Nirmala First Woman Defence Minister Of India; Suresh Prabhu Shunted Out Of Railways

New Delhi: Nirmala Sitharaman is the country's first woman Defence Minister while Piyush Goyal has been given Railways replacing Suresh Prabhu during whose tenure the Indian railways witnessed several deadliest train accidents.

Ms Sitharaman and Mr Goyal took oath after being promoted to cabinet rank along with Dharmendra Pradhan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Nirmala Sitharaman has become the first woman Defence Minister after Indira Gandhi, who held the department for a short while when she was Prime Minister.

Here are the highlights of the Sunday's cabinet reshuffle:

Arun Jaitley sheds Defence and retains the Finance Ministry. He will however attend an international meeting of Defence Ministers in Japan, for which he leaves tonight.

The 58-year-old Ms Sitharaman will now be part of the top 5 or the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which also includes the Prime Minister, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minster Arun Jaitley.

Apart from Railways, Piyush Goyal retains the ministry of coal. Dharmendra Pradhan, now cabinet minister, will continue to have charge of Petroleum and Natural Gas and will also be minister for skill development and entrepreneurship, which Rajiv Pratap Rudy gave up two days ago.

Suresh Prabhu, who exits as Rail Minister, is the new Commerce Minister, the department that was held by Ms Sitharaman. Minority Affairs Minister Muqtar Abbas Naqvi continues in his departments as a Cabinet minister.

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, who holds several key portfolios, has also been given charge of Waters resources and PM Modi's pet project of cleaning the Ganga. Uma Bharti was moved from that ministry and has been given the ministry of drinking water and sanitation. She skipped the oath ceremony today.

Of the new ministers in PM Modi's team, ex-diplomat Hardeep Puri will be minster of state with independent charge for housing and urban affairs. Former home secretary RK Singh will have independent charge of power and MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) and KJ Alphons of Tourism. He will also be minster of state for MEITY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology).

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore replaced Vijay Goel in the Sports Ministry. Mr Goel, who earlier held independent charge, will be the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Statistics and Programme Implementation.

PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah met the new ministers this morning at the Prime Minister's residence. PM Modi reportedly told them to perform and "do a good job." His council of ministers will now have 76 ministers, up from 73. It can have a maximum 81 members.

Six ministers resigned to make way for the new faces and sources said they were largely pink-slipped over performance, as PM Modi looks to streamline government performance and efficiency and speed up development work ahead of the 2019 national elections when he will seek a second term.

PM Modi left for China to attend a BIRICS summit soon after the oath ceremony today.

Here are the revised portfolios of the ministers:

CABINET MINISTERS

1. Rajnath Singh: Minister of Home Affairs.

2. Sushma Swaraj: Minister of External Affairs.

3. Arun Jaitley: Minister of Finance; Minister of Corporate Affairs.

4. Nitin Jairam Gadkari: Minister of Road Transport and Highways; Minister of Shipping; Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

5. Suresh Prabhu: Minister of Commerce and Industry.

6. DV Sadananda Gowda: Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

7. Uma Bharati: Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

8. Ramvilas Paswan: Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

9. Maneka Sanjay: Gandhi Minister of Women and Child Development.

10. Ananthkumar: Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers; Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

11. Ravi Shankar Prasad: Minister of Law and Justice; Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.

12. Jagat Prakash Nadda: Minister of Health and Family Welfare.

13. Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Minister of Civil Aviation.

14. Anant Geete: Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

15. Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Minister of Food Processing Industries.

16. Narendra Singh Tomar: Minister of Rural Development; Minister of Panchayati Raj; Minister of Mines.

17. Chaudhary Birender Singh: Minister of Steel.

18. Jual Oram: Minister of Tribal Affairs.

19. Radha Mohan Singh: Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

20. Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment.

21. Smriti Zubin Irani: Minister of Textiles; Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

22. Harsh Vardhan: Minister of Science and Technology; Minister of Earth Sciences; Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

23. Prakash Javadekar: Minister of Human Resource Development.

24. Dharmendra Pradhan: Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

25. Piyush Goyal: Minister of Railways; Minister of Coal.

26. Nirmala Sitharaman: Minister of Defence.

27. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi: Minister of Minority Affairs.

MINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)

1. Rao Inderjit Singh Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning; Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

2. Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

3. Shripad Yesso Naik: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).

4. Jitendra Singh: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office; Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy; Minister of State in the Department of Space.

5.Mahesh Sharma: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Culture; Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

6. Giriraj Singh: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

7. Manoj Sinha: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Communications; Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways.

8. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; Minister of State in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

9. Raj Kumar Singh: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Power; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

10. Hardeep Singh Puri: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

11. Alphons Kannanthanam: Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Tourism; Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

MINISTERS OF STATE

1. Vijay Goel: Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of State in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

2. Radhakrishnan P: Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance; Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping.

3. SS Ahluwalia: Minister of State in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

4. Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi: Minister of State in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

5. Ramdas Athawale: Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

6. Vishnu Deo Sai: Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel.

7. Ram Kripal Yadav: Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development.

8. Hansraj Gangaram Ahir: Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

9. Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary: Minister of State in the Ministry of Mines; Minister of State in the Ministry of Coal.

10. Rajen Gohain: Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways.

11. VK Singh Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs.

12. Parshottam Rupala: Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Minister of State in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

13. Krishan Pal: Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

14. Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor: Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

15. Shiv Pratap Shukla: Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance.

16. Ashwini Kumar Choubey: Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

17. Sudarshan Bhagat: Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

18. Upendra Kushwaha: Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

19. Kiren Rijiju: Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

20. Virendra Kumar: Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development; Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

21.Anantkumar Hegde: Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

22. MJ Akbar: Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs.

23. Niranjan Jyoti: Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

24. YS Chowdary: Minister of State in the Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State in the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

25. Jayant Sinha: Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

26. Babul Supriyo: Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.

27. Vijay Sampla: Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

28. Arjun Ram Meghwal: Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.

29. Ajay Tamta: Minister of State in the Ministry of Textiles.

30. Krishna Raj: Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

31. Mansukh L Mandaviya: Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways; Minister of State in the Ministry of Shipping; Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

32. Anupriya Patel: Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

33. CR Chaudhary: Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

34. PP Chaudhary: Minister of State in the Ministry of Law and Justice; Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

35. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre: Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence.

36. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat: Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

37. Satya Pal Singh: Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development; Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.