Alphons Kannanthanam replaces P. P. Choudhary

Alphons Kannanthanam will replace P. P. Choudhary as Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Alphons Kannanthanam has also got additional charge of Minister of State (I/C) for Tourism. Alphons is a retired IAS officer of 1979 batch (Kerala cadre).

He worked in the Indian Administration Service until 2006, when he was elected a Member of the Legislative Assembly, from Kanjirappally in Kottayam District of Kerala. He came into prominence when he served as the District Collector of Kottayam in 1988. He drove the literacy movement in the state and helped to make Kottayam town as the first 100% literate town in India in 1989.

Alphons was in Time Magazine’s list of 100 Young Global Leaders. He also pioneered the literacy movement in India by making Kottayam the first 100% literate town in India in 1989.

Alphons passed his high school with 42% from a non-electrified village Malayalam medium school and became one of the toppers of the 1979 batch of the IAS. For 27 years he was the voice of the helpless citizens running pitched battles against the corrupt system. He was rated to be one of the most competent officers in the history of the civil service.

He is an inspirational orator and has spoken to over three million people, mostly students, in the past 35 years. In 2006, he quit IAS, contested as an independent from Kanjirappally constituency and got elected as an MLA with huge majority, spending less than Rs. 10 lakh. He decided that he wanted to be different kind of an MLA. He drove his own car and lived in a tiny room in the rest house and got allocated Rs. 350 crores for the constituency and won the best MLA award.