27 MAY 2014

Ø  Rewarding loyalty and promoting the younger generation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also accommodated all Bharatiya Janata Party heavyweights of his generation and representatives of key pre-poll allies, avoiding major surprises in the council of ministers. Sushma Swaraj — not considered to be close to Mr Modi — has been inducted as Minister for External Affairs, the third in the pecking order of power at the Centre, after the Home Minister. However, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, key enthusiasts who helped Mr. Modi overcome the many hurdles through his campaign to become the 15th Prime Minister of India, will constitute his core team. Smriti Irani, 38-year-old Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, has been a appointed a Cabinet minister while Nirmala Sitharaman, an effective spokesperson but not a member of parliament, and Dharmendra Pradhan, who, as general secretary in-charge of Bihar delivered the State for the party, have been inducted as Ministers of State with independent charge. There are seven women in the council, six of them in the Cabinet. Long-time allies Shiv Sena and Akali Dal, and the important partner in the south, the Telugu Desam Party have been taken on board, but on Mr. Modi’s terms, and newfound partners in Bihar, Ramvilas Paswan and Upendra Kuswaha — who represent powerful caste lobbies — have been humoured with an eye on the state elections in 2015. Pon Radhakrishnan from Kanyakumari, India’s southernmost constituency, Jitendra Singh from Uddhampur in Jammu and Kashmir and Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal Pradesh are BJP Ministers in the council.

Ø  Even as he initiated a series of measures aimed at determining the “scope of audit” of the finances of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple here on Monday, the former CAG, Vinod Rai, also held discussions with the Accountant General-Kerala to put together a team of retired personnel of the AG’s office to help him with the task.

Ø  The following is the list of council of ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet

Ø  Cabinet Ministers

Ø  Rajnath Singh: Home Minster

Ø  Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs & Overseas Indian Affairs

Ø  Arun Jaitley: Finance Corporate Affairs & Defence

Ø  M. Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation & Parliamentary Affairs

Ø  Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways Shipping

Ø  D.V. Sadananda Gowda: Railways

Ø  Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

Ø  Dr. Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs

Ø  Gopinathrao Munde: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water and Sanitation

Ø  Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Ø  Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

Ø  Maneka Gandhi: Women and Child Development

Ø  Ananthkumar: Chemicals and Fertilizers

Ø  Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and Information Technology & Law and Justice

Ø  Ashok Gajapathi Raju: Civil Aviation

Ø  Anant Geete: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Ø  Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries

Ø  Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines & Steel Labour and Employment

Ø  Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs

Ø  Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture

Ø  Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment

Ø  Smriti Zubin Irani: Human Resource Development

Ø  Dr. Harsh Vardhan: Health and Family Welfare

Ø  Minister of States

Ø  General V.K. Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) & External Affairs Overseas Indian Affairs

Ø  Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (Independent Charge), Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge) & Defence

Ø  Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (Independent Charge), Parliamentary Affairs Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

Ø  Shripad Yesso Naik: Culture (Independent Charge) & Tourism (Independent Charge)

Ø  Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)

Ø  Sarbananda Sonowal: Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)

Ø  Prakash Javadekar: Information and Broadcasting (Independent Charge), Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge) & Parliamentary Affairs

Ø  Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge) & New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)

Ø  Dr. Jitendra Singh: Science and Technology (Independent Charge), Earth Sciences (Independent Charge), Prime Minister Office Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space

Ø  Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge), Finance Corporate Affairs

Ø  G.M. Siddeshwara: Civil Aviation

Ø  Manoj Sinha: Railways

Ø  Nihalchand: Chemicals and Fertilizers

Ø  Upendra Kushwaha: Rural Development, Panchayati Raj & Drinking Water and Sanitation

Ø  Radhakrishnan P: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Ø  Kiren Rijiju: Home Affairs

Ø  Krishan Pal: Road Transport and Highways Shipping

Ø  Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture & Food Processing Industries

Ø  Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal Affairs

Ø  Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

Ø  Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, Steel & Labour and Employment

Ø  Sudarshan Bhagat: Social Justice and Empowerment