Deepender Singh Hooda (born 4 January 1978) is an Indian politician and four-term MP from the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

, who is the current

Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha A Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha (abbreviated: MP) is the representative of the Indian states to the one of the two houses of the Parliament of India (Rajya Sabha). Rajya Sabha MPs are elected by the electoral college of the elected ...

representing Haryana. He also served three terms as Member of Parliament in

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from

Rohtak Rohtak () is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies north-west of New Delhi and south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9(old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National ...

(2005–2019). He is a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body of the

. In his 15 years as the Rohtak MP, he helped set up an

IIM The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busin ...

India's largest cancer institute at Jhajjar
a
IIT extension campus
besides the 5,500 acr
IMT, Rohtak
which has companies like Maruti Suzuki, Asian Paints, Suzuki Motorcycles and others, attracting an investment of Rs 5,000 crore, besides setting u
FDDI and IHM
in his constituency. He continues to be engaged in academics and was named

at the Kelley School of Business,

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, Bloomington – its Poling Chair of Business and Government. He is the fourth generation of his family to be in public service: His father

Bhupinder Singh Hooda Bhupinder Singh Hooda (born 15 September 1947) is an Indian National Congress politician who is the current Leader of the Opposition in Haryana Legislative Assembly. He also served as the Chief Minister of Haryana from 2005 to 2014. When he b ...

served as the Chief Minister of Haryana for two terms while his grandfather,

Ranbir Singh Hooda Ranbir Singh Hooda (26 November 1914 - 1 February 2009) was an Indian politician from Haryana. He was a member of the Indian National Congress. He served as a minister in undivided Punjab and then in the Haryana government. His 100th birth ann ...

, was a freedom fighter, a member of the Constituent Assembly, member of the 1st and 2nd Lok Sabha from Rohtak, and Minister in Punjab (when Haryana was part of Punjab) and a member of Rajya Sabha. His great grandfathe
Choudhary Matu Ram
was a social reformer and a freedom fighter who worked closely with

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. Hooda was the youngest parliamentarian when he entered politics in 2005. He writes frequently on Indian economics and international affairs in the

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

and other prominent publications.

Political career

Hooda was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2020 and was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha from Rohtak for three terms. During the 16th Lok Sabha, he was the

Whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

of Indian National Congress in Parliament.World Economic Forum
/ref> He also served on several other statutory and parliamentary bodies in various capacities as an elected board member of the Council of Indian Institutes of Technology; as a Member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy; as chairman of Indo-UK forum of Parliamentarians. In past, he has been a member of Parliamentary Standing Committees of Finance, External Affairs, Agriculture and Human Resource Development.Detailed Profile: Deepender Singh Hooda
/ref>

Corporate career

Deepender had worked in various companies in India and the United States, before being elected to the Lok Sabha in 2005, at the age of 27. He started his professional career with Reliance Industries Ltd, (1999- 2000) as a management trainee and then worked as a software engineer with Infosys Technologies Ltd, (2000–2001) at their campus in Bengaluru. He then took a break to finish his MBA at Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, where he majored in finance and strategy. After his MBA, he joined American Airlines/Sabre Holdings, Dallas, USA as a senior manager (2003–2005). He was offered a job at McKinsey & Company and came to India to take a short break between jobs but then decided to move to public service. He contested and won the Lok Sabha by-election from Rohtak in October, 2005.

Education

Deepender Hooda holds a

Bachelor of Technology A Bachelor of Technology (Latin ''Baccalaureus Technologiae'', commonly abbreviated as B.Tech. or BTech; with honours as B.Tech. (Hons.)) is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after the completion of a three to five-year program of studi ...

and

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

and a bachelor's degree in law. He did his engineering from the

Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences The Technological Institute of Textile and Sciences (TITS) is an Indian technical college. It offers engineering and postgraduate programs. It is one of the oldest colleges in India. The institute provides lectures by in-house and visiting fa ...

Bhiwani Bhiwani is a city and a municipal council in Bhiwani district in the state of Haryana, Bhiwani was also known as "Gate of Rajputana". Besides being a seat of spiritual learning, the city is at the centre of regional politics and hometown of t ...

, then managed by the Birla Education Trust. He did his MBA from Kelley School of Business at the

, Bloomington, where he majored in Finance and Strategy. At the Indiana University, he was awarded honorary Beta Gamma Sigma (top 1% of class) and was elected president of Asian Students Association at University in a unanimous vote. During this period, he successfully led team of Asian students from the top 15 business schools in United States in holding `Asian Business Conference` at Harvard Business School. He holds a law degree from the prestigious Campus Law Centre,

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

(2016–17 to 2019–20). He attended school at Mayo College,

Ajmer Ajmer is one of the major and oldest cities in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the centre of the eponymous Ajmer District. It is located at the centre of Rajasthan. It is also known as heart of Rajasthan. The city was established as "''Aj ...

Delhi Public School, RK Puram Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram (often referred to as ''DPS R. K. Puram'' or ''RKP'') is a co-educational day and private boarding private school, school educating pupils from 6th to 12th grade, located in the South Delhi district of New Del ...

and Model School, Rohtak.

Awards

World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader (YGL): He was named as a Young Global Leader in the year 2011. MIT's Bharat Asmita Jana Pratinidhi Shreshta award: In 2010 he received Bharat Asmita Jana Pratinidhi Shreshta award for the best young exponent of parliamentary practices for his work towards rural development through education and power generation. He received the Shresth Sansad Award in 2019

Personal life

Deepender Hooda married Sweta Mirdha, grand daughter of Nathuram Mirdha who is a member of the Indian National Congress in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

. Her older sister, Jyoti Mirdha, is a former Congress MP from

Nagaur Nagaur is a city and municipal council in Nagaur district of the state of Rajasthan in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Nagaur District. The Nagaur city lies about midway between Jodhpur and Bikaner. Nagaur is famous for spices ...

in Rajasthan. Jyoti Mirdha is married to Narendra Gehlaut-Vice Chairman Indiabulls Real Estate. Sweta and Deepender have a young son Kesarbir who has started school. Hooda was earlier married to Geeta Grewal, they divorced in 2005.

References