Profiles: Anand Sharma is Mr Popular

A STEP AHEAD: A well-known face of the Cong, he has been party spokesman for many years.

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New Delhi: Anand Sharma, 56, who served the Congress Party as a spokesman for years, will now be India's chief spokesman at multilateral trade bodies like World Trade Organisation seeking fair deal for the country.

His well-measured words and oratory skills, which got polished as the Minister of State for External Affairs, must have weighed heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's decision to give him the Commerce portfolio.

That is not enough. As a combined portfolio of Commerce and Industry, Sharma would also be in-charge of attracting foreign direct investment into the country at a time when money is hard to come.

He will also be presiding over policies that have to be friendly to the global investors and the fledgling domestic industry.

Sharma's key challenge would be to put India's shrinking exports back on track. Exports have been declining sharply for the last six months under the impact of the global meltdown.

Many believe he has been rewarded for his services to the Congress, particularly his election campaign strategies.

Congress leader from Himachal Pradesh, Sharma was part of the party's 'War Room', which had been set up to spearhead the party's election campaign.

It was his idea of using the 'Jai Ho' song from Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire during campaigning to strike a chord with the masses. It apparently served the purpose, even though rival BJP tried to counter it with Bhay Ho slogan.

A well-known face of the Congress, he has been the party spokesman for several years when the party was in the Opposition and some time after it came to power in 2004.

He was made Minister of State for External Affairs in the outgoing government in 2006. After PR Dasmunsi fell critically ill last year and was indisposed indefinitely, Sharma was given additional charge of Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting.

A lawyer by profession, Sharma is a member of Rajya Sabha. He has been the member of the Upper House on four occasions earlier also. He has also been member of the Defence as well as Business Advisory Committees.

A prominent leader of the student and youth movement in the country, he was one of the founders of Congress' students wing NSUI.

Sharma first came to limelight during Rajiv Gandhi days as chief of the Indian Youth Congress, which was a period when the youth body was proactive on the issue of apartheid in South Africa, which is now a thing of the past. Incidentally his wife Zenobia is from South Africa.