Jitendra Singh

Jitendra Singh (born 6 November 1956) is an Indian physician and politician.

He is the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Science and Technology and Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office; Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space.

He is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national executive member and was the chief spokesperson for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Singh was born on 6 November 1956 in Jammu, in the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir into a Hindu Dogra Rajput family as the elder child to parents Rajinder Singh and Shanti Devi.

His family belongs to Marmat area in Doda district.

On 16 April 1982, Singh married Manju Singh.

They have two sons.

Besides being a medical doctor, Singh has also worked as a newspaper columnist.

Initially he wrote for Kashmir Times.

Subsequently, he switched to Daily Excelsior, which is the largest circulated newspaper of Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2008, Singh was appointed spokesperson of the Shri Amarnathji Sangharsh Samiti, an umbrella organisation of right wing parties during the Amarnath land transfer controversy.

However, the party refused to make him a candidate for the 2009 Indian general election.

During his stint with the organisation, he took premature retirement as a professor of endocrinology in the Government Medical College, Jammu to join the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2012.

He won the Udhampur seat in the Indian general election, 2014 and 2019 with highest ever margin of votes for the 16th Lok Sabha and 17th Lok Sabha.

His weekly column Tales of Travesty used to feature in the editorial section of the newspaper until his election to the Lok Sabha in 2014.

He was a professor of diabetes and endocrinology, Life Patron, Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI); Founder Executive Member, Diabetes in Pregnancy Study  India, a consultant, clinical practitioner, author of eight books, and a newspaper columnist.

He is the ex-chairman for the National Scientific Committee Diabetes and the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India.

In March 2014, the party announced that Singh would contest the upcoming general election from Udhampur constituency in his native Jammu.

His primary competitor was Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Indian National Congress party who was a former chief minister of the state.

Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha after defeating Azad by a margin of 60,976 votes.

Singh was polled 487,369 votes while Azad was polled 426,393 votes.

On 27 May 2014, Singh was appointed Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Minister of State for Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space.

He also became the Union Minister of State (Independent charge) in the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences.

As a minister of science and technology, Singh launched India's first indigenously made research vessel named "Sindhu Sadhana" on 14 July 2014 from Mormugao harbour in Goa.

In a written response to the Lok Sabha on 31 July, he announced that India had signed cooperative arrangements with 33 countries for "peaceful use of outer space".

He further added that areas of co-operation included remote sensing of earth, launch services, satellite communication, telemetry, space exploration and space law.

He further launched India's first home-made broad spectrum confocal microscope on 7 October at New Delhi.

He announced that the government was considering increasing the retirement age of scientists to 62 years.

The ministry increased the stipend of researchers by 50% at the end of the month.

On 8 November 2014, Singh was replaced by Harsh Vardhan, another doctor as the minister of science and technology and earth sciences.

During Singh's ministership, the fourth Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System was launched by ISRO in April 2015 which would provide "navigation and communication facility to all the surrounding countries".

On 29 April 2018, he along with ISRO chairman K. Sivan confirmed that India would send a crewed mission to the moon by 2022 as proposed by Prime Minister Modi.

During Singh's tenure as the minister of personnel, public grievances and pension, the Union Public Service Commission refused to count the marks of English comprehension in the Civil Services Aptitude Test.

In March 2019, the party renominated Singh as its candidate from the Udhampur constituency for the upcoming general election.

His main rival was Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress party and supported by Jammu and Kashmir National Conference party - Vikramaditya Singh was also the grandson of Hari Singh, the last monarch of the former princely state.

Jitendra Singh fought the election on his "development report card".

Notable campaigners for him included Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Ram Madhav and cricketer Gautam Gambhir.

Jitendra Singh was re-elected to the Lok Sabha after defeating Vikramaditya Singh by approximately 350,000 votes.

Jitendra Singh was polled 7,15,406 votes compared to his rival's 3,66,123 votes.

On 31 May 2019, it was announced that Singh had retained his ministries in the Second Modi ministry.