Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'

Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' is an Indian politician and the Union Cabinet Minister of Human Resource Development in the Second Modi Ministry. He represents the Haridwar Parliamentary constituency of Uttarakhand in the 17th Lok Sabha.

He was the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2009 to 2011. He was also a member of 16th Lok Sabha and chairperson, Committee on Government Assurances.

Pokhriyal was born in Pinani village, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand to Paramanamd Pokhriyal and Vishambhari Devi on July 15, 1959.
He holds an MA and was married to Kusum Kanta Pokhriyal who died in 2012. He has three daughters.

Pokhriyal was first elected for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Karnaprayag constituency in 1991, and then later in 1993 and 1996 from the same constituency. In 1997, he was appointed as the Uttaranchal Development Minister. He was also Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister.

In 2000, after the creation of Uttarakhand state, he was given twelve departments, including finance, revenue, tax and water divisions for the State of Uttarakhand. In 2007, he was appointed Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Language and Science departments in Uttarakhand. In 2009, he became the youngest Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. In 2012, he was elected MLA for Vidhan Sabha from Doiwala, Dehradun constituency.

In 2014, he resigned from Doiwala and elected from Haridwar for Lok Sabha. On May 30, 2019, he was sworn in as a Cabinet minister in the second Modi Government and allocated the Ministry of Human Resource Development succeeding Prakash Javadekar.