Career Hardeep Singh Puri

Civil service
Hardeep Puri has served as Joint secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of External Affairs from 1994 to 1997, and from 1999 to 2002. He has also served as Joint secretary to the Government of India in Ministry of Defence from 1997 to 1999. He was India's ambassador to Brazil. He later served as Secretary to the Government of India (Economic Relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to 2013.

Puri has been stationed at important diplomatic posts in Brazil, where he was ambassador, Japan, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom where he was Deputy High Commissioner. Between 1988 and 1991, he was the Coordinator of the UNDP/UNCTAD Multilateral Trade Negotiations Project to help Developing Countries in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations.[9]

United Nations
He also served as the chairman of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee from January 2011 to February 2013, and as President of the United Nations Security Council in August 2011, and, again, in November 2012.[10][11]

Politics
Ambassador Puri joined the International Peace Institute as a senior advisor in June 2013.[12] He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in January 2014, expressing admiration for the party's approach to national security.[13][14]

He is serving as the Member of Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh from 2018. Puri was inducted into the cabinet as the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, after Venkaiah Naidu was elevated to the post of Vice President of India in 2017. In May 2019, he contested from Amritsar as a BJP Candidate, but lost to Gurjeet Singh Aujla of the Congress.[15]

In May 2019, Puri became the Minister of State (with Independent Charge) for Civil Aviation and Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.[16]

In July 2021, he was promoted to the post of Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, along with Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs in the Second Modi ministry when there was a cabinet overhaul.[17]

His ministry also holds the credit for the launch of the Central Vista Project, the physical revamp of Parliament of India in New Delhi. Even though the mission received baclashes and comments from the opposition, the project continued with the completion projected by 2024.[18]

In March 2022, during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he was sent to the neighboring nation of Ukraine, Budapest in Hungary to assist coordination efforts. He was one of the minister in a special envoy of four ministers and successfully brought back 6711 students to India, following the Operation Ganga initiative.[19]

Electoral performance
This section is transcluded from Amritsar (Lok Sabha constituency). (edit | history)
2019 Indian general elections: Amritsar
Party    Candidate    Votes    %    ±%
INC    Gurjeet Singh Aujla    445,032    51.78    Increase1.69
BJP    Hardeep Singh Puri    3,45,406    40.19    Increase9.74
AAP    Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal    20,087    2.34    Decrease12.44
CPI    Daswinder Kaur    16,335    1.90    Increase0.14
NOTA    None of the Above    8,763    1.02    Increase0.06
Majority    99,626    11.59    Decrease8.05
Turnout    8,60,582    57.07    Decrease13.32
INC hold    Swing