Headlines Of The Day
Ashwini Vaishnaw is MoC and Devusinh Chauhan the Minister of State for Communications
The first Cabinet reshuffle since the Narendra Modi-led government took office saw 12 ministers getting axed, seven junior ministers being promoted as Cabinet ministers, and 36 new faces being inducted to the council of ministers at the swearing in ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Several important ministries in the Indian government now have new leaders with the administration unveiling a new-look cabinet. Some top cabinet ministers have new portfolios—the new Cooperation Ministry will be headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, Piyush Goyal lost railways but has been put in charge of textiles, earlier under Smriti Irani. Many have been elevated from minister of state to cabinet rank and given new portfolios to manage.
Ashwini Vaishnaw has been appointed as Minister of Electronics and Information Technology; Minister of Communications; and Railways. Rajeev Chandrasekhar the Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Ashwini Vaishnaw is a Rajya Sabha MP for Odisha. A former IAS officer of the 1994 batch, he handled important responsibilities over 15 years and was particularly known for his contribution to the PPP framework in Infrastructure.
Post that, the 50-year-old has held leadership roles across major global companies such as General Electric and Siemens. He has an MBA from Wharton School, Pennysylvania University and MTech from IIT Kanpur.
During his stint as an IAS officer, Vaishnaw worked as the District Magistrate-cum Collector of Balasore and Cuttack districts. His bureaucratic acumen, in fact, came to the fore when the super cyclone hit Odisha in 1999 killing at least 10,000 people.
As collector of the coastal Balasore district, Vaishnaw collected information on the cyclone from a US Navy website and sent reports to the chief secretary at regular intervals. His information helped the state government to take advanced measures in order to save lives.
Vaishnaw worked in Odisha till 2003, before being appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee. He was later appointed as Vajpayee’s private secretary after the NDA lost the election in 2004.
A product of IIT, Vaishnaw, quit government service in 2008 and went to Wharton University in USA to pursue an MBA. On his return, after working for top firms, he set up his own automotive components manufacturing units in Gujarat.
Interestingly, in April, Vaishnaw was nominated as a member of the Press Council of India, for three years.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar is Bengaluru-based and third time Member of Parliament. The portfolio he will handle include Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
An engineering graduate from Manipal Institute of Technology, Chandrasekhar started his journey at Intel in Silicon Valley, where he was a part of the team that designed Pentium under the now CEO Pat Gelsinger and Vinod Dham, who is called the father of Pentium chips. In his office in Benglauru, the framed Intel chip hangs in his office with more than a dozen names of people, who worked on the chip, written on it.
After his short stint in the US, Chandrasekhar came back to India in 1991 and founded BPL Mobile in 1994, where he built the country’s largest Cellular Network. He exited the company by selling his stakes to the Essar group for $1.1 billion in 2005. Chandrasekhar then later founded private equity firm Jupiter Capital in 2006, where he was Chairman till 2014.
He was the independent member of Rajya Sabha from April 2006 to 2018, when he was re-elected to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka as a member of BJP.
Readers may recall that Before Chandrasekhar sold his BPL Mobile stake, his father-in-law TPG Nambiar took him to court for mismanagement of the company and discrepancies in the shareholding pattern in 2004 and filed a petition to restrain Chandrasekhar from selling or transferring BPL Mobiles without his consent. He also had a stake in Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV. However, in 2019, Chandrasekhar diluted its shareholding making Goswami a majority shareholder.
Other ministers
The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has directed the allocation of other portfolios among the following members of the Council of Ministers as:
Shri Narendra Modi | Prime Minister and also in-charge of:
Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space; All important policy issues; and All other portfolios not allocated to any Minister |
Cabinet Ministers
1. | Shri Raj Nath Singh | Minister of Defence |
2. | Shri Amit Shah | Minister of Home Affairs; and
Minister of Cooperation |
3. | Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari | Minister of Road Transport and Highways |
4. | Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman | Minister of Finance; and
Minister of Corporate Affairs |
5. | Shri Narendra Singh Tomar | Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare |
6. | Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar | Minister of External Affairs |
7. | Shri Arjun Munda | Minister of Tribal Affairs |
8. | Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani | Minister of Women and Child Development |
9. | Shri Piyush Goyal | Minister of Commerce and Industry;
Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; and Minister of Textiles |
10. | Shri Dharmendra Pradhan | Minister of Education; and
Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship |
11. | Shri Pralhad Joshi | Minister of
Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of Coal; and Minister of Mines |
12. | Shri Narayan Tatu Rane | Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises |
13. | Shri Sarbananda Sonowal | Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways; and
Minister of AYUSH |
14. | Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi | Minister of Minority Affairs |
15. | Dr. Virendra Kumar | Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment |
16. | Shri Giriraj Singh | Minister of Rural Development; and
Minister of Panchayati Raj |
17. | Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia | Minister of Civil Aviation |
18. | Shri Ramchandra Prasad Singh | Minister of Steel |
19. | Shri Pashu Pati Kumar Paras | Minister of Food Processing Industries |
20. | Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat | Minister of Jal Shakti |
21. |
Shri Kiren Rijiju | Minister of Law and Justice |
22. | Shri Raj Kumar Singh | Minister of Power; and
Minister of New and Renewable Energy |
23. | Shri Hardeep Singh Puri | Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; and
Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs |
24. | Shri Mansukh Mandaviya | Minister of Health and Family Welfare; and
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers |
25. | Shri Bhupender Yadav | Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and
Minister of Labour and Employment |
26. | Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey | Minister of Heavy Industries |
27. | Shri Parshottam Rupala | Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying |
28. | Shri G. Kishan Reddy | Minister of Culture;
Minister of Tourism; and Minister of Development of North Eastern Region |
29. | Shri Anurag Singh Thakur | Minister of Information and Broadcasting; and
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports |
Ministers of State (Independent Charge)
1. | Rao Inderjit Singh | Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation;
Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs |
2. | Dr. Jitendra Singh | Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology;
Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences; Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office; Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy; and Minister of State in the Department of Space |
Ministers of State
1. | Shri Shripad Yesso Naik | Minister of State in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism |
2. | Shri Faggansingh Kulaste | Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development |
3. | Shri Prahalad Singh Patel | Minister of State in the Ministry of Jal Shakti; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries |
4. | Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey | Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change |
5. | Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal | Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture |
6. | General (Retd.) V. K. Singh | Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation |
7. | Shri Krishan Pal | Minister of State in the Ministry of Power; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries |
8. | Shri Danve Raosaheb Dadarao | Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways;
Minister of State in the Ministry of Coal; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Mines |
9. | Shri Ramdas Athawale | Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment |
10. | Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti | Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development |
11. | Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan | Minister of State in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying |
12. | Shri Nityanand Rai | Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs |
13. | Shri Pankaj Chaowdhary | Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance |
14. | Smt. Anupriya Singh Patel | Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry |
15. | Prof. S. P. Singh Baghel | Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice |
16. | Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar | Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship |
17. | Sushri Shobha Karandlaje | Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare |
18. | Shri Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma | Minister of State in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises |
19. | Smt. Darshana Vikram Jardosh | Minister of State in the Ministry of Textiles; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways |
20. | Shri V. Muraleedharan | Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs |
21. | Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi | Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture |
22. | Shri Som Parkash | Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry |
23. | Smt. Renuka Singh Saruta | Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs |
24. | Shri Rameswar Teli | Minister of State in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour and Employment |
25. | Shri Kailash Choudhary | Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare |
26. | Smt. Annpurna Devi | Minister of State in the Ministry of Education |
27. | Shri A. Narayanaswamy | Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment |
28. | Shri Kaushal Kishore | Minister of State in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs |
29. | Shri Ajay Bhatt | Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism |
30. | Shri B. L. Verma | Minister of State in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Cooperation |
31. | Shri Ajay Kumar | Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs |
32. | Shri Bhagwanth Khuba | Minister of State in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers |
33. | Shri Kapil Moreshwar Patil | Minister of State in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj |
34. | Sushri Pratima Bhoumik | Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment |
35. | Dr. Subhas Sarkar | Minister of State in the Ministry of Education |
36. | Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad | Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance |
37. | Dr. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh | Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Education |
38. | Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar | Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare |
39. | Shri Bishweswar Tudu | Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Jal Shakti |
40. | Shri Shantanu Thakur | Minister of State in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways |
41. | Dr. Munjapara Mahendrabhai | Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of AYUSH |
42. | Shri John Barla | Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs |
43. | Dr. L. Murugan | Minister of State in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting |
44. | Shri Nishith Pramanik | Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs; and
Minister of State in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports |
CT Bureau
You must be logged in to post a comment Login