Major Achievements
- Brought electronic giants Dell Computers, Flextronics, Foxconn, Sanmina-SCI, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung to India, and established industry in Chennai, generating employment for thousands of youth
- Instrumental in bringing down prices of cellphones and personal computers
- Obtained Rs 16,000 crore Metro Rail Project to Chennai
- Helped Chennai get a 1000 crore water desalination plant
- Created Integrated Skill Development Scheme for Textile and Apparel Sector and Jute & Handicrafts centre at Egmore, to provide training and employment for the downtrodden
Positions Held
Chennai Central Constituency
High Level Steering CommitteeDravida Munnetra KazhagamMember
Chennai Central Constituency
Union Minister of Information Technology & Communication (2004-2007)
Led the Indian Telecom Sector revolution responsible for India’s growth a s a global superpower and economic growth. Created proactive and positive directions from the Government of India to drive the telecom industry a ta growth rate of over 40%, creating markets, jobs and opportunities for crores of Indians.
Launched the “One india” scheme by BSNL and MTNL , enabling calls across the country at a rate of 1 ₹ per minute and making long distance calls easy and affordable for the common man.
Instrumental in increasing the tele-density and bridging the infrastructural gaps that were holding the Indian Telecom Industry behind global standards
Raised mobile sector from 10 million subscribers in 2002 to 150 million by 2007.
- Helped bring over $650 million of investment into the Telecom Sector.
- Bolstered the Indian Telephone Industries with a Rs 1000 crore revival plan.
- Helped bring global telecom manufactures and research to Tamil Nadu like Flextronics, LG, Nokia, Foxconn etc.
- Brought billions of dollars in investment and jobs into India by bringing Miscrosoft, CISCO, Intel and AMD into the country
Initiated transition to IPV6 and National Roadmap with awareness building programmes,research and development, test bed projects.
Promoted the DIT (Department of information technology) and National Internet Exchange of India(NIXI) to set up state-of-the art hardware and software to relaunch the .IN Registry, a strong advocate of asserting the “.in” identity on the global tech map.
Union Textile Minister (2009-2011)
Education
A well read and learned professional who believes education just doesn’t stop with campuses.
Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, Chennai
Loyola College
Bachelor of Economics
Harvard Business School
Owner/President Management Programme
Education is not preparation
for life, education is life itself.
Awards can give you a tremendous amount of encouragement to keep getting better, no matter how young or old you are.
Maiden Summit in Switzerland
MIT School of Management, Pune
GSMA
India Today Group
Portfolio
Information Technology
Textile Ministry
Other
The Journey
Though Dayanidhi came from a family deeply entrenched in Tamil politics, there was little indication in his younger days that the entrepreneur-radio enthusiast would take to politics. In the wake of Dayanidhi’s father Murasoli Maran’s death in 2003, a vacuum for a technocratic deputation at the Centre was felt by the DMK. In his 36 years as a parliamentarian, Murasoli Maran was the voice of the DMK at the centre, representing the interests of Tamil Nadu and serving as a Union Minister in 3 governments. The Chennai Central Constituency that Murasoli Maran was elected from needed a successor to a true son of the soil and none fit the glove better than the late Parliamentarian’s son – the articulate, technocratic and entrepreneurial younger son would leave behind his promising future in business and plunge head first into public service. A testament to his capabilities was his incredible rise within the ranks of the UPA government, mere months after his successful campaign to win the Chennai Central constituency. He was appointed as Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology on 26 May 2004.
During his tenure as IT and Telecommunication Minister the call rates of mobiles and landlines were drastically reduced which in-turn influenced the growth of subscriptions. During the tenure, he was instrumental in garnering a large amount of Foreign Direct Investments into Communication and Information Technology Sector. Many multinational telecom companies including Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Flextronics and Dell set up units in the country. His ministry introduced “One Rupee One India” plan across the country, which enabled calls across the country at a rate of 1 ₹ per minute. His ministry set and achieved a target of 250 million connections in Dec 2007 to December 2010, against 75 million in May 2004 His industry-friendly approach and vision helped an ailing wing of the government at that point- the telecom ministry lay the foundation for a digital revolution in India- in turn securing India and Tamilnadu’s transition into a global IT and Tech hub.
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Remembering Murasoli Maran
Murasoli Maran was a prominent Tamil politician in India, and an important leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. A Member of Parliament for 36 years, he was made a Union Minister in three separate central governments, in charge of Urban Development in the V.P. Singh government, Industry in the Gowda and Gujral governments, and finally Commerce and Industry under Vajpayee. Apart from being a politician, he was a journalist and scriptwriter for films too.
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