Vayalar Ravi assumed office as the Overseas Indian Affairs Minister in 2006.

Born in 1937 in Vayalar village of Kerala's Alappuzha district, in a middle-class family of a freedom fighter, Ravi began his career as a student leader. In 1957, he organised the Kerala Students Union (KSU), which pioneered the students' movement in the state and helped the Congress entrench itself, in Kerala.

Ravi was elected to the KPCC in 1967 and became an AICC member. He was general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress when Narain Dutt Tiwari was the president. With the consent of Indira Gandhi, Ravi organized the National Student's Union of India.

In 2001, he became the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee. He was again elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2003. Before assuming charge as OIA minister, he was the chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development.

A postgraduate and a Bachelor of Law, Ravi is an excellent orator, a prolific writer and an outstanding parliamentarian whose knowledge of constitutional matters is legendary.