Raj Kumar Singh (born 20 December 1952) is a former Indian bureaucrat and a current Union Cabinet Minister in the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. He is a Member of the Indian Parliament for

Arrah Arrah (also transliterated as Ara) is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district (formerly known as Shahabad district) in the Indian state of Bihar. It is the headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the confluence of the G ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

, since May 2014. Singh is a 1975 batch

cadre

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. Considered the premier civil service of India, the IAS is one of the three arms of the All India Services along with the Indian ...

officer and former Home Secretary of India. On 3 September 2017, he was appointed as the Minister of Power (Independent Charge) in Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament fro ...

's cabinet. On 30 May 2019, he was appointed as Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Power, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is a ministry of the Government of India, headed by current Union Cabinet Minister Raj Kumar Singh, that is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual property protection, and ...

and Minister of State in the

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is a Ministry of Government of India set up on 9 November 2014 to coordinate all skill development efforts across the country. The ministry is headed by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. In ...

. On 7th July 2021, He was elevated to the rank of Cabinet minister.

Personal life

Singh was born to Haldhar Prasad Singh and Chandrakala Devi in Supaul in a Gandhavariya

Rajput Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

Family in Bihar. He gained a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(Hons.) degree in English Literature, a

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

and a Diploma in Management. He was educated at St. Stephen's College, Delhi,

Magadh University Magadh University is a public state university and institution of higher education in Bodhgaya, Bihar, India. It is recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The university is governed by the Bihar State University Act 1976. It pro ...

and

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He married Shiela Singh on 27 February 1975. They have a son and a daughter together.

Bureaucrat career

He was the district magistrate in

East Champaran East Champaran is an administrative district in the state of Bihar in India.The district headquarters are located at Motihari. Prior to 1st Dec 1977, there was a single district called "Champaran". On 1st Dec 1977, the district was divided into 2 ...

and

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

in the 1980s before joining the state home department in 1997. On 30 October 1990, R.K. Singh, who was then posted as Registrar Cooperatives, Govt. of Bihar in Patna, was asked to arrest Advani in Samastipur, while Advani's

Ram Rath Yatra The ''Ram Rath Yatra'' was a political and religious rally that lasted from September to October 1990. It was organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its Hindu nationalist affiliates, and led by the then-president of the BJP, L. K. ...

was en route to

Ayodhya Ayodhya (; ) is a city situated on the banks of holy river Saryu in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Ayodhya, also known as Saketa, is an ancient city of India, the birthplace of Rama and setting of the great epic Ramayana. Ayodhya wa ...

in Uttar Pradesh from Somnath in Gujarat. For this Mr. Singh was empowered through a special order by the then Chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and sent on deputation to Samastipur as Additional Magistrate. The arrest was made by order of the

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parlia ...

government. The complete operation was so secret that even the then DM and SP of Samastipur were not aware about the arrest plan. During the

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unit ...

government's first term (2004–2009), Singh, as principal secretary in the road construction department, played an important role in improving the condition of roads in Bihar. In the National Democratic Alliance-led government, the then Home Minister, Advani, selected Singh to work as joint secretary in the Home Ministry for five years from 1999 to 2004. R.K. Singh was Union Home Secretary of India from 30 June 2011 to 30 June 2013, after that he retired from service. In 2013, Singh was tipped to be adviser (infrastructure) in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, a post created through cabinet approval. However, he did not accept the assignment. Before his appointment as Union home Secretary, Union Defence Minister A. K. Antony had picked Singh to head the department of defence production in 2009 in view of his clean reputation. Singh was chosen by the then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram for his efficiency and no-nonsense attitude. Known to be a tough taskmaster, Chidambaram got along well with Singh at a professional level. However, Singh had several run-ins with Chidambaram's successor,

Sushilkumar Shinde Sushilkumar Sambhaji Shinde (born 4 September 1941) is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Power in the Manmohan Singh government, and the Leader of the House in Lok Sabha until ...

, who was not happy with the home secretary's handling of the situation following 16 December

2012 Delhi gang rape The 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, involved a rape and fatal assault that occurred on 16 December 2012 in Munirka, a neighbourhood in South West Delhi. The incident took place when Jyoti Singh, a 22-yea ...

. It was during the tenure of R.K. Singh as the Union home secretary that 26/11 Mumbai attack terrorist Ajmal Kasab and Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru were hanged. R.K. Singh after retirement also revealed Shinde's involvement in the

IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

Spot-fixing case and how Shinde had interfered in that investigation. Shinde also met the accused Shahid Balwa at his North Block office even after R.K. Singh's statements regarding Shinde's involvement in the IPL spot-fixing case.

Political career

There was speculation that Singh would contest from the Bihar constituencies of either

or Supaul in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, though

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...

objected to him contesting from Supaul. On 13 December 2013, Singh joined the BJP. He contested the election as a BJP candidate in Arrah, beating his nearest rival, Sribhagwan Singh Kushwaha of

RJD The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: ''National People's Party'') is an Indian political party, based in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Kerala. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has tradit ...

by a margin of over 1,35,000 votes. In the 2019 General Elections conducted for the formation of the

17th Lok Sabha The 17th Lok Sabha was formed by the members elected in the 2019 Indian general election. Elections, all across India, were conducted in seven phases from 11 April 2019 to 19 May 2019 by the Election Commission of India. Counting started off ...

, he again contested from

and retained his seat becoming the first MP from Arrah since Chandradeo Prasad Verma to retain his seat in successive elections. He defeated his nearest rival Raju Yadav of CPI (ML) Liberation by 1,47,285 votes. On 3 September 2017, Mr. Singh was appointed as Minister of Power (Independent Charge) and Minister of New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) by

. This post was previously held by

Piyush Goyal Piyush Vedprakash Goyal (born 13 June 1964) is a politician, chartered accountant and cabinet minister of the Government of India having portfolios such as Minister of Textiles, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Consumer Affa ...

. In May 2019, Singh was appointed as Minister of State (Independent Charge) for

Power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

and New and Renewable Energy and Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

References

External links

Bihar Breakthrough - RK Singh
, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, R. K. Bihar cadre civil servants Indian Administrative Service officers People from Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar People from Supaul district 1953 births Living people India MPs 2014–2019 People from Arrah India MPs 2019–present Narendra Modi ministry Ministers of Power of India