In a major cabinet reshuffle that comes close on the heels of its two-year anniversary, Narendra Modi government has moved Smriti Irani, one of its most high-profile and controversial faces, into the relatively low-key textiles ministry. In other significant changes, Venkaiah Naidu has become the information and broadcasting minister, which Arun Jaitley now loses. Naidu's Parliamentary Affairs portfolio has gone to senior BJP leader Anant Kumar. Ravishankar Prasad has lost the telecom portfolio, which has gone to Manoj Sinha. Prasad gets law, which will be vacated by Sadananda Gowda, who has been moved to the ministry of statistics and programme implementation. This is the second shift for Gowda, who debuted as railways minister in 2014 but was moved to law soon after.
Jayant Sinha has been moved as minister of state for finance to MoS civil aviation. Journalist M.J. Akbar will debut as MoS for external affairs. This is the second cabinet expansion and first major reshuffle of the Modi government.
Irani, who faced criticism from several quarters for her handling of Hyderabad University dalit scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide and the JNU row, will now head the textiles ministry. She will be replaced by Prakash Javedekar who will head the HRD Ministry, according to news reports.
Vijay Goel was given the charge of the sports ministry. The newly inducted Anupriya Patel will be appointed as the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare.
In its biggest reshuffle after assuming power, the Modi government has inducted 19 new cabinet ministers and dropped five junior ministers.
Given below is the list of ministers and their portfolios:
Prime Minister:
Narendra Modi
Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions
Department of Atomic Energy
Department of Space
Cabinet Ministers
Rajnath Singh: Home Affairs
Sushma Swaraj: External Affairs
Arun Jaitley: Finance Corporate Affairs
M Venkaiah Naidu: Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation |Information & Broadcasting
Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Road Transport and Highways Shipping
Manohar Parrikar: Defence
Suresh Prabhu: Railways
D. V. Sadananda Gowda: Statistics & Programme Implementation
Uma Bharati: Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
Najma A. Heptulla: Minority Affairs
Shri Ramvilas Paswan: Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
Kalraj Mishra: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Maneka Sanjay Gandhi: Women & Child Development
Ananth Kumar: Chemicals & Fertilizers | Parliamentary Affairs
Ravi Shankar Prasad: Law & Justice | Electronics & Information Technology
Jagat Prakash Nadda: Health & Family Welfare
Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil Aviation
Anant Geete: Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food Processing Industries
Narendra Singh Tomar: Rural Development | Panchayati Raj | Drinking Water & Sanitation
Chaudhary Birender Singh: Steel
Jual Oram: Tribal Affairs
Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social Justice and Empowerment
Smriti Zubin Irani: Textiles
Dr. Harsh Vardhan: Science & Technology | Earth Sciences
Prakash Javadekar: Human Resource Development
Ministers of State
Rao Inderjit Singh: Planning (Independent Charge) | Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
Bandaru Dattatreya: Labour & Employment (Independent Charge)
Rajiv Pratap Rudy: Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)
Vijay Goel: Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) | Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
Shripad Yesso Naik: AAYUSH (Independent Charge)
Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
Piyush Goyal: Power (Independent Charge) Coal (Independent Charge) New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) Mines (Independent Charge)
Jitendra Singh: Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) Prime Minister’s Office Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space
Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)
Mahesh Sharma: Culture (Independent Charge) Tourism (Independent Charge)
Manoj Sinha: Communications (Independent Charge) Railways
Anil Madhav Dave: Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
General V. K. Singh: External Affairs
Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Finance
Faggan Singh Kulaste: Health & Family Welfare
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minority Affairs | Parliamentary Affairs
SS Ahluwalia: Agriculture & Farmers Welfare | Parliamentary Affairs
Ramdas Athawale: Social Justice & Empowerment
Ram Kripal Yadav: Rural Development
Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Giriraj Singh: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Hansraj Gangaram Ahir: Home Affairs
G M Siddeshwara: Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi: Drinking Water & Sanitation
Rajen Gohain: Railways
Parshottam Rupala: Agriculture & Farmers Welfare | Panchayati Raj
MJ Akbar: External Affairs
Upendra Kushwaha: Human Resources Development
Radhakrishnan P: Road Transport & Highways | Shipping
Kiren Rijiju: Home Affairs
Krishan Pal: Social Justice & Empowerment
Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor: Tribal Affairs
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
Vishnu Deo Sai: Steel
Sudarshan Bhagat: Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Y S Chowdary: Science & Technology | Earth Science
Jayant Sinha: Civil Aviation
Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: Information & Broadcasting
Babul Supriyo: Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti: Food Processing Industries
Vijay Sampla: Social Justice & Empowerment
Arjun Ram Meghwal: Finance | Corporate Affairs
Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey: Human Resource Development
Ajay Tamta: Textiles
Krishna Raj: Women & Child Development
Mansukh L. Mandaviya: Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers
Anupriya Patel: Health & Family Welfare
CR Chaudhary: Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
P P Chaudhary: Law & Justice Electronics & Information Technology
Subhash Ramrao Bhamre: Defence
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