Sanjaya Baru

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sanjaya Baru

• Does Sanjaya Baru smoke?: Yes

  

• Does Sanjaya Baru drink alcohol?: Yes

• From 1998-2001, he was a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board.

• He has been the Director at the Geo-Economics and Strategy at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.

• He was the media advisor and official spokesman to the former Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2008.

  

• Before becoming the advisor to the PM, he was a professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi. Moreover, he also lectured at Chatham House in London, National Defence College in Delhi and Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

• His inclination towards journalism started after he interviewed the then Finance Minister, Madhu Dandavate, in 1990, and soon after, he joined the Economic Times.

• After an eight-year stint at the Times of India, he spent some time at a research institute in Delhi.

• In 2010, he was awarded the GITAM foundation annual award at its 30th foundation day celebrations.

• He is also associated with Wockhardt Limited as the Non-Executive Independent Director.

• In 2014, he published one of the most controversial books, “The Accidental Prime Minister.” It was amidst controversies because of the validity of the facts quoted by him. He stated that he wrote the book so that Mr. Manmohan Singh could get the credit for the work he has done. To which, the Congress dismissed the book, claiming it a “cheap fiction.”

  

• He was the first one to refer Robert Vadra as ‘Damadji’ in his book “The Accidental Prime Minister.”

• The book revealed that the Prime Minister ‘Manmohan Singh’ did not possess all the powers and that Sonia Gandhi was the remote control of the PM.

• In his book, he made a bold and straightforward revelation that Rajiv Gandhi was a weak Prime Minister.

• He has been the associate editor of The Times of India and The Economic Times.

• On 1 September 2017, he became the Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI); replacing A. Didar Singh.

• In 2017, he also undertook the charge of Additional Independent Director at Artemis Global Life Sciences Limited.

• In 2018, Akshaye Khanna was signed to essay the role of Sanjaya Baru in the film, ‘The Accidental Prime Minister,’ starring Anupam Kher as the former Prime Minister of India, ‘Mr. Manmohan Singh.’