters & had them married at an early age. Mr. Dhoot, taking into account the pitiable condition of the girls, decided to give education to the girls from the rural areas. As he knew “We owe to the society”, he established a Girls High school in Gangapur, Aurangabad in 1992, when, 100 students were given admission to the Secondary School. In 1995, a new big building was built, and, today, 1800 Students from First to Twelfth Standard are learning in the School. Mr. Dhoot gave his contribution in women empowerment by appointing only female teachers in the school. The school has well equipped computer & science labs, library, and, apart from the main subjects; tie & dye art, machine work, weaving and stitching are also taught to the Girls to make them self-reliant. Various Government Scholarships are given to the students, which are issued in the form of crossed cheques. Gangapur is a backward area & the people there now feel safe in sending their daughters to this school because of the reputation of the Dhoot family and due to the good social work done over decades in and around that area. Mr. Dhoot started this school with an intention to uplift the masses in that area and with a single-focused objective of teaching English to the girls in that area so that they can get become employable in the long run and upgrade their social status.

Mr. Dhoot also established a Vittal Mandir in Gangapur area and has a small 3-bedded hospital adjoining the Mandir which takes care of the medical needs of people of Gangapur area.

Mr. Dhoot runs a leading multi-Super Specialty Charitable Hospital - ‘Nandlal Dhoot Charitable Hospital’ at Aurangabad with an investment of over Rs. 100 crores, and from primary to all tertiary level health care facilities to help the people suffering from critical and life-threatening conditions. This hospital has fully developed Cardiac Centre and also provides radiation therapy using Cobalt-60 facilities for Cancer treatment. At the hospital, all poor patients are provided free food and accommodation during treatment. Mr. Dhoot regularly promotes free medical checkups and free medicine distribution camps to help the below poverty line population in and around Aurangabad. Mr. Dhoot is also helping the patients with poor eyesight or with developing blindness by regularly conducting free eye check-up and cataract surgery camps. Every year approximately 1200 patients are benefitted from such camps.

During the infamous drought in Maharashtra in the Summer of 2013, Mr. Dhoot, in his personal capacity, arranged for Water-tankers to distribute clean drinking water for a period of 2 months amongst the poor and the drought afflicted people. He has also undertaken construction of roads in Gangapur & adjoining areas.