Son of Late Shri Shardha Nand; born on 15th March, 1952 at Shimla; B.Sc., LL.B., educated at Govt. Higher Secondary School, Ghumarwin, D.A.V. College, Jalandhar, S.D.B. College, Shimla and Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla; married; two sons and one daughter; Advocate and Horticulturist.
Actively involved in student movement during college days; National Secretary, ABVP, 1973-74; jailed on several occasions during the Emergency, 1975-77; elected President, Law Students’ Association, H.P. University, Shimla; Convenor, Himachal Pradesh Loktantrik Morcha (an umbrella organization of youth and student leaders of Himachal Pradesh), 1977; President: Janata Yuva Morcha,1978-81, ii) Himachal Pradesh Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha; National Treasurer, Bhartiya Janata Yuva, 1987-88; Secretary, Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party, 1982-83; Vice-President, State Bharatiya Janta Party; and President, State Bharatiya Janata Party, 2003-06.
President: Shimla Bar Association, ii) H.P.SAT Bar Association; Central Government’s Senior Standing Counsel in H.P. High Court, 2001-02; Member: State Transport Authority, 1979-80, ii) Executive Council, H.P.U., 1990-93, 2008-2013, iii) State Grievances Committee, 1998-2002, iv) State High Powered Committee for Reviewing Land Reforms and Land Revenue Laws, 1998-2002; Director: State Cooperative Marketing Federation, Shimla, 1984-93, ii) H.P. State Cooperative Bank, Shimla 1990-92; and Chairman, Super Bazar Shimla, 1991-92.
Elected to State Legislative Assembly in 1990; remained Chairman, Subordinate Legislation Committee, 1990-92, ii) H.P. State Govt. Committee on Expenditure Control and Resource Mobilization, 1991-93.
Elected to Rajya Sabha in April, 2002; Member Consultative Committee: Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, August, 2002-February, 2004, ii) Ministry of Power, October, 2004, iii) Sub Committee, Ministry of Agro and Rural Industries of Committee on Industry September, 2004; Member Committees of the Rajya Sabha: Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, January, 2003-February, 2004, ii) Committee on Official Languages, iii) Committee on Public Accounts, iv) Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas and Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances , law and
Justice 2006.
Re-elected to State Assembly in December, 2007 & 2012; remained Chairman, Human Development and Subordinate Legislation Committees and Member, Public Accounts Committee , 2008 - 2012; Chief Whip, Bharatiya Janata Legislature Party , 2008- 2012 & 2013-2017; Panel of Chairman, H.P. Vidhan Sabha , 2008- 2012 & 2013-2017; and Member, General Development Rules, Public Administration and Public Accounts Committees, 2013-17.
Re-elected to the thirteenth Vidhan Sabha (4th term ) in December, 2017; and inducted into Council of Ministers as Education Minister along with Portfolios of Higher Education Elementary Education, Law and Parliamentary Affairs on 27th December, 2017.
Special Interest: Social services.
Favorite Pastime: Reading.
Languages Known: Hindi and English.
Travels Abroad: As delegate co-operators and Agriculturists visited Germany, Holland U.K., U.S.A. and France and as a Member Parliament visited Pakistan to attend CPA Conference in 2007 and was one of the resource Persons of the Conference.