Minster of Science and Technology;Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Minister of Earth Sciences
PROFESSION– Surgeon & Politician
BORN – 13 December, 1954 (Age 66 )
PLACE OF BIRTH – Delhi
FATHER’S NAME – Late Shri Om Prakash Goel
MOTHER’S NAME – Late Smt. Sneh Lata
SPOUSE – Smt. Nutan
SIBLINGS – NA
CHILDREN – Two Son & One daughter(Sachin,Mayank and Inakshi )
EDUCATION – M.B.B.S, M.S (ENT), Educated at GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, UP.
POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS/PARTY- Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)
OFFICIAL WEBSITE– www.drharshvardhan.com
REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT- He was elected to the office of Chairperson of Executive Board of the World Health Organization from May 20, 2020.
AWARDS – He received the following awards:
IMA President’s Special Award of Appreciation by the Indian Medical Association.
Director-General’s Polio eradication champion award commendation medal by the World Health Organization in 1998.
Polio Eradication Champion Award by the Rotary International in 2001.
“Doctor of the last decade” by the Indian Medical Association’s New Delhi branch in 2002.
Harshvardhan Goel is an Indian otorhinolaryngologist and the incumbent Minister of Science & Technology, Minister of Health & Family Welfare and Minister of Earth Sciences in the BJP lead NDA government. He represents Chandani Chowk in Delhi as a Member of Parliament in the 17th Lok Sabha.
UPBRINGING & EDUCATION – Harshvardhan Goel is the second child in his family. He had his schooling in the Anglo-Sanskrit Victoria Jubilee Senior Secondary School in Daryaganj, which is one of the oldest educational institutions in northern India founded in 1869. Later, he decided to become a doctor and attended GSVM Medical College in Kanpur from where he cleared his MBBS and MS with specialization in ENT.
WALK OF LIFE- After his education, he returned to Delhi to set up practice as an ENT surgeon. He joined the Indian Medical Association’s Delhi Chapter in 1984 and worked hard to build solidarity in the medical fraternity. He also held various posts in the Delhi Medical Association- from Secretary and President to State Secretary and President- where he showed early signs of his leadership qualities.
MAJOR INITIATIVES TAKEN-
During the COVID-19 crisis, he strengthened the health infrastructure and helped in building capacity of over two million frontline human resources in the fight.
He also launched India Seva, a 24-hour helpline which provides an interactive platform to establish a direct two-way channel of communication with millions of Indians which answers citizen’s queries swiftly.
At the Ministry of Environment, he had been instrumental in planting the seeds of a mass movement to make the protection and preservation of the environment the concern and goal of every citizen.
CAREER TIMELINE/POSITION HELD- 1993-2014 Member, Delhi Legislative Assembly (Five terms )
1993-1998 Minister of Health, Education, Law & Justice & Legislative Affairs
May 2014 Eleced to the 16th Lok Sabha
May 2014-Nov 2014 Union Cabinet Minister, Health & Family Welfare
Nov 2014 onwards Union Cabinet Minister, Science & Technology; Earth Sciences
May 2017 onwards Union Cabinet Minister, Environment, Forest and Climate change
CONTROVERSIES/CASES – After the 105th Indian Science Congress in March 2018, after the death of the legendary British Stephen Hawking, Harshvardhan claimed that that Hawking has said that the Vedas postulated a theory superior to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, despite the fact that there is no record of Hawking making that statement.
In 2019, after the Health’s Effect Institute released a scientific report estimating 1.2 million annual deaths in India due to air pollution, Vardhan denied the results, arguing that this report was intended to create panic.
In 2021, Indian Medical Association, the largest association of doctor’s in India, issued a statement which objected to Union health minister who was endorsing Coronil, a product of Patanjali. Indian Medical Association questioned the ethics of a health minister of a country to release such falsely fabricated unscientific product to the people of the country.