Today with reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet ministry had many surprises among the existing ministers. Prakash Javadekar was assigned charge of the Human Resources Development ministry, which has been held so far by an Smriti Irani. She will now take charge as Textiles Minister. Other portfolio allocations will see Sadananda Gowda moved to Statistics and Programme Implementation from Law and Justice. Ravi Shankar Prasad, who has held the Telecom portfolio, will now be the Law Minister. Venkaiah Naidu will take charge as the new Information and Broadcasting Minister, a portfolio that has so far been held as additional charge by FM Arun Jaitley. Ananth Kumar, has been the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers since the Modi government took charge in 2014. Vijay Goel will be the other Cabinet rank appointment, as the Sports Minister. Jayant Sinha will remain a MoS Minister of State, but will move from the Finance Ministry to Civil Aviation. Other portfolios named for Ministers of State include SS Ahluwalia (Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Parliamentary Affairs), Ramdas Athawale (Social Justice and Empowerment), MJ Akbar (External Affairs), Arjun Ram Meghwal (Finance, Corporate Affairs), Santosh Kumar Gangwar (Finance), Anupriya Patel (Health and Family Welfare), Faggan Singh Kulaste (Health and Family welfare), Ajay Tamta (Textiles), Hansraj Gangaram (Home Affairs), Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi (Drinking water and Sanitation Department).
19 new faces were inducted as ministers by President Pranab Mukherjee today morning. This was the second major reshuffle of the Modi government. The move has also expanded the Council of Ministers in an exercise that government sources have said is aimed at bringing in “doers and performers” into the government.
