Profile

Baijayant "Jay" Panda is National Vice-President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prabhari (In-Charge) of Assam & Delhi BJP Units. He has been a four time Member of Parliament of India, elected twice each to the Rajya Sabha (2000 and 2006) and the Lok Sabha (2009 and 2014). He had been a member of BJP National core group to articulate and communicate the rationale for amending article 370 of the Indian Constitution relating to Jammu & Kashmir. 

Jay Panda graduated from the Michigan Technological University and, with a background in Engineering and Management, worked in the corporate sector before joining politics. He had helped to form the erstwhile Young Parliamentarians Forum (YPF) and was its Convener. He has also been associated with the India-USA Forum of Parliamentarians from its founding in 2001 and was its Chairman for fifteen years. He was awarded the “Bharat Asmita National Award” for best parliamentary practices by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India in 2008. Since its inception in 2007, he has been associated with the ‘Citizens’ Alliance Against Malnutrition’, an advocacy group including many parliamentarians across parties, civil society activists and non-governmental organizations, Bollywood actors and celebrities. The Citizens’ Alliance has undertaken numerous initiatives to battle child malnutrition in India, including field visits to rural districts in several states, continual engagement with media organizations to highlight the issue, repeated interactions with the Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition, Chief Ministers and other political leaders to raise the priority given to this critical issue.

In his earlier corporate career, Jay Panda was active in industry organizations like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the International Chromium Development Association. In the past he has also been associated with the Govt. of Odisha’s Industrial Advisory Committee and been a Director on the Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha (IPICOL). As a parliamentarian, he has been a member of many important committees like the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Finance, Home, Energy, Urban Development and Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Finance.

In Parliament and public life, Jay Panda passionately espouses the cause of his home state Odisha, as well as other national issues close to his heart, such as economic development, education, information technology and Data Privacy. He frequently participates in national television discussions and writes op-ed pieces in newspapers. He has also authored a book by the name “LUTYENS’ MAVERICK”. He holds a Private Pilot’s License for aircraft and helicopters and enjoys adventure sports like skydiving and bungee jumping.