Parrikar is new defence minister, Prabhu gets Railways; Jayant Sinha MoS for finance

By TEAM VCC

  • 10 Nov 2014

In his first major cabinet expansion exercise after taking over office in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted four new cabinet ministers including former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Suresh Prabhu as defence and railways ministers, respectively.

Parrikar takes over from Arun Jaitley, who can now focus on his primary portfolio of finance while he also takes over charge of information & broadcasting. Prabhu, power minister in the previous BJP government who quit BJP’s former political ally Shiv Sena hours before the cabinet expansion, takes over from D V Sadananda Gowda, who becomes minister for law & justice. Earlier IT & communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was also doubling up as union minister for law & justice.

Meanwhile, Jayant Sinha, who quit his role as the head of Indian arm of the impact investment firm Omidyar Network early this year to enter the political field, has been named minister of state (MoS) for finance. He is also son of former finance minster and BJP politician Yashwant Sinha.

Earlier Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS with independent charge of commerce & industry was also doubling up as MoS for finance and corporate affairs.

The other prominent faces include Rajiv Prathap Rudy, who is new skills and entrepreneurship minister, and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is MoS for parliamentary affairs.

With this current expansion, Modi now has 66 ministers in his council, including himself. He can induct a maximum of 79 ministers leaving the headroom for another 13 ministers for which he may undertake another minor expansion at a later stage. The last UPA government had 78 union ministers.

Here is the full list of ministers.

CABINET MINISTERS

1. Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs

2. Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

3. Arun Jaitley: Finance, Corporate Affairs, Information & Broadcasting

4. M Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Parliamentary Affairs

5. Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways, Shipping

6. Manohar Parrikar: Defence

7. Suresh Prabhu: Railways

8. DV Sadananda Gowda: Law & Justice

9. Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

10. Najma A Heptulla: Minority Affairs

11. Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

12. Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

13. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi: Women and Child Development

14. Ananth Kumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers

15. Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology

16. Jagat Prakash Nadda: Health & Family Welfare

17. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation

18. Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

19. Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries

20. Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, Steel

21. Chaudhary Birender Singh: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation

22. Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs

23. Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture

24. Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment

25. Smriti Zubin Irani: Human Resource Development

26. Harsh Vardhan: Science and Technology, Earth Sciences

MINISTERS OF STATE

27. VK Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge), External Affairs, Overseas Indian Affairs

28. Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Defence

29. Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge)

30. Bandaru Dattatreya: Labour and Employment (Independent Charge)

31. Rajiv Pratap Rudy: Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs

32. Shripad Yesso Naik: AAYUSH (Independent Charge), Health & Family Welfare

33. Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)

34. Sarbananda Sonowal: Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)

35. Prakash Javadekar: Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)

36. Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)

37. Jitendra Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space

38. Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)

39. Mahesh Sharma: Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge), Civil Aviation

40. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs

41. Ram Kripal Yadav: Drinking Water & Sanitation

42. Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary: Home Affairs

43. Sanwar Lal Jat: Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation

44. Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya: Agriculture

45. Giriraj Singh: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

46. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir: Chemicals & Fertilizers

47. GM Siddeshwara: Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises

48. Manoj Sinha: Railways

49. Nihalchand: Panchayati Raj

50. Upendra Kushwaha: Human Resource Development

51. Radhakrishnan P: Road Transport & Highways, Shipping

52. Kiren Rijiju: Home Affairs

53. Krishan Pal: Social Justice & Empowerment

54. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture

55. Manuskhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs

56. Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

57. Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel

58. Sudarshan Bhagat: Rural Development

59. Ram Shankar Katheria: Human Resource Development

60. Y.S. Chowdary: Science and Technology, Earth Science

61. Jayant Sinha: Finance

62. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: Information & Broadcasting

63. Babul Supria (Babul Supriyo) Baral: Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation

64. Niranjan Jyoti: Food Processing Industries

65. Vijay Sampla: Social Justice & Empowerment

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)