Harsh Vardhan

Dr. Harsh Vardhan is the incumbent minister at Ministry of Science and Technology (India) and Ministry of Earth Sciences in the BJP-led NDA government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He represents Chandni Chowk in Delhi as a Member of Parliament in the 16th Lok Sabha. He was also the Chief Minister candidate for the BJP in the 2013 Delhi assembly election.

Harsh Vardhan Singh was born in Delhi to Om Prakash Goel and Sneh Lata.

Vardhan finished his schooling from Anglo Sanskrit Victoria Jubilee Senior Secondary School, Daryaganj, in 1971. He attended Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College, Kanpur, where he graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. He earned his Master of Surgery in Otorhinolaryngology from the same college in 1983. Dr. Harsh Vardhan has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood.

In 1993, he was elected as a member of the Delhi Assembly representing Krishna Nagar. He was appointed as the State Minister of Health and Minister of Law for Delhi. He later became the state Minister of Education in 1996. Dr. Vardhan has been re-elected from the same constituency in the 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013 elections.

State Minister of Health

Dr. Vardhan as the State Minister of Health in 1994 oversaw the successful implementation of the pilot project of the Pulse Polio Programme which involved the mass immunisation of 1 million children up to the age of 3 in Delhi. In 1995, this programme was launched nationwide leading to 88 million children being immunised. On 28 March 2014, India was declared polio-free by the WHO, as there had been no reported cases for three years.

In 1997, the Delhi Prohibition of Smoking and Non-Smokers Health Protection Act was passed in the Delhi assembly which was one of the first anti-tobacco laws implemented by any state government. The act applied across the NCT of Delhi. It prohibited smoking in places of public work or use for example hospitals, restaurants and educational institutions and in public service vehicles. It also prohibited the sale of smoking substances such as tobacco and beedis to anyone below the age of eighteen. Smoking products could not also be sold or stored within 100 metres of any educational institution. Under the provisions of the act, fines would be applied to anyone who contravened the law and they could potentially be ejected from places of public use by the police.

2013 Delhi Assembly elections

On 23 October 2013, Dr. Vardhan was named the Chief Minister candidate for Delhi Assembly elections by the BJP. After the 2013 elections, BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 31 out of the 70 seats in the Fifth Legislative Assembly of Delhi. However, they fell short of an absolute majority so were unable to form the government.

2014 Lok Sabha election

Vardhan contested the Chandni Chowk seat in Delhi where he defeated the incumbent Union Cabinet Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal of the Indian National Congress. He was also appointed in the Cabinet of India as Minister of Health and Family Welfare on 26 May 2014.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan has received the following awards and recognitions:

• IMA President's Special Award of Appreciation by the Indian Medical Association in 1994.
• Director-General's Polio Eradication Champion Award Commendation Medal by the World Health Organization in 1998.
• Polio Eradication Champion Award by the Rotary International in 2001.
• "Doctor of the last Decade" (Swastha Ratna) by Indian Medical Association's New Delhi branch in 2002.

• "The Biography of Dr Harsh Vardhan, BJP's CM Candidate for Delhi". Bihar Prabha. 21 October 2013. Retrieved 3 November 2013. 

Harsh Vardhan is married to Nutan, and together they have two sons and a daughter.