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Pralhad Joshi has been appointed as India’s education minister after weeks of protests over the exam rollout crisis resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan.
Pradhan’s departure, which came on Saturday, was one of the key demands he was led by the youth demonstrations that in recent weeks has spread across India becoming a major challenge for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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The 63-year-old Joshi is already the minister for new and renewable energy and consumer, food and distribution but will now also take up the education portfolio, a job that political analysts say is likely to be difficult under increased scrutiny of education.
As one of Modi’s most senior ministers, Joshi is seen as close to a strong Prime Minister.
After being appointed to head the Education Ministry, Joshi tweeted that he was “thanking” Modi for “believing” in him and “giving him” the position.
He said: “I accept it humbly and it is a great responsibility.
Who is Joshi?
Joshi was born in 1962 in Bijapur in the south of India in Karnataka. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in arts from KS Arts College, Hubballi, which is affiliated to Karnataka University.
He started a pharmaceutical business after graduation. However, he was interested in politics from an early age and joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu volunteer organization founded in 1925 by a doctor and Hindu activist Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur in present-day Maharashtra.
RSS is often described as the ideological mother of BJP.
Joshi’s political career began in the early 1990s with the Hubballi Idgah Maidan issue, a major political and religious dispute in Karnataka involving land use by Muslims and Hindus, where the BJP and RSS also demanded that the Indian flag be displayed at the disputed site.
In 2004, Joshi was elected as a BJP member from Dharwad constituency. Since then he has won five consecutive parliamentary elections.
Rising in the BJP
In 1998, Joshi was elected as the president of the BJP in Dharwad district and in 2014 he rose to become the president of the BJP in Karnataka.
In May 2019, he was appointed to the Modi Cabinet as the Minister of State for Parliament, Coal and Mines. In 2024, Joshi introduced several reforms to increase coal production to meet energy demand.
He has been criticized by climate activists and local communities for promoting coal production amid climate change concerns. In 2025, he became the minister of new and renewable energy and consumer, food and public distribution.
According to government, this record includes “working towards a clean and sustainable future for the country, achieving 500 GW through renewable and fossil-free energy by 2030 and a net-zero target by 2070, which is essential for India’s economic development and national security”.
Future problems?
One of the challenges Joshi will face is dealing with the concerns of young people in India about education, especially after the scandal surrounding the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), one of the world’s largest medical examinations.
NEET results determine whether medical aspirants are eligible for admission to top medical colleges and, if so, which schools are eligible.
About 2.3 million test takers in India and at test centers in Doha, Dubai, Singapore and Kathmandu, appeared for NEET this year on May 3, fighting for less than 130,000 seats in medical colleges.
After the allegations about the leak of the exam paper, the Indian government announced on May 12 that a the test was withdrawnand another test will take place.
Frustrated and frustrated, thousands of students protested.
On Sunday, Joshi held his first meeting as the education minister to take stock of the situation and formulate new policies.
