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)
