S M Krishna

Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna was a politician whose career of more than six decades took him from the Karnataka assembly to the post of chief minister and to the Union cabinet as External Affairs Minister. He was named for the Padma Vibhushan in 2023 in the field of public affairs, from Karnataka ^[1].

Education and early politics

Krishna was born on 1 May 1932 in Somanahalli village, Maddur taluk, in Mandya district ^[2]. He studied at Maharaja’s College in Mysore and Government Law College in Bangalore, then went to the United States, studying at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and, as a Fulbright scholar, at George Washington University Law School ^[2]. Back in India he was elected to the Karnataka assembly in 1962 as a Praja Socialist Party candidate ^[2].

Offices held

He was a minister in Karnataka from 1972 to 1977, Union minister of state for industry and then for finance in 1983–85, speaker of the Karnataka assembly from 1989 to 1992 and deputy chief minister from 1992 to 1994 ^[2]. He sat in both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha at different times between 1971 and 2014 ^[2].

As chief minister of Karnataka from 1999 to 2004, he introduced a midday meal scheme for schoolchildren and promoted Bangalore as a centre for information technology, biotechnology and start-ups ^[2]. He backed the new international airport at Bengaluru, set up the Bangalore Agenda Task Force of business and civic leaders to improve city services, and launched Bhoomi, which digitised land records ^[2]. As External Affairs Minister, he approved the setting up of Passport Seva Kendras across the country ^[2].

Krishna died at his home in Bengaluru on 10 December 2024, aged 92 ^[3].