Ponnala Lakshmaiah (born 15 February 1944) is an Indian politician, who served as the minister for Information Technology and Communications for the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. He was also a member of the legislative assembly of Andhra Pradesh, and a member of the

All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...

. He was named president of the newly created Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on 11 March 2014. Ponnala Lakshmaiah served four terms in the Assembly from the Jangaon Constituency in Warangal District.

Early life

Ponnala Lakshmaiah was born in the village of Quilashahpur, located in the heart of the Telangana region, into the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-speaking

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

family of Ponnala Radha (Radhamma) and Ponnala Rama Kishtaiah. He is married to Ponnala Arunadevi and has two children. He earned his M. S. Mechanical Engineering degree from 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. With his first project, he made improvements in areas such as

poultry breeding Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...

, helping employ thousands of uneducated people. He also promoted the development of the dairy industry.

Political career

In 1980, Ponnala began working with the

Congress Party 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 ...

. 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 name "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 Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer, statesman and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to Indi ...

laid the foundation on 30 June 1993. The project was under execution in "Jalayagnam" at a cost of Rs. 30 billion.

Ponnala Foundation

Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that the Ponnala Foundation started by him would give away awards to mathematics genius every year in memory of the Indian math genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, in order to promote the subject among children."Ponnala Foundation Mathematics Genius Award"
''TSI''. 2016-04-11.

Awards

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lakshmaiah, Ponnala Telangana politicians People from Telangana People from Hanamkonda district Members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Living people 1944 births Oklahoma State University alumni