Jayant Sinha

Political career

Sinha has participated in Indian politics and policy-making since the 1990s. 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 new 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 was a member of four 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.

Sinha 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. There, he helped in driving landmark initiatives such as PM Mudra Yojana, Social Security Platform, devising the Indradhanush package for public sector banks, launching the India Aspiration Fund to promote entrepreneurship, and strengthening India’s capital markets. He piloted key legislations, namely the Insurance Bill, Bankruptcy Bill, Negotiable Instruments Act and Regional Rural Banks Bill in the Parliament. He also helped in preparing the Union Budgets of 2015-16 and 2016–17, which were widely hailed as two of the most significant and visionary budgets in recent years. Sinha is often credited for devising and driving innovative financing solutions, such as the National Infrastructure and Investment Fund, Long Term Irrigation Fund, India Aspiration Fund and Higher Education Financing Agency.

After spending about 20 months at the Ministry of Finance, he moved over to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 6 July 2016. His appointment came when the government unveiled the draft regional connectivity scheme with the intent to provide air connectivity to unserved and remote routes. At the launch of the scheme Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN), Mr Sinha said the state governments would reap the benefit of development of remote areas, enhance trade and commerce and more tourism expansion. Sinha has worked to strengthen the airport infrastructure plan through the National Civil Aviation Policy to double the number of airports. He also helped launch AirSewa for passengers to register their grievances through the mobile app or a web portal to provide a systematic approach to the redressal process.

In October 2016 Jayant Sinha signed an MoU between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship for training of people in the various trades associated with the civil aviation sector to meet the potential of 60 lakh jobs in the next ten years. As the Minister of State, Jayant Sinha rolled out policies that supported the strong growth in aviation sector of over 20% per year.

On 23 February 2017 MP from Hazaribagh Jayant Sinha laid the foundation stone for three medical colleges in Dumka, Palamau and Hazaribagh along with the Chief Minister of Jharkhand Mr. Raghubar Das.

On 28 February 2017 MoS for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha inaugurated India’s first ever integrated heliport in Rohini, New Delhi along with Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju.

On 27 April 2017 the Honourable Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi launched the UDAN scheme from the Jubbarhatti airport in Shimla and the MoS for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha played an instrumental role in implementing it.

Early life

Sinha was born in Giridih, Jharkhand, where his father, Yashwant Sinha, was stationed as an IAS officer. In his youth, Jayant lived in Bihar, Delhi and Germany. He studied in St. Michael's High 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. AT IIT Delhi, Sinha was awarded multiple prizes including Aravali Hostel Roll of Honour, Vivek Sharma Memorial Prize for outstanding contribution to BRCR.

While at IIT, Sinha met his future wife Punita, and they were married in 1986. She is also an alumna of IIT Delhi.

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. He graduated with distinction in 1995.

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. He also helped in funding the Indian Input Investing Council.

Sinha has also served on the boards of several companies and organizations, including Daily Hunt, 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.