Dr Harsh Vardhan (born 13 December 1954) is an Indian ear, nose and throat surgeon and a former politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party. As Delhi’s health minister he started the pulse polio immunisation campaign in 1994, which became the national programme that ended polio in India. He was Union Health Minister in 2014 and again from 2019 to 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also held the Science and Technology and Environment portfolios.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Harsh Vardhan Goel |
| Born | 13 December 1954, Delhi, India |
| Age | 71 |
| Profession | ENT surgeon |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Offices | Minister of Health and Family Welfare (2014; 2019–2021); Minister of Science and Technology (2014–2021) |
| Constituencies | Krishna Nagar, Delhi assembly (1993–2014); Chandni Chowk, Lok Sabha (2014–2024) |
| Education | Anglo Sanskrit Victoria Jubilee School, Delhi; GSVM Medical College, Kanpur (MBBS, MS) |
| Spouse | Nutan Goel |
| Children | 3 |
Early Life
Harsh Vardhan grew up in old Delhi and joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a child. He qualified as a doctor at Kanpur, specialised in ENT surgery and set up a clinic in Krishna Nagar in east Delhi. He was active in the Delhi Medical Association.
Political Career
He won Krishna Nagar in Delhi’s first assembly election in 1993 and held it five times in a row. As health minister he organised a single-day mass vaccination on 2 October 1994 in which more than a million children in Delhi were given polio drops. The Government of India adopted the model nationwide in 1995, and India was certified polio-free in 2014. The World Health Organization gave him a commendation medal in 1998. He also brought in one of India’s first laws against smoking in public places.
The BJP named him its candidate for Chief Minister of Delhi in 2013. The party emerged the largest but short of a majority, and he declined to form a government. In 2014 he won the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha seat, defeating Kapil Sibal.
Narendra Modi made him Health Minister in May 2014 and moved him to Science and Technology that November. He returned to Health in May 2019. He led the ministry through the first two waves of COVID-19 and the start of vaccination in January 2021, and chaired the WHO Executive Board from May 2020. He resigned in the reshuffle of July 2021, after the severe second wave.
Retirement
Not renominated in 2024, he announced that he was leaving politics after more than thirty years and returned to his ENT clinic in Krishna Nagar.
Books
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Harsh Vardhan born?
Harsh Vardhan was born on 13 December 1954 in Delhi, India and is 71 years old.
Featured image: Dr Harsh Vardhan (right), then Minister for Science and Technology, addresses a press conference, New Delhi, 26 October 2016. Photo by Ministry of Science and Technology, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
