Baijayant âJayâ Panda is a four time Member of Parliament of India. He was elected to his second term (2014 â 2019) in the Lok Sabha (House of the People) from Kendrapara Constituency, Odisha. Earlier, Jay Panda had been elected to the Lok Sabha in May 2009 as well as twice earlier to the Rajya Sabha (parliament’s other house, the Council of States) in 2000 and 2006, also from the State of Odisha. He is one of the founding members of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party, whose Founder President is Naveen Patnaik, currently serving in his fourth term as Chief Minister of Odisha.
Jay Panda represents the new face of Indian politicians, several of whom have been educated abroad and have had alternate careers before choosing to serve the nation through politics. He graduated from the Michigan Technological University and, with a background in Engineering and Management, worked in the corporate sector before joining politics. He assisted the late Biju Patnaik and subsequently Naveen Patnaik, who founded the Biju Janata Dal party, which has found strong acceptance from the people of Odisha and has been repeatedly voted back in elections.
Jay Panda 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 is currently its Chairman. He was awarded the âBharat Asmita National Awardâ for best parliamentary practices by the Honâble Chief Justice of India in 2008. Since its inception in 2007, Jay Panda has been associated with the Citizensâ Alliance Against Malnutrition, an advocacy group including many parliamentarians across parties, Bollywood actors, other celebrities, civil society activists and non-governmental organizations. The Citizensâ 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 Odishaâs 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 and Urban Development and Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs.
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 holds a Private Pilotâs License for aircraft and helicopters and enjoys adventure sports like skydiving and bungee jumping.
