At the age of 60, Ajay Maken, Member of Rajya Sabha from the Indian National Congress (INC), has bagged a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Statistics, specialising in Data Analytics, from the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) Kolkata.

Sharing this ‘personal milestone’ with the public, the politician wrote on social media platform X, “It wasn’t an easy journey, but it was fulfilling.”

In 1983, Maken joined the INC at the age of 19, when he was a BSc (Chemistry Honours) student at Delhi’s Hans Raj College. Two years later, he committed to politics full-time.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 gave him time to go back and reflect on his academic interests.

The Rajya Sabha MP then returned to learning through platforms like Khan Academy, 3Blue1Brown, Coursera, EdX, and DataCamp.

“Now, with this Post Graduate Diploma, from such a prestigious institution, my journey continues. Statistics, Sampling, Data Analytics, and Machine Learning are modern political tools, and I hope to make a more meaningful contribution in the realm of politics,” he wrote.

Lauding his efforts, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor wrote on Twitter, “Warmest congratulations, @AjayMaken!. The quest for learning must never cease. And an even better-qualified politician is always better-equipped to serve the public. Proud of you for making the effort at this stage of your life and career, when you could easily have succeeded in the party without any additional qualification. And great to have a trained eye to examine the dodgy statistics that are flung at the public these days!”