You all must be aware of the re-shuffling and expansion in the Prime Minister’s cabinet. Most of you must be familiar with one or two developments in the PM’s cabinet. But, this is not all! To improve your general awareness and current affairs, you need to well-versed with this new development in the PM’s cabinet. You can even expect a few questions based on this in the upcoming bank & SSC exams.
To gear you up for this topic, we bring to you an article on the PM Modi’s cabinet re-shuffle and expansion.
Modi Ministry
The Modi ministry is the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The cabinet works on the principle of ‘minimum government and maximum governance’. To downsize the government, Modi abolished all existing Group of Ministers and Empowered Group of Ministers in May 2014. The objective behind this was to accelerate the decision making process. This not only increased the accountability of the system, but also brought maximum governance into play.
Now let’s read further about the expansion in Modi’s cabinet.
Reasons for Modi’s cabinet expansion
The expansion of Modi’s cabinet focused primarily on:
- Budget priorities
- The expansion in the cabinet marks a departure from changes based on caste, religion and political considerations.
- After re-shuffling and expansion, PM Modi has come up with professionals across various domains to focus on ‘gaon, garib and kisan‘.
Highlights of cabinet expansion
- Modi has inducted 19 new ministers into his cabinet and re-shuffled the portfolios of a few.
- All 19 ministers are from the North except Ramesh Jigajinagi from Karnataka. The southern states are poorly represented in Modi’s Cabinet.
- Five ministers have resigned to strike a balance in the council and at present, there are 78 ministers.
- Prakash Javadekar was moved promoted to the cabinet rank with the charge of Ministry for Human Resource and Development while Smriti Irani was moved to the Ministry of Textile. Venkaiah Naidu was given the charge of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
- Among 19 new ministers, 17 ministers are from the BJP.
- There are two minority leaders namely, MJ Akbar and SS Ahluwalia.
Let’s have a quick look at 19 new faces in Modi’s revamped cabinet:
1) MJ Akbar, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
2) SS Ahluwalia, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from West Bengal: Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Parliamentary Affairs
3) Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Karnataka: Minister of State for Drinking Water and Sanitation
4) Parshottam Rupala, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat: Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Panchayati Raj
5) Ramdas Athawale from Maharashtra: Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment
6) Anil Madhav Dave, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh: Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change
7) Vijay Goel, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan: Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports
8) CR Chaudhary from Nagpur: Minister of state for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
9) Arjun Ram Meghwal, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Bikaner: Minister of State for Finance, Corporate Affairs
10) Rajen Gohain, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Assam: Minister of State for Railways.
11) Mahendra Nath Pandey, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from UP: Minister of State for Human Resources Development
12) PP Chaudhary, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Rajasthan: Minister of State for Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology
13) Dr. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Maharashtra: Minister of State for Defence
14) Jaswant Sinh Bhabhor, member of BJP from Gujarat: Minister of State for Tribal Affairs
15) Mansukh Mandaviya, BJP’s Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat: Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Chemicals and Fertilizers
16) Faggan Singh Kulaste, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh: Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare
17) Ajay Tamta, BJP Lok Sabha MP from Uttrakhand: Minister for State for Textiles
18) Anupriya Singh Patel, leader of Apna Dal: Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare
19) Krishna Raj, BJP’s member from UP: Minister of State for Women and Child Development
After going through the detailed analysis of Modi’s re-shuffled cabinet, you will be able to answer any questions based on this topic. 2-3 questions are expected from this topic in GA section of any bank/SSC exam.
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