Smriti Irani Biography & Success Story from Tulsi to BJP’s Vice President

Smriti Irani Biography & Success Story from Tulsi to Union Minister

Many of you already read and heard of the success story of Smriti Zubin Irani who began her career as an aspiring model. Here is a Smriti Irani Biography & success story of her entrepreneurial and professional journey.

Her road to fame was never easy. Let us read a success story of the smart risk-taker who never gave up. We hope you are going to enjoy the success story.

Smriti Irani was a successful TV actress before becoming a successful politician. She started his first job as a waitress.

Before entering in the television industry, Irani uses to work at American fast food Company, McDonald’s in Bandra, as she was not getting any role in any TV serial.

“Women need no success mantra”

Well, the credit goes to Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms who selected her for the role of Tulsi Verani (Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi) even after rejecting her.

Smriti Irani turned in to a household name and India’s most favourite ‘Bahu’. She has done many beauty commercial adds also.

Smriti Irani is an Indian politician, former model, producer and television actor. She is the minister in the Union Cabinet of India.

In the cabinet of Narendra Modi she is serving as Minister of Textile & in addition as Minister of Women and Child Development in the second cabinet since 2019.

Role of a Lifetime Smriti Irani’s rise from soap star to union minister

Smriti Irani is the Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha representing Amethi. Prior to this, she was a member of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat & had multiple portfolios as a Minister in Government of India.

In the second Modi Ministry, again she sworn in as a Cabinet Minister on 30^th May 2019. Currently she is the youngest Minister in the council of Minister at the age of 43.

Smriti Irani Biography: Education, Acting Career, Political Life, family

Early life and education:

On 23 March 1976, she was born to a Bengali mother Shibani Bagchi & Punjabi-Maharashtrian father Ajay Kumar Malhotra. She is eldest of three sisters.

Smriti Irani was a part of RSS from childhood as her grandfather was a RSS swayamsevak and her mother was a member of Jana Sangh.

She was educated at the Holly Child Auxilium School at New Delhi. Then, she enrolled in School of Open Learning at University of New Delhi.

As a candidate in 4004 election from Chandni Chowk she declared that she has a degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Personal life:

Smriti Irani married a Parsi nosiness man Zubin Irani in 2011. The couple have three children. Son’s name is Zohr, daughter’s name is Zoe and she is also a stepmother to Shanelle, she is the daughter of Zubin’s first wife.

Acting Career: Steps towards Dream

She was one of the participants of Miss India 1998, but she could not reach the top 9.

Smriti Irani made her first debut with TV series Aatish and Hum Hain Kal Aaj Aur Kal for Star Plus. In mid-2000, she won the lead role of Tulsi Virani in Kyunki Saas BHi Kabhi Bahu Thi on Star Plus.

For that she achieved five consecutive Indian Television Award for best actress-popular & four Indian Telly Awards.

In June she left the show and replaced by Gautami Kapoor, but she made her comeback in May 2008 in a special episode.

In 2001, she played the role of Sita in Zee TV’s Ramayana. In 2006, she co-produces the show Thodi Si Zaneen Thoda Sa Aasman with Balaji Telephilms.

Smriti Irani played lead role in it. In 2007, she produced Virrudh for Sony Tv & Mere Apne for 9X. In 2008, she and Sakshi Tanwar hosted the show The Hai Jalwa. She worked in Bengali movie Amrita in 2012.

Political Career: Build own ladder

Smriti Irani is Member of Parliament –Lok Sabha from Amithi. She joined BJP in 2003. In 2004, she became vice-president of Maharashtra Youth Wing.

She contested unsuccessfully against Kapil Sibbal from Chandni Chowk in 2004. In early 2010, she was appointed National Secretary of BJP.

In August she sworn in as a Member of Parliament from Gujarat to the Rajya Sabha. In 2014, she lost election against Rahul Gandhi from Amethi.

Smriti Irani lost to Gandhi by 1,07,923 votes, the margin was only of 12.32%. PM Modi appointed her as the Minister of Human Resource Development in his cabinet in May 2014.

That was criticised by many people owing to her lack of formal higher education. In June 2016, she announced to start new yoga departments in six new universities.

In a cabinet reshuffle in July 2016, she was shuffled to the Ministry of Textile. She was handed additional charge of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India) when former Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu resigned for vice-presidential elections in July 2017.

Currently she is the youngest minister in the Modi Cabinet, and the first woman to hold office as the Union Minister for Human Resource Development and Union Minister of Textile.

Smriti Irani is the youngest woman to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha.Some of her key achievements in different portfolios are below:

Union Minister for HRD (May 2014 to July 2016):

During this period she under took a number of decisions, which helped in improving quality, inclusivity & outcome of education in the country. Some of them are…

• The Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN) was launched in 2014.
• Udaan Yojana and Pragati scheme were launched in 2014, to address low enrolment of girls in engineering colleges.
• Know Your College Portal, was launched by her in 2014 for helping prospective students to provide necessary information about the college.
• The Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) India Scheme, brainchild of her was launched.
• She launched National Institute Ranking Framework in 2015. It is an indigenous ranking framework for higher educational institution
• She launched SWAYAM-Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds, in 2016.
• Veer Gatha series was launched by the HRD ministry under the leadership of her in the year 2016.

Union Minister for Textile July 2016 to present:

• She was appointed as the Textile Minister in 2016, after Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar.  The Textile council TEXPROCIL has appreciated her contribution to the sector. Various industry bodies hailed her re-appointment as the Union Minister for Textile.
• She launched Apparel & Made up Sector Special Package. It was for strengthening the entire textile industry by providing financial support to small-scale players in the industry.
• In 2019, she declared technical textile items as separate category and declared that the government had notified 207 HSN codes as technical textiles.
• Special initiative was taken to push sericulture in the region, for which Rs. 690 crore had been earmarked.
• She launched silk Samagra workshop in 2018. It was an Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk industry for 3-years from 2017 to 2020. 
• In her second term, she launched ‘Samarth Scheme’-an aspirational initiative.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting (July 2017 to May 2018):

• Shah Rukh Khan praised her. He supported to the 48^th edition of the International film festival of India (IFFI) held in November 2017.
• During her term as I&B Minister, Doordarshan’s net revenue rose to 827.51 crore in 2017. The target was of 800 crore.

Union Minister for Women and Child Developments (May 2019 – Present):

• In the second term of Modi Government, she had given the key portfolio of Union Minister for Women & Child Development.
• She acknowledged the role of Gender Budgeting in the progression of a women-friendly nation & protectively engaged with various stakeholders.
• Amendment to POSCO act 2019 was her one of the first initiative as the Minister for WCD. She also under took the initiative to define “child pornography” & a “zero tolerance” stance against the crime. She launched India’s first Poshan Atlas, Bhartiya Poshan Krishi Kosh (BPKK) with Bill Gates through his foundation.

MP from Amethi:

In 2019 general elections in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, she made historic win against Rahul Gandhi (congress candidate), by margin of 55,120 votes.

Smriti Irani built record number of toilets & houses by centre for poor in Amethi. She has been allotted a first-row seat in the Lok-Sabha.

Smriti Irani launched “Didi Apke Dwar” program after winning election. It is a block wise Janta Darbar for common public.

Smriti fulfils her election promise of Kendriya Vidyalaya for Amethi within three months of winning election.

Awards and International Conferences:

1. The World Economic Forum (WEF) named Smriti as young global leader from India in 2015.
2. She was elected as a member representing the Asia Pacific region to the Task Force responsible for 1^st ever committee of young parliamentarians in Inter-parliamentary Union.
3. Irani was the USAID Goodwill Ambassador to India for 3-years for WHO-ORS program.
4. In 2019, she was listed Femina’s power list as “Women Who Changed the Game” for her victory of Amethi.

Election history:

• Smriti Irani lost Amethi seat against Rahul Gandhi even after gaining over 3-lakh votes in 2014.
• In 2019 election, she won Amethi seat against Congress National President Rahul Gandhi on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket.

We hope you find Smriti Irani Biography & Success Story from Tulsi to BJP’s Vice President inspiring through your entrepreneurial journey, and will keep you inspired.

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