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Smriti Irani Moved Out Of HRD Ministry In Modi Govt's Biggest Cabinet Rejig

Smriti Irani Moved Out Of HRD Ministry In Modi Govt's Biggest Cabinet Rejig
NEW DELHI, INDIA - DECEMBER 21: HRD Minister Smriti Irani comes out of the Patiala Court on December 21, 2015 in New Delhi, India. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley filed a defamation suit against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and sought Rs.10 crore in damages for accusing him of corruption when he headed the DDCA. Kejriwal retorted that he and his AAP can't be intimidated. (Photo by Ravi Choudhary/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
NEW DELHI, INDIA - DECEMBER 21: HRD Minister Smriti Irani comes out of the Patiala Court on December 21, 2015 in New Delhi, India. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley filed a defamation suit against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and sought Rs.10 crore in damages for accusing him of corruption when he headed the DDCA. Kejriwal retorted that he and his AAP can't be intimidated. (Photo by Ravi Choudhary/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

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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