Modi cabinet ministers full list: Amit Shah Home Minister, Sitharaman FM

The Narendra Modi government on Friday announced the allocation of the Cabinet portfolios. In a surprise move, Amit Shah, who was speculated to be appointed as the new finance minister, became the Home Minister with Nirmala Sitharaman becoming the new Finance Minister. Rajnath Singh has been appointed as the new Defence Minister and S Jaishankar new External Affairs Minister.

Smriti Irani, who was expected to be awarded handsomely for defeating Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, has been made the Minister of Women and Child Development and Minister of Textiles.

Nirmala Sitharaman will be the first woman Finance Minister after Indira Gandhi, when she was the prime minister. Sitharaman had achieved a similar feat when she was made the Defence Minister in the previous Modi government.

There was no surprise, however, in the External Affairs Ministry as the inclusion of former Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and the axing of Sushma Swaraj from the council of ministers left no doubt where he was headed.

The Prime Minister also fulfilled his campaign promise of setting up a Ministry of Jal Shakti to deal with all water, a scarce resource, related issues. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who won from Jodhpur, will be the first leader to head the Jal Shakti Ministry.

Among other significant changes, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank will be the Human Resource Development Ministry (HRD), replacing Prakash Javedkar who gets back environment, forest and climate change and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Harsh Vardhan has been made the new Health Minister replacing J.P. Nadda, who was dropped amidst speculations that he could be made the new BJP President as the Himachal Pradesh leader is considered close to Modi.

Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Mahendra Nath Pandey gets skill development, a Ministry close to PM's heart but has not taken off in the manner it was perceived to be.

But many ministers have retained their portfolios. Most notable among them is Ravi Shankar Prasad, who continues to be Law Minister and will also be Minister for Communication and Electronics and IT.

Piyush Goyal, who was also in the race to become Finance Minister, retains his railways portfolio and also gets Commerce and Industry. Dharmendra Pradhan also retains Petroleum Ministry. His other portfolio is steel.

Following is the list of portfolios allocated:

Narendra Modi: Prime Minister and also in-charge of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space; and All important policy issues; and All other portfolios not allocated to any Minister.

Cabinet Ministers

1. Rajnath Singh - Minister of Defence

2. Amit Shah - Minister of Home Affairs

3. Nitin Gadkari - Minister of road transport and highways; and minister of micro, small and medium enterprises

4. D V Sadananda Gowda: Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers

5. Nirmala Sitharaman - Minister of Finance and corporate affairs

6. Ram Vilas Paswan - Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

7. Narendra Singh Tomar - Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Minister of Rural Development; and Minister of Panchayati Raj

8. Ravi Shankar Prasad - Minister of Law and Justice; Minister of Communications; and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology

9. Harsimrat Kaur Badal - Minister of Food Processing Industries

10. Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment

11. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar: Minister of External Affairs

12. Ramesh Pokhriyal: Minister of Human Resource Development

13. Arjun Munda: Minister of Tribal Affairs

14. Smriti Zubin Irani - Minister of Women and Child Development; and Minister of Textiles

15. Dr Harsh Vardhan: Minister of Health and Family Welfare; Minister of Science and Technology; and Minister of Earth Sciences. 

16. Prakash Javadekar - Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and Minister of Information and Broadcasting

17. Piyush Goyal - Minister of Railways; and Minister of Commerce and Industry

18. Dharmendra Pradhan - Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; and Minister of Steel

19. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minister of Minority Affairs

20. Pralhad Joshi: Minister of Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of Coal; and Minister of Mines. 

21. Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey: Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

22. Arvind Ganpat Sawant: Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise

23. Giriraj Singh: Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries

24. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Minister of Jal Shakti

Here is the full list of Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

1. Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

2. Rao Inderjit Singh: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning.

3. Shripad Yesso Naik : Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH); and Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence.

4. Jitendra Singh: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; 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.

5. Kiren Rijiju: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

6. Prahalad Singh Patel: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Culture; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Tourism.

7. Raj Kumar Singh: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Power; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

8. Hardeep Singh Puri: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Civil Aviation; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

9. Mansukh L Mandaviya: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Shipping; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Ministers of State 

1. Faggansingh Kulaste - Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel

2. Ashwini Kumar Choubey - Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

3. Arjun Ram Meghwal - Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

4. General (Retd.) V K Singh - Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

5. Krishan Pal - Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

6. Danve Raosaheb Dadarao -  Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

7. G Kishan Reddy  - Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs

8. Parshottam Rupala - Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

9. Ramdas Athawale -  Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

10. Niranjan Jyoti - Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development

11. Babul Supriyo - Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

12. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan - Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries

13. Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao -  Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development; Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

14. Anurag Singh Thakur - Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance; and  Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. 

15. Angadi Suresh Channabasappa - Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways

16. Nityanand Rai - Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs

17. Rattan Lal Kataria - Minister of State in the Ministry of Jal Shakti; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

18. V Muraleedharan - Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs

19. Renuka Singh Saruta - Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs

20. Som Parkash - Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry

21. Rameswar Teli - Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing and Industries

22. Pratap Chandra Sarangi - Minister of State in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. 

23. Kailash Choudhary - Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare 

24. Debasree Chaudhuri - Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development