Jayant Sinha

Jayant Sinha
Minister of State for Finance
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 November 2014
Prime Minister	Narendra Modi
Preceded by	Nirmala Sitharaman
Constituency	Hazaribagh
Personal details
Born	21 April 1963 Giridih , Jharkhand
Citizenship	India
Political party	Bhartiya Janta Party
Parents	Yashwant Sinha Nilima Sinha
Residence	Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India & Delhi, India & Newton, Massachusetts, United States of America
Alma mater	IIT Delhi, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Business School
Religion	Hinduism
Website	Official website

Jayant Sinha (born 21 April 1963 in Giridih, Jharkhand) is the Minister of State for Finance, a Member of Indian Parliament and formerly an investment fund manager and management consultant. In May 2014, he was elected to the Lok Sabha, representing the Bharatiya Janata Party from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. Sinha has over 25 years of experience as an investor and strategy consultant. He has served as a member of two important parliamentary committees - the Public Accounts Committee and the Standing Committee on Finance

Sinha holds an M.B.A. with Distinction from the Harvard Business School, an M.S. in Energy Management & Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Technology degree with Distinction from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.

Sinha's prior business experience includes twelve years with McKinsey & Company as a partner in the Boston and Delhi offices. At McKinsey, Sinha co-led the global Software and IT Services practice. He was most recently a partner at Omidyar Network (ON), an investment firm with over $730 million in invested capital. Sinha led ON's overall investment strategy and operations in India. He also spent several years as a Managing Director at Courage Capital, a global special situations hedge fund

During the 2014 national election campaign, Sinha worked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help frame national economic policy, including organizing and hosting an international business leaders' forum with Modi in February 2014. Modi was elected India's prime minister in May, 2014.

Sinha is married to Punita Kumar-Sinha, an investment manager and former Senior Managing Director at The Blackstone Group. He is the son of Nilima Sinha and Yashwant Sinha, a senior Indian politician and former External Affairs Minister and Finance Minister of India.

Political career

Sinha has participated in Indian politics and policy-making for over 15 years. When his father became Finance Minister under Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998-2002), Sinha provided policy inputs on several new initiatives such as the mortgage interest tax deduction and the Saral form to file income tax returns with ease and improve tax compliance. More recently, he served on Advisory Committees for the Finance and Telecom Ministries and advised the Indian Government on spurring entrepreneurship and impact investing. Sinha was one of the Principal Authors of the McKinsey-Nasscom industry reports in 2000 and 2005.

Sinha has been active in Hazaribagh, assisting his father's election campaigns since 1998. He has also worked on a variety of projects in Hazaribagh and Ramgarh districts such as fostering self-help groups, distributing solar lanterns, improving drinking water quality, and getting village roads built.

During the 2014 election campaign, Sinha worked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help frame national economic policy, including organizing and hosting an international business leaders' forum with Mr. Modi in February 2014. Sinha has been an active contributor to the BJP's efforts to develop world-leading campaign management technologies and systems.

In 2014, Sinha contested Lok Sabha elections from the Hazaribagh seat in his home state of Jharkhand. He won the elections with a huge margin of 1,59,128 votes, getting a total of 4,06,931 in his favour. After joining parliament, Sinha had also been a member of three parliamentary committees - Public Accounts Committee, Standing Committee on Finance and Subordinate Committee on Legislation and of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

He was sworn-in as Minister of State in the Union Council of Ministers on 9 November 2014. Subsequently, he assumed charge at the Ministry of Finance in the Indian Government, working with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Early life

Sinha was born in Giridih, Jharkhand, where his father, Yashwant Sinha, was stationed as an IAS officer. In his youth, Jayant moved around India frequently, attending St. Michael's School in Patna and St. Columba's in Delhi. In 1980, Jayant passed the JEE while in the 11th grade on his first attempt, and was admitted to Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. At IIT Delhi, Sinha held many positions in student government including serving as the sole student representative to the Institute Senate. He also represented IIT Delhi in Quizzes, Debates, Theater, and Tennis and won awards in many inter-college events. Sinha also served as Radio Announcer on Yuv Vani and Delhi B from 1983 to 1985.

While at IIT, Sinha met his future wife Punita, and they were married in 1986.

After graduating from IIT Delhi in 1985, Sinha enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed a Master of Science in Energy Management & Policy in 1986. Later, Sinha also attended Harvard Business School, and obtained an MBA with Distinction in 1992.

Professional career

After his graduation from Harvard Business School, Sinha joined McKinsey & Company in Boston, and was elected Partner in 1999. At McKinsey, Sinha co‐led the Global Software & IT Services Practice. Sinha returned to India in 2002 with McKinsey, before leaving to join Courage Capital, a global special situations hedge fund, to lead their India investing efforts

After Courage Capital, Sinha joined Omidyar Network, founded by Pam and Pierre Omidyar. Till December 2013, he was a partner at ON and the Managing Director of Omidyar Network India Advisors. He also served on Omidyar Network's five member global executive committee. During his time there, Omidyar’s India portfolio grew to over 35 companies and organizations totaling investments worth over $100 million.

Sinha has also served on the boards of several companies and organizations, including Treehouse, Ver Se, d.light, iMerit and Janaagraha. He was invited to serve on the International Advisory Board of the International Finance Corporation, Washington DC

In the media

Sinha has been quoted widely in the global media for his views on business and economic policy, including in The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the New York Times, CNN, Bloomberg, and CNBC. His essays and op eds have been published in several major publications, including the Harvard Business Review and the Financial Times.

Articles written by Jayant Sinha, such as 'Strategies That Fit Emerging Markets' in the Harvard Business Review and 'It is time for India to rein in its robber barons' in the Financial Times have widely been quoted in scholarly works and are used as reference material in business schools.

Personal life

Sinha's father is Yashwant Sinha a well-known Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the former Finance Minister and Minister of External Affairs of India. His mother, Nilima Sinha, is a children's book writer and President of the Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children. He is the brother of businessman Sumant Sinha.

Jayant's wife, Punita Kumar Sinha, is an investor and fund manager, and was Jayant's classmate in IIT Delhi. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Pacific Paradigm Advisors, an independent investment advisory and management firm.

Sinha and his wife have two sons.