Kapil Sibal Biography and Works.

Born on August 8, 1948, in Jalandhar city, Kapil Sibal is an Indian politician and a lawyer. Presently, he held the portfolio of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Telecom Minister and the Human Resource Development Minister during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh government.

He has been a Member of Parliament for over ten years – first in 1998 as Member of the Rajya Sabha, and then in 2004, elected to the Lok Sabha from the Chandni Chowk Parliamentary Constituency.

He moved to Delhi in 1962 and qualified for the IAS in 1973 but instead chose to set up his own law practice.

Sibal has held several important positions in the government and the society, such as Additional Solicitor General of India (December 1989-1990); Member, Board of Management, Indira Gandhi National Open University (1993); President, Supreme Court Bar Association (1995-96, 1997-98 and 2001-2002); Member, Rajya Sabha (July 1998); Member, Executive Council, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies (July, 2001); Member, Business Advisory Committee (August, 2001); Member, Committee on Home Affairs (January, 2002); Co-chairman, Indo-US Parliamentary Forum (2002); Member, Board of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (2002); Member, Programme Board of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Indian AIDS initiative (2003); Member, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention set up by the Human Rights Commission, Geneva.

Trivia

Kapil Sibal was the first Indian Minister to have travelled to Antarctica and stayed at the Maitri base in sub-zero temperatures for getting a first hand experience about the hardships being faced by the Indian scientists.