Modified cabinet gets 43 Ministers

Fifteen Cabinet ministers and 28 Ministers of State, comprising new faces and those elevated, were sworn in at a ceremony held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. While most of the members took oath in Hindi, a few of them took it in English.

This is the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019. An extensive and protracted review was carried out by Modi and the BJP top brass through a series of meetings with ministers ahead of Wednesday’s big exercise. These meetings were also held in the wake of widespread criticism of the Central government’s handling of the COVID crisis.

Manuskh Mandaviya was made the new Health Minister and bureaucrat-turned-politician Ashwinin Vaishnaw the new Railway Minister. Scindia has been made the Civil Aviation Minister, while Home Minister Amit Shah has been given the charge of the newly-created Ministry of Cooperation. Piyush Goyal will now be the Minister of Textiles, besides being the Minister of Commerce and Industry; and the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Dharmendra Pradhan will be the new Education Minister. Kiren Rijiju will be the Minister of Law and Justice while Hardeep Singh Puri will be the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister. Anurag Singh Thakur has been given charge of Information and Broadcasting.