Yashwant Sinha
Finance Minister of India (1998-2002)

Mr. Yashwant Sinha was born at Patna, the capital city of Bihar, India on 6th November, 1937. He received his school and university education at Patna. He obtained his Master Degree in Political Science in 1958 from Patna University. Mr. Sinha joined the elite Indian Administrative Service in 1960 through a tough competitive examination and spent over 24 years holding important posts during his service tenure, a substantial part of which was spent in Finance & Commerce Departments.

Mr. Sinha left the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1984 and joined active politics.. He was elected to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of Indian Parliament in 1988. Subsequently, he became the Finance Minister of India and held the post from November, 1990 to June, 1991. Mr. Sinha was elected to the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of Indian Parliament in 1998 and again became Finance Minister of India in March 1998. He continued in that position until July 1, 2002. He was Finance Minister during a tumultuous period in the world economy as well as in the Indian economy.

Mr. Sinha is a widely traveled person. He was the first Indian to be elected Chairman of Development Committee of the World Bank and the IMF in August, 2000 and facilitated inter-governmental consensus building on developmental issues. He was elected Chairman of the G-20, a group of systemically important countries from the point of view of the world economy.

He was the first Finance Minister from the non G-8 countries to chair this Committee. Mr. Sinha was External Affairs Minister of India for two years from July 1, 2002 to May, 2004. Mr. Sinha has been re-elected to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) of Indian Parliament in July, 2004.