Profile of Shri M.M. Pallam Raju

Shri M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, born 31^st August 1962, is currently a Member of Parliament (14th Lok Sabha) and the Minister of State for Defence (Raksha Rajya Mantri (RRM)), Government of India.

An alumni of the Hyderabad Public School (HPS), Begumpet (1971-1979), an Electronics & Communications Engineering graduate (BE) from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, AP (1979-1983) and an MBA from Temple University, Philadelphia, USA (1983-1985).

Shri Pallam Raju worked in Philadelphia and Boston in the USA and in Oslo, Norway, in the field of Computers and Information Technology.

Of Political lineage with his Grandfather (Late Mallipudi Pallam Raju) being a freedom fighter and his father (Shri M.S. Sanjeevi Rao) being a Union Minister in the Government of India (1982-1984), Mangapati Pallam Raju was first elected to the Indian Parliament in 1989 and was the youngest MP in the 9th Lok Sabha.

A successful entrepreneur in the field of Information Technology, he was on the boards of a few very successful Public Limited Companies until his induction into the Union Council of Ministers. He had also served as a Director on the boards of Indian Airlines & Air India during 1994-1997.

He has been a very active member of the Indian National Congress (INC) and has held several important positions in the state unit and at the National level, the most recent one as the Chairman of the Department of Policy Planning and Coordination (DEPPCO) in the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

Between August 2004 and January 2006, he served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology which comprises of the Departments of Information Technology, Communications & Posts, and Information & Broadcasting.

Shri Pallam Raju has represented India in the United Nations General Assembly at New York, USA in October 2004 and at the SAFMA Conference in Pakistan in May 2005. He was the leader of the MPs delegation to Tokyo, Japan in November 2005 and SASAKAWA PEACE Foundation (SPF). He was also a member of the delegation to Beijing, China in November 2005 for the Conference on Globalization which was jointly organized by the Konrad Adeneur Foundation (KAF) of Germany and the Institute of Peace Studies, India.

The Institution of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineers (IETE), New Delhi, has recently conferred a 'Fellow' on him.

Born in Pithapuram, East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh, India in 1962, Shri Pallam Raju is married to Smt. Mamatha and is blessed with two children.

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