Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Center for Contemporary South Asia

Palanivel Thiaga Rajan — Democracy in India: Constitutional Design and Realized Outcomes

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

4:00pm - 5:30pm EST

McKinney Conference Rm, 111 Thayer St

Reception to Follow

Watch on YouTube

Borrowing heavily from the unwritten Constitution of the United Kingdom, and after 2-years of debates in the Constituent Assembly, India adopted its Constitution, the basis for its Republic. Join us for a talk with Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, former Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu, that will touch upon core constructs such as administration and governance, representation of citizens, and the separation and execution of powers to consider whether the outcomes over the last roughly 75 years have delivered on the vision of the Constituent Assembly.

Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan  serves as the Minister for Information Technology & Digital Services, Earlier he served as the Minister for Finance & Human Resources Management in the Government of Tamil Nadu, India. During his stint as Finance Minister, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Thiru M.K.Stalin nominated Dr Palanivel Thiaga Rajan to the Goods & Service Tax Council (GST Council) as a GST Council Member to represent the Government of Tamil Nadu. Dr Palanivel Thiaga Rajan was also a member of the Group ofMinisters (GoM) on (1) System Reforms (standing committee) & (2) Casinos, Race Courses and Online Gaming as nominated by the Chairperson of the GST Council i.e., Hon’ble Union Minister for Finance,Government of India.

South Asia Seminar

He is the MLA for Madurai Central Constituency in the 15th (2016-‘21) & 16th(2021-‘26) Legislative Assemblies of Tamil Nadu. Earlier in 2016, he was elected as an MLA on a DMK ticket on his Maiden attempt. He served on the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (’16-’20) and he was an Executive Committee Member of the Tamil Nadu Chapter of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

In June 2017 he had appointed as the (founding) Secretary of the newly formed IT Wing of the DMK. In that capacity, he has undertaken the build-out of the party’s technology platforms and a cadre of several thousand Office Bearers across the State. Latter in the year 2022 he relinquished the party post due to the Ministerial Portflio.

Dr Rajan previously worked as an International Investment Banker for many years, in several trading, market sales, and management roles at Lehman Brothers (largely in New York), and Standard Chartered Bank (mostly based in Singapore) – where he last served as Senior Managing Director, Financial Markets, overseeing the sales of several fixed-income products globally. Before banking, his career spanned Academia, Agriculture, Consulting, Manufacturing, and Research.

Because of his global career and deep curiosity, Dr Rajan has travelled to about 60 countries across the major continents. His political and policy views are significantly shaped by his observation of both the diversity of cultures around the world and the universality of human values.

Dr Rajan earned a B. Tech (Hons.) in Chemical Engineering from NIT, Trichy, MS (Operations Research) and Ph. D. (Human Factors Engineering / Engineering Psychology) from the State University of New York, and an MBA (Finance) from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Dr Rajan represents the 4th generation of his family’s engagement in the Dravidian Movement, and he is a 3rd generation elected representative, following in the footsteps of his Grandfather Tamizhavel Sir P. T. Rajan (former Minister & Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency under Diarchy), and his father P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan (former Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, and Minister of the Government of Tamil Nadu). His ancestor M.T. Subramania Mudaliar served as Vice President of the South Indian Liberal Federation, the fountainhead of the Dravidian Movement, at its inception in 1916.