Among the most important changes in Wednesday’s Cabinet reshuffle – the first since the Narendra Modi-led government assumed office for a second time in May 2019 – Mansukh Mandaviya, earlier the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Shipping and MoS for Chemicals & Fertilisers, was elevated to the Cabinet rank and given charge of the health ministry. He has succeeded Dr Harsh Vardhan, and his elevation assumes significance in view of the country’s continuing fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, who switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party from the Congress early last year, was inducted to the Council of ministers and given charge of the crucial civil aviation ministry.
Earlier in the day, President Ram Nath Kovid administered oath of office and secrecy to 43 ministers – 36 new entrants to the council and seven who were being elevated to the Cabinet rank.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers now has 78 members. Here’s a full list of ministers in the expanded Cabinet, along with their respective portfolios:
1. Narendra Modi: Prime Minister
(Also in charge of personnel, public grievances and pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space; all important policy issues; and all other ministries not allocated to other ministers)
CABINET MINISTERS
2. Rajnath Singh: Defence Minister
3. Amit Shah: Home Minister, Cooperation Minister
4. Nitin Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways Minister
5. Nirmala Sitharaman: Finance Minister, Corporate Affairs Minister
6. Narendra Singh Tomar: Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister
7. S Jaishankar: External Affairs Minister
8. Arjun Munda: Tribal Affairs Minister
9. Smriti Irani: Women and Child Welfare Minister
10. Piyush Goyal: Commerce & Industry Minister, Consumer Affairs Minister, Food & Public Distribution Minister, Textiles Minister
11. Dharmendra Pradhan: Education Minister, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Minister
12. Pralhad Joshi: Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Coal Minister, Mines Minister
13. Narayan Rane: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister
14. Sarbananda Sonowal: Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister, AYUSH Minister
15. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs Minister
16. Dr Virendra Kumar: Social Justice and Empowerment Minister
17. Giriraj Singh: Rural Development Minister, Panchayati Raj Minister
18. Jyotiraditya Scindia: Civil Aviation Minister
19. Ramchandra Prasad Singh: Steel Minister
20. Ashwini Vaishnaw: Railways Minister, Communication Minister, Electronics & IT Minister
21. Pashu Pati Kumar Paras: Food Processing Industries Minister
22. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Jal Shakti Minister
23. Kiren Rijiju: Law & Justice Minister
24. Raj Kumar Singh: Power Minister, New & Renewable Energy Minister
25. Hardeep Singh Puri: Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister, Housing & Urban Affairs Minister
26. Mansukh Mandaviya: Health and Family Welfare Minister, Chemicals & Fertilisers Minister
27. Bhupender Yadav: Environment, Forest & Climate Change Minister, Labour & Employment Minister
28. Mahendra Nath Pandey: Heavy Industries Minister
29. Parshottam Rupala: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister
30. G Kishan Reddy: Culture Minister, Tourism Minister, Minister for Development of Northeast
31. Anurag Thakur: Information & Broadcasting Minister, Sports & Youth Affairs Minister
MINISTERS OF STATE WITH INDEPENDENT CHARGE
32. Rao Inderjit Singh: Statistics and Programme Implementation, Planning, Corporate Affairs
33. Jitendra Singh: Science & Technology; Earth Sciences; Prime Minister's Office; Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space
MINISTERS OF STATE
34. Shripad Yesso Naik: Ports, Shipping and Waterways; Tourism
35. Faggansingh Kulaste: Steel, Rural Development
36. Prahalad Singh Patel: Jal Shakti, Food Processing Industries
37. Ashwini Kumar Choubey: Consumer Affairs; Food & Public Distribution; Environment, Forest & Climate Change
38. Arjun Ram Meghwal: Parliamentary Affairs, Culture
39. V K Singh: Road Transport & Highways, Civil Aviation
40. Krishan Pal: Power, Heavy Industries
41. Danve Raosaheb Dadarao: Railways, Coal, Mines
42. Ramdas Athawale: Social Justice & Empowerment
43. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Rural Development
44. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Dairying
45. Nityanand Rai: Home Affairs
46. Pankaj Choudhary: Finance
47. Anupriya Singh Patel: Commerce & Industries
48. S P Singh Baghel: Law & Justice
49. Rajeev Chandrasekhar: Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Electronics & IT
50. Shobha Karandlaje: Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare
51. Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
52. Darshana Vikram Jardosh: Textiles, Railways
53. V Muraleedharan: External Affairs, Parliamentary Affairs
54. Meenakshi Lekhi: External Affairs, Culture
55. Som Parkash: Commerce & Industry
56. Renuka Singh Saruta: Tribal Affairs
57. Rameswar Teli: Petroleum and Natural Gas, Labour and Employment
58. Kailash Choudhary: Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare
59. Annpurna Devi: Education
60. A Narayanaswamy: Social Justice and Empowerment
61. Kaushal Kishore: Housing and Urban Affairs
62. Ajay Bhatt: Defence, Tourism
63. B L Verma: Development of North Eastern Region, Cooperation
64. Ajay Kumar: Home Affairs
65. Devusinh Chauhan: Communications
66. Bhagwanth Khuba: New and Renewable Energy, Chemicals and Fertilisers
67. Kapil Moreshwar Patil: Panchayati Raj
68. Pratima Bhoumik: Social Justice and Empowerment
69. Subhas Sarkar: Education
70. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad: Finance
71. Rajkumar Ranjan Singh: External Affairs, Education
72. Bharati Pravin Pawar: Health and Family Welfare
73. Bishweswar Tudu: Tribal Affairs, Jal Shakti
74. Shantanu Thakur: Ports, Shipping and Waterways
75. Munjapara Mahendrabhai: Women and Child Development, AYUSH
76. John Barla: Minority Affairs
77. L Murugan: Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Information and Broadcasting
78. Nisith Pramanik: Home Affairs, Youth Affairs and Sports