Cabinet 2.0: Civil Aviation goes to Scindia; Dharmendra Pradhan is new education minister

PTI, Jul 8, 2021, 10:01 AM IST

New Delhi: Jyotiraditya Scindia has been given charge of the Civil Aviation Ministry as Prime Minister Narendra Modi effected a major overhaul of the Union cabinet. The Education Ministry will be headed by Dharmendra Pradhan who will also hold the charge of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

As many as 12 ministers resigned from the Modi cabinet, including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar, while 43 new ministers were sworn-in. After the exercise, the Central government has 30 Cabinet ministers, two Ministers of State with independent charge and 45 MoSes.

The newly-created Ministry of Cooperation will be under the additional charge of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The new ministry is being created for realising the vision of ‘sahkar se samriddhi’ (prosperity through cooperation).

This ministry is aimed at providing a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country. It will work to streamline processes for ‘ease of doing business’ for cooperatives and enable development of multi-state cooperatives (MSCS).

Shah will have B L Verma as Minister of state in the newly created ministry.

Bureaucrat-turned-politican Ashwini Vaishnaw, who was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2019 from Odhisa, has been made the new Railway Minister. He had served as Deputy Secretary and Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

After the reshuffle, there are three Ministers of State in Home, External Affairs and Social Justice and Empowerment; and two in Finance, Railways, Tribals, Jal Shakti, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Anurag Singh Thakur, who was earlier MoS Finance, has been elevated to the Cabinet rank and allocated the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as well as the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

Rajnath Singh has retained the Defence Ministry and Nirmala Sitharaman the Finance after the reshuffle. Nitin Gadkari will continue to be the Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar the External Affairs Minister.

As many as 43 ministers were sworn-in — 15 Cabinet and 28 Ministers of State — in the first reshuffle in the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister Modi since he assumed charge for a second term in May 2019.

The prime minister dropped 12 ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar from the council of ministers earlier in the day.

Cabinet Minister Mandavia, who has a daunting task of handling the COVID-19 pandemic, has also been given the Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry, whereas Vaishnaw will also be the Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology.

Piyush Goyal will be the new Textiles Minister, alongside being the Minister of Commerce and Industry; and the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

JD(U)’s Ram Chandra Prasad Singh will be the Steel Minister, while Pashupati Kumar Paras has been made the Minister of Food Processing Industries and Kiren Rijiju the Minister of Law and Justice.

Hardeep Singh Puri will be the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Housing and Urban Affairs Minister, Narayan Tatu Rane will be the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises while Sarbananda Sonowal has been made the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways; and the Minister of AYUSH. Shripad Yesso Naik, who was the Minister of State (Independent charge) for AYUSH will now be the Minister of State in the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways; and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism.

There will now be three Ministers of State for Home Affairs — Nityanand Rai, Ajay Kumar and Nisith Pramanik.

Virendra Kumar will be the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Bhupender Yadav the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Minister of Labour and Employment; and G Kishan Reddy will be the Minister of Culture; Tourism; and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).

The DoNER Ministry was earlier held by Jitendra Singh as Independent charge. The Ministry has now got a Cabinet rank minister. Smriti Zubin Irani has retained the Women and Child Development Ministry while Narendra Singh Tomar continues to be the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Pralhad Joshi will be the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of Coal; and Minister of Mines.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh will be the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology and MoS (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

He has been retained as the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office; MoS in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; MoS in the Department of Atomic Energy; and MoS in the Department of Space.

Ajay Bhatt will be the Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism.