Page 2 - Union Cabinet

Union Cabinet approves 730 private radio FM channels for 234 cities

Move to boost local content in mother tongue and create new employment opportunities, says government. New areas covered include many aspirational districts, left-wing affected and border areas

'Railways adds 14.5 km of new tracks daily': Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Ashwini Vaishnaw made the remarks during a Cabinet briefing in New Delhi and highlighted that a decade ago, the average construction pace in Railways was 4 km per day

Cabinet nod to Rs 6,456 cr multi-tracking project, two new lines across IR

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved three railway projects with a total estimated cost of Rs 6,456 crore, a statement from the Ministry of Railways said. According to the ministry, the approved projects will improve logistical efficiency by connecting the unconnected areas, increase the existing line capacity and enhance the transportation networks, resulting in streamlined supply chains and accelerated economic growth. The new line proposals will provide direct connectivity and improve mobility, providing enhanced efficiency and service reliability for the Indian Railways. The multi-tracking proposal will ease operations and reduce congestion, providing the much-required infrastructural development on the busiest sections across the Indian Railways, the ministry said. The projects are in line with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji's vision of a New India which will make people of the region 'Atmanirbhar' by way of ...

Govt approves Unified Pension Scheme, to benefit 2.3 mn central employees

There will be an option for the employees to opt between NPS and UPS, said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

Govt forms cabinet committees on security, economic, political affairs

The Modi government on Wednesday constituted various cabinet committees, including the country's highest decision making bodies on security, economic and political affairs. According to an official notification, the Cabinet Committee on Security comprises Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Apart from PM Modi, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs comprises defence minister, home minister, finance minister, external affairs minister, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and Heavy Industries and Steel Minister H D Kumaraswamy. Others in the committee are: Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of Panchayati Raj and Fisheries Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs comprises defence minister, home minister

India should reduce coal imports, says G Kishan Reddy after taking charge

G Kishan Reddy on Thursday took charge as coal and mines minister and said that India should increase domestic production of the fossil-fuel and reduce coal imports. In the previous Narendra Modi government, both the ministries were led by Pralhad Joshi. Joshi who is the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and New and Renewable Energy was also present during the occasion and wished Reddy all the success. "We should reduce import and increase domestic production," he told reporters after taking charge. India's coal import rose by 7.7 per cent to 268.24 million tonnes (MT) in FY '24. Reddy further said 10 years ago there was a coal shortage in the country and due to this there was also a shortage of electricity. But in the last 10 years there has been sufficient power availability. When asked what will be the priority of his government for the mines sector, he said "I have just taken charge and I will review the department... first I want to see my officers the

Modi 3.0 full list: Shah, Rajnath, Sitharaman, Gadkari retain portfolios

The top four ministries remain same with Amit Shah as the home minister, Rajnath Singh as defence minister, Dr S Jaishankar as external affairs minister, and Nirmala Sitharaman as finance minister

Who are the new faces in the Modi Cabinet? | Cabinet Ministers of India

Rajeev Ranjan gets panchayati raj; Chirag Paswan bags food processing

Rajeev Ranjan 'Lalan' is the only minister from the Janata Dal (United) in the Union Cabinet

Modi govt 3.0 Cabinet: Ashwini Vaishnaw to lead railway ministry again

Minister retains IT too, loses telecom but gets I&B

Union Cabinet approves govt aid for constructing 30 mn houses under PMAY

The Union Cabinet in its first meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday approved government assistance for the construction of three crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). This was the first meeting of the Union Cabinet of Modi 3.0 government held at the Prime Minister's 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence. The meeting was attended by ministers of all allies of the NDA. "It has been decided in the Cabinet meeting today to provide assistance to three crore additional rural and urban households for the construction of houses to meet the housing requirements arising out of the increase in the number of eligible families," officials said. The government of India is implementing the PMAY since 2015-16 to provide assistance to eligible rural and urban households for the construction of houses with basic amenities. Under PMAY, a total of 4.21 crore houses have been completed for the eligible poor families under the housing schemes in the last 10

Chirag Paswan, JP Nadda: Full list of union ministers in Narendra Modi govt

In total, 72 ministers were sworn into office, including 30 cabinet ministers, 36 Ministers of State (MoS), and five MoS with independent charge

Oath-taking ceremony: UP, Bihar, Maharashtra bag most ministerial berths

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar appear to have got the maximum representation in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new council of ministers, while assembly poll-bound Maharashtra also found a significant presence. Uttar Pradesh, which sends the most members, 80, to the Lok Sabha, has got nine ministerial berths, which includes one Cabinet, while Bihar has bagged four cabinet berths out of a total of eight ministers from the state. Maharashtra has six ministerial berths, including two Cabinet ministers, while Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have five members each in the council of ministers that was sworn in on Sunday. Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have three ministerial berths each. Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, Telangana, Punjab, West Bengal and Kerala have two ministerial berths in the council of ministers. Rajnath Singh is the sole cabinet minister from Uttar Pradesh, while Gujarat's four cabinet ministers include Prime Minister Modi, Amit Shah, Mansukh Mandaviya and C R ...

Meet Nirmala Sitharaman, feisty defender of Modi govt to filling big shoes

Nirmala Sitharaman, who joined the likes of Arun Jaitley and Manmohan Singh by serving a full term as Finance Minister and is credited with carrying forward second-generation reforms, created a record by being the first woman to be sworn in as minister for the third consecutive term of the Modi government. Being a fiery spokesperson of the BJP, she was inducted into the Cabinet when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of the NDA government in 2014. As a staunch defender of the Modi government's economic policies and executor, she created a record when she was appointed as the first female Raksha Mantri, or Defence Minister, in 2017. Prior to that, she was industry and commerce minister. When her mentor Arun Jaitley took ill, Sitharaman was given the charge of the finance portfolio in the newly re-elected Modi government after the 2019 general elections, when BJP won its highest seats of 303. She became the first full-time woman Finance Minister in Independent India. Earlier, ..

Pralhad Joshi, RSS loyalist, five-time MP, returns as Union minister

A die-hard RSS loyalist and long-time BJP worker, Pralhad Joshi is a fifth time member of Parliament from the saffron party's bastion of Dharwad in Karnataka. Said to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leader Amit Shah, he held portfolios of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs in the previous Cabinet. As Parliamentary Affairs Minister, he played a key role in the functioning of both the Houses and in the passing of many crucial bills of national importance, during the 17th Lok Sabha. He spearheaded a series of initiatives and policy interventions which led to "unlocking the true potential" of the Coal & Mining sector towards self-reliance, a senior BJP leader said. Joshi, who had also served as BJP Karnataka president, came to the limelight as 'Rastradwaja Horata Samiti Sanchalak', when the party organised a movement to hoist the tricolour at Idgah Maidan in Hubballi that had created a huge law and order situation, and also "Save Kashmir Movement" in early ...

Piyush Goyal returns as Union minister in new avatar as 1st time LS member

Piyush Goyal, who handled key ministries, including Commerce and Industry, in the second Modi government, won his debut Lok Sabha poll from the Mumbai North constituency with an impressive vote margin. Goyal, 59, who has been a Rajya Sabha member since 2010, eloquently articulated the government's position on different occasions during debates on various issues in the Upper House of Parliament. Before the polls, Goyal hit out at the opposition leaders for labelling him an outsider, and said he was born in Mumbai, studied in the H R College and Government Law College, started his Chartered Accountancy practice in Lalbaug and worked as an investment banker on Nepean Sea Road. "There can be nobody more Mumbaikar than me," Goyal, who hails from an illustrious political family, told PTI last month. On Sunday, he again became the Union cabinet minister, this time as a Lok Sabha member. In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, Goyal won against Congress candidate Bhushan Patil from the

Being twice CM to Union minister, Kumaraswamy demonstrates political acumen

Two-time chief minister and five-time MLA JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy has once again demonstrated his political acumen by bagging a seat in the union council of ministers, despite his party joining the BJP-led NDA just last year. Since the time of its founding in 1999, the JD(S) has never formed a government on its own in Karnataka, but has been in power twice in coalition with both national parties despite being a junior partner -- for 20 months with the BJP from February 2006 and for 14 months with the Congress after the May 2018 assembly polls. Kumaraswamy was chief minister on both occasions. The son of JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda has now managed to secure a cabinet berth by allying with the BJP, at a time when his party was fighting the "battle for survival". The 64-year-old Vokkaliga leader has made no secret of his desire to become agriculture minister. By winning the Mandya Lok Sabha seat, the former CM has not only managed to regain the JD(S)'

JP Nadda returns to Union cabinet after stint as BJP national president

After leading the BJP as its national president for more than four years, JP Nadda returned to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers on Sunday. The 63-year old took oath as a Cabinet minister, becoming the sole representative from Himachal Pradesh in the BJP-led government. It is not yet known which ministry will be assigned to him. He served as Union health minister in Modi's first term from November 9, 2014, to May 30, 2019. Nadda, who holds a degree in law, started his political journey with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the students' wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He became president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the BJP's youth wing, in 1991. He held various key positions in the BJP, headed its election campaign in a host of states -- from Bihar to Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab. He also served as a minister in BJP's governments in his home state of Himachal Pradesh. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha

Four-time MP CM, Shivraj Singh Chouhan enters Union cabinet for 1st time

Proving wrong his detractors' claim of being sidelined after denial of CM's post for fifth time last year, BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan won Madhya Pradesh's Vidisha Lok Sabha seat for the sixth time by a record margin of 8.21 lakh votes. The former four-time MP chief minister, popularly known as "mama" (maternal uncle) and "paon-paon wale bhaiya" (foot soldier), assiduously worked on his 'soil of the soil' image and identified himself with the socio-economic concerns of farmers, villagers, women and children in the state. During his more than 18-year-tenure as the CM, barring 15 months of Congress rule (in 2018), Chouhan transformed himself from being a shy, simple and vulnerable politician to a wily leader with a mass appeal and unparallel hard work. Having the image of a soft-spoken man coupled with simplicity, the 65-year-old leader led the BJP's campaign in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the state, presenting himself as one among the people, promising further development and n

Ajit Pawar's NCP faction excluded from Cabinet in Modi government 3.0

Ajit Pawar's NCP was offered one MoS Independent Charge post by the BJP government, which party leader Praful Patel called a 'demotion'