BRICS partners convene for Science, Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting

PROFILES

BRAZIL

Vice Minister of Science and Technology for Social Development, Mr Inácio Arruda

Brazil's Vice Minister of Science and Technology for Social Development, in the country's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, is a retired official from the State of Ceará's Court of Justice. He graduated in the mechanics of machinery and electrotechnics from the Escola Técnica Federal do Ceará. He also studied law and mathematics courses at the Federal University of Ceará (UFCE).

Vice Minister Arruda has a long history in politics. He has been a member of the Communist Party of Brazil since 1987. He was a councillor in Fortaleza from 1989 to 1991, and a congressman for the State of Ceará from 1991 to 1995. He served as Senator of the Republic for the State of Ceará three times between 1995 to 2007. His mandates had a strong connection with the country's social, cultural and economic movements.

He was also Ceará's Secretary of Science and Technology and Higher Education for eight years.

RUSSIA

Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education, Dr Valery Falkov

The Russian Minister of Science and Higher Education, Dr Valery Falkov, is a seasoned jurist, who occupied various positions in academia before being appointed to the government in 2021. These positions include Deputy Director for Academic Affairs at the Institute of State and Law, Vice-Rector for Continuing Education, and Director of the Institute of Law, Economics and Management at Tyumen State University.

He is a member of the Tyumen Regional Political Council of the United Russia party. He one of the reserve of managerial personnel under the patronage of the President of the Russian Federation.  In 2020, he took part in the process of introducing an amendment to the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Minister Falkov graduated from the Institute of State and Law at Tyumen State University with a degree in jurisprudence in 2000, after which he entered graduate school and in May 2003 completed his PhD ahead of schedule with the defence of his dissertation "Improving the legal regulation of election campaigning in the Russian Federation".

INDIA

Adviser and Head of International Cooperation, Department of Science and Technology, Dr Sanjeev Kumar Varshney

Dr Varshney is Head of International Scientific Cooperation in the Indian Department of Science and Technology, where he facilitates bilateral, multilateral and regional scientific cooperation.

He is currently the Indian Co-Chair of the Governing Body of the binational Indo-German Science and Technology Centre and the binational US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund.  Both these bodies promote industrial research and development partnership.  Dr Varshney is on the Board of Directors of private company Global Innovation and Technology Alliance and is a member of the governing board of the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI).  He is the Indian focal point for the BRICS Working Group on Science and Technology and OECD Committee on Science and Technology Policy.

He has an honorary doctorate from Amity University, Rajasthan. Earlier, he completed a master's degree in geology in 1984 from Aligarh Muslim University and pursued research at the University of Delhi on Himalayan river systems, sedimentation, diagenetic and tectonic modifications. He received the Dr DN Wadia Research Fellowship in 1986 for his research on Himalayan Geology. He is a member of the International Association of Sedimentologists, Oxford, and a life member of the Geological Society of India, Bangalore, and of the Nepal Geological Society, Kathmandu.

CHINA

Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Wang Zhigang

China's Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Wang Zhigang, serves as minister and party secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), a position he has held since March 2018. Wang had previously served as vice minister of MOST since April 2011, and served as the ministry's party secretary since 2012. He has been a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee since 2012.

Minister Wang spent his early career in state research institutes and state-owned technology companies. He joined China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) in 2002 as deputy general manager and became general manager and party secretary the next year. From 2008 to 2011, he served as general manager and deputy party secretary of CETC, positions he held until joining MOST.

He studied management science and engineering at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, and obtained a doctoral degree in management.  He is a researcher-level senior engineer.

SOUTH AFRICA

Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande

Dr Bonginkosi Emmanuel "Blade" Nzimande was appointed Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology on 30 May 2019.  He was Minister of Transport from February 2018 to May 2019, and Minister of Higher Education and Training from 26 May 2014 to 17 October 2017. He is Chairperson of the South African Communist Party, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Chair of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party and Chairperson of the Financial Sector Campaign Coalition.

Dr Nzimande holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal).  He lectured at the University of Zululand in 1985 and was a lecturer in industrial psychology at the University of Natal in 1987.

He was a University of South Africa council member, a member of the National Deployment Committee of the African National Congress (ANC), Chairperson of the board of trustees at the Centre for Educational Policy Development, a council member at the University of Transkei (now part of Walter Sisulu University, a council member at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and chairperson of the ANC Parliamentary Study Group on Education.