Pralhad Joshi has been appointed as India’s education minister after weeks-long protests over an exam leak scandal led to the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan. The appointment of Pralhad Joshi, education minister, comes at a politically sensitive moment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Pradhan’s departure, which came on Saturday, was one of the main demands of youth-led demonstrations that had spread across India in recent weeks, becoming a major challenge for Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Joshi Takes On a New, Challenging Portfolio
The 63-year-old Joshi already serves as minister of new and renewable energy and consumer affairs, food and public distribution, and will now also take on the education portfolio, a task political analysts say is likely to prove difficult amid heightened scrutiny of the education system.
As one of the Modi government’s longest-serving ministers, Joshi is seen as close to the prime minister. After his appointment, Joshi wrote on social media that he was grateful to Modi for placing his faith in him and entrusting him with the responsibility. “I accept it with humility and a deep sense of duty,” he said.
Who Is Pralhad Joshi?
Joshi was born in 1962 in Bijapur, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in arts from KS Arts College, Hubballi, affiliated with Karnataka University. He cofounded a chemicals business after graduation, but was drawn to politics from a young age and became associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu volunteer organisation founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, in modern-day Maharashtra. The RSS is often described as the ideological parent organisation of the BJP.
Joshi’s political career officially began in the early 1990s during the Hubballi Idgah Maidan issue, a major political and religious conflict in Karnataka centred primarily on land use disputes between Muslims and Hindus, during which the BJP and RSS also demanded that the Indian national flag be flown on the disputed land.
In 2004, Joshi was elected as a BJP member of parliament from the Dharwad district, and has since won five straight parliamentary elections.
Joshi’s Rise Within the BJP
In 1998, Joshi was appointed president of the BJP in the Dharwad district, and in 2014 he rose to become president of the BJP in Karnataka state. In May 2019, Modi appointed him to the cabinet as minister of parliamentary affairs, coal and mines. In 2024, Joshi introduced several reforms aimed at increasing coal production to meet growing energy demands, drawing criticism from climate activists and local communities amid broader climate change concerns.
In 2025, he became minister of new and renewable energy and consumer affairs, food and public distribution. According to the government, this portfolio involves working toward a cleaner and sustainable future for the country, achieving 500 GW of renewable and non-fossil energy sources by 2030, and reaching a net-zero target by 2070, goals officials describe as essential for India’s economic development and national security.
The Challenge Ahead: Restoring Trust in Education
One of the key challenges Joshi will face is addressing young people’s concerns about India’s education system, particularly following a scandal involving the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), one of the world’s largest medical entrance examinations. NEET scores determine whether aspiring doctors gain admission to undergraduate medical colleges, and which institutions they qualify for.
Nearly 2.3 million test takers across India, as well as at examination centres in Doha, Dubai, Singapore and Kathmandu, sat the NEET this year on May 3, competing for fewer than 130,000 available spots in medical colleges. Following allegations that the examination paper had leaked, the Indian government announced on May 12 that the test would be voided and a new one held. Disillusioned and frustrated, thousands of students took to the streets in protest.
On Sunday, Joshi held his first meeting as education minister to assess the situation and begin implementing new measures.
