Dinesh Trivedi Age, Caste, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Dinesh Trivedi

• All of his elder siblings were born in Karachi, Pakistan, before independence.

• During the partition of India, his parents migrated to India from Karachi, Pakistan.

• In India, his parents lived in many cities such as Patiala, Ropar, Bhatinda, and New Delhi.

• Dinesh Trivedi is the youngest child of his parents and was born in Delhi.

• They then settled in Kolkata, where his father found a job in the Hindustan Construction Company.

• His father enrolled him in boarding schools in Shimla and Solan in Himachal Pradesh.

• After completing his schooling, Dinesh Trivedi went to Calcutta to pursue graduation in commerce from St. Xavier’s College.

• After completing his graduation, he went to Austin in United States to pursue MBA from The University of Texas.

• Dinesh Trivedi borrowed Rs. 20000 for his higher studies. Once, in a media talk, he stated that he did not take money from his father as he wanted to stand on his feet on his own. He said,
  

  I paid Rs 4,300 for the ticket. I think it was a good decision since it taught me how to be on your own feet.”

• As a child, he dreamt of flying planes as an Indian Airforce Officer. So, he enrolled in a pilot training after completing his formal education.

• After completing his post graduation in 1974, Dinesh Trivedi joined the Detex Company in Chicago. He worked in the logistics department of the company.

• After two years, he quit the job and moved from the United States to India.

• Once, during a media conversation, he recalled that he liked America, but never wished for its Green Card. He said,
  

  I like a few things about America. But I never wanted a Green Card. When I told my boss I am leaving of India, he told me my job is not easily available even to Americans.”

• In India, Dinesh Trivedi received job offers from Tata Consulting Services and Shaw Wallace, but he declined. He thought that his life would be too comfortable in job, since he wanted to pursue a career in public service. He said,
  

  In TCS my life would have become too comfortable and successful. So I didn’t join.”

• However, he joined a logistics company named LEE and Muirhead in Maharashtra to learn trading and business skills.

• In the 1980s, Dinesh Trivedi started working for the Indian National Congress (INC).

• During his period in New Delhi, Dinesh Trivedi often visited flying stations, where he became friends with Rajiv Gandhi, a former Prime Minister of India. He once shared his views about Rajiv Gandhi in a media conversation. He said,
  

  Rajiv was jovial man. He had clear heart and he would have changed the destiny of India if he would have lived longer.”

• In 1984, he left his job and started a company, which managed the air freights for many customers in Kolkata.

• He also started a consumer protection center at the same location.

• Dinesh Trivedi was still not sure about his career.

• So, he enrolled in a film institute in Pune for acting. However, he quit acting lessons after some time as he thought that it was not a serious career. It was profitable for film directors only.

• Once, he saw an advertisement by the Ramakrishna Mission and was attracted towards the picture of Swami Vivekananda. He then decided to pursue the life of a monk.

• However, his parents, family members, and Swami Bhashyanand in Chicago advised him not to do so.

• Dinesh Trivedi had the curiosity about saints and sufism. He was a follower of Swami Chinmayanand for many years. According to him, Swami Chinmayanand helped him in his spiritual journey.

• In 1990, he joined the Janata Dal.
  

  An old picture of Dinesh Trivedi

• From 1990 to 1996, Dinesh Trivedi served as a member of Rajya Sabha as a candidate of Janata Dal from Gujarat.

• In 1998, he became one of the founder members of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) with Mamata Banerjee.
  

  Dinesh Trivedi with Mamata Banerjee

• He was then appointed as its first general secretary.

• Dinesh Trivedi once shared in a media talk that he and Mamata Banerjee had the same mindset. He said,
  

  I believe in what Mamtaji believes in. I may be wearing different style of clothes but our inner thinking is not different. Like her I think farmers are what make India. We have to listen to their woes.”

• He served as a member of Rajya Sabha as a candidate of AITC from West Bengal from 2002 to 2008.

• In 2009, Dinesh Trivedi contested the general elections from the Barrackpore constituency in West Bengal on the ticket of Trinamool Congress party and won.

• He was then appointed as a Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in the cabinet.
  

  Dinesh Trivedi sworn in as Minister of State in 2009

• In 2011, when he supported Anna Hazare in his missions, Dinesh Trivedi was asked to resign from his ministerial position.

• Dinesh Trivedi has served as a Co-Convener of Sub-Committee for Special Economic Zones of the Committee on Commerce.

• That same year, he was designated as the Cabinet Minister for Railways when Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of West Bengal and left her position as the Railway Minister.

• Dinesh Trivedi became the first Railway Minister from Gujarat.
  

  Dinesh Trivedi sworn in as Cabinet Minister in 2011

• During his tenure as the railway minister, he asked for establishing a rail regulator to fix travelling charges in rails. However, all former railway ministers had opposite opinions and policies to him.

• Dinesh Trivedi often demands ‘no politics’ in the Railways. He has asked for changing the operational structure of the Indian Railway Board as he claims that the board lacks teamwork.

• According to him, he would go against his party’s rules of not increasing railway travelling charges as he believes that fare could increase the GDP of India by 2%.

• Dinesh Trivedi often requested the government to equip railways with modern infrastructure. He claimed that the increased fares would not be sufficient to restructure the railways, and therefore, once blamed the Prime Minister of India for inadequate funding.

• He often demanded to set up a national policy on railways. He claimed that such a policy would continue to work, no matter which political party is in the rule.

• Dinesh Trivedi once claimed that privatisation of railways could generate more funds for the upgradation of its system and capability, and the ministry was also looking for new ideas.

• In 2011, some parts of the James Bond film Skyfall was shot on Indian trains. However, the script of the film was changed when Trivedi claimed that it was illegal to show people travelling on the roofs of the trains.

• In August 2011, Dinesh Trivedi got upset with Ambika Soni, Information and Broadcasting Minister, over Room 6 in Parliament House. Reportedly, the room was earlier allotted to railway ministers.

• When on a Monday morning, he noticed that Soni had replaced his nameplate, as she was senior to him, he started a protest outside the room. After that, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee allotted him the room.

• In January 2012, Takeshi Maeda, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) from the Government of Japan visited India.
  

  Trivedi with Takeshi Maeda, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Government of Japan to discuss bilateral issues in the field of rail transportation and various aspects of high speed train corridors in India, in New Delhi on 12 January 2012.

• Takeshi met Dinesh Trivedi, and they discussed the issues in Indian Railways, and the prospects of high speed train corridors in India.

• After that, he claimed in the media that Indian Railways were planning to develop high speed passenger trains with the help of Japan and France.

• In 14 March 2012, he increased the railway travelling charges while announcing his first Railway Budget.

• The travelling fares increased from 2 paise to 30 paise per kilometer. Dinesh Trivedi stated that the reasons for increasing fares were to upgrade safety measures in railways, expand its network, and to equip it with modern technology.

  

  Dinesh Trivedi during his tenure as the Railway Minister of India

• After that, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister West Bengal, and other Trinamool Congress party leaders, such as Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Derek O’Brien, opposed the increased railway fares.

• However, the general public, many industrial organisations, and all five railway unions supported the budget.

• After that, Mamata Banerjee, stated that the proposed railway fares in the budget were unfair, and she would not accept any increase in them. She also claimed that the Railway Minister did not consult her on the problems related to increased fares.

• That same day, Mamata Banerjee demanded the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi as the Minister of Railways in a letter to Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister of India.
  

  Dinesh Trivedi with Manmohan Singh

• Mamata requested Prime Minister to appoint Mukul Roy, a member of parliament of AITC, as the new Railway Minister.

• Dinesh Trivedi received different opinion reports on the budget from Sudeep Bandyopadhyay, a Trinamool Congress party leader, and Kalyan Banerjee, the chief whip of Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha.

• Therefore, before his resignation, he requested Mamata Banerjee to give a written confirmation on her party’s opinions.

• On 18 March 2012, Dinesh Trivedi called Mamata Banerjee and confirmed her party’s views. He then quit as the Railway Minister of India.

• Later, in a media talk, he stated that he resigned as the Minister of Railways after Mamata Banerjee and her party, Trinamool Congress, demanded his resignation.

• Dinesh Trivedi also clarified that neither Prime Minister nor Indian National Congress (INC) asked him to resign. He said,
  

  If I had not resigned on that particular evening (last Sunday), I could have brought uncertainty to government itself and that is not my job.”

• After that, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepted his resignation and forwarded it to the President of India. Manmohan Singh appreciated the Trivedi’s budget and felt upset on his exit.

•  In 2019, Dinesh Trivedi contested the general elections from the Barrackpore constituency in West Bengal on the ticket of Trinamool Congress party and lost. Arjun Singh, a former MLA from Bhatpara constituency, defeated him.

• He was then elected as a Member Parliament in Rajya Sabha.

• After that, Dinesh Trivedi joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and left AITC.
  

  Dinesh Trivedi while greeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi

• In April 2026, he was appointed as High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh.

• Reportedly, Dinesh Trivedi went to Kolkata airport three times in his mid-seventies with his baggage to get settled in America and came back. His father then advised him that he could not run away from his roots.

• He once stated in the media that he was so disappointed with the corruption that he once decided to leave India as he believed that he could not progress in corruption. He said,
  

  I was so fed up of corruption then. I thought I can’t progress here. But, my father told me to learn to fight corruption, make your way.”

• His life changed after he took his father’s advice seriously.

• He then started filing petitions against authorities to fight corruption. Once of his complaints was against a government telecom company, whose phones were not working for most of the days in a month.

• He claimed that the phone charges should be paid only for the days on which phone worked.

• In another case, he charged a private enterprise in court for not cleaning the debris from the road.

• Dinesh Trivedi became known across India when he requested the Supreme Court of India to make the Vohra Committee Report public. The report analyzed the connections between the politicians and criminals.

• He asked the Supreme Court to allow government to take actions against these links.

• Later, the Supreme Court of India mentioned Right to Information Act and Lokpal Bill in its judgement on the above case.

• Dinesh Trivedi reportedly wears sapphire, emerald, and coral rigs in his right hand to avoid the bad effects of the mangal griha (planet Mars).

• He likes playing sitar and singing classical songs in his free time. When he was young, he learnt sitar.

• His wife, Minal, holds a PhD degree in genetics.

• Dinesh Trivedi likes playing golf and listening to musician Abida Praveen in his free time.

• He is fluent in many languages, including Bangla.

• Dinesh Trivedi is a Chairman of Indo EU Parliamentarians forum.

• He serves as a member of various forums, including Indo American Forum of Parliamentarians, Indo British Forum of Parliamentarians, Indo France Forum of Parliamentarians, Indo German Forum of Parliamentarians, Indo UK Forum of Parliamentarians, Indo Japan Forum of Parliamentarians, Aspan Dialogue Think Tank, USA, and Aspan Euro.