Sachin Pilot was born in Saharanpur city in Uttar Pradesh in a Gujjar family. He is the son of the late Congress leader Rajesh Pilot and Rama Pilot. His father was a Union minister of India. His ancestral village is Vaidpura in Noida.

He studied at Air Force Bal Bharati School, New Delhi, and holds a B.A. from St. Stephens College, University of Delhi, a diploma in marketing from I.M.T. Ghaziabad and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.

He was employed with the Delhi Bureau of the British Broadcasting Corporation and then with American multinational corporation General Motors for two years.

In an interview, he shares his views on how his professional education has helped him shed the stereotypical image of a politician.

As a student what did you aspire to be?

I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my father. I too wanted to be an Air Force pilot but because of my weak eyesight, I couldn't qualify.

At the time I was so passionate about flying that I took a private flying license without telling my father!

Before joining politics, I wanted to be a banker after an MBA at Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania, USA).

Here, I specialised in multinational management and finance.

But politics comes naturally to me as I grew up in this environment for almost two decades.

Did you work somewhere before you joined politics?

After graduating from New Delhi's St Stephens College, I worked at the Delhi Bureau of BBC and subsequently went on to work for the General Motors Corporation.

From Wharton to winning the Lok Sabha elections at the age of 26 -- what was your biggest challenge during these transitions?

All these transitions, changes made me who I am today.

Working at General Motors and studying at Wharton enabled me to grab skills and understanding that are relevant even in politics.

But the biggest lesson that I have learnt is -- we must welcome change, and learn from every new opportunity that we get.

What do you like about politics? Does having a good education help?

Politics is a unique career that offers opportunities to solve some of the most complex problems faced by society. Whether you are a locally elected official, MLA, MP or Minister, one can make an impact on millions of people with the right, and timely interventions. It is a must that if you do choose politics as a career, you have to be prepared to serve the people -- one must always remember, you are answerable to the people of India.

And it is very important for young politicians to have professional qualifications and bridge the gap between the computer-savvy generation and the elders.

When younger voters ask you about jobs, what do you tell them?

The government is serious about job creation and is working closely with the industry in many sectors to provide the required training and skills to people. My advice to young people is that they must make all efforts to acquire the right education and skills in order to succeed since the job market is very competitive. I also encourage them to become entrepreneurs because it creates jobs not just for an individual but for entire communities.