The Cabinet portfolios were announced on Friday, a day after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his 57-member council of ministers were sworn in by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Narendra Modi will be in charge of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space and all other portfolios not allocated to any minister.

Out of the 57 ministers, 24 are of Cabinet rank (the below list), nine of independent minister of state rank and 24 ministers of state rank.

1. Amit Shah who has joined the Union Council of Ministers for the first time, has been picked as the Home Minister in the new government.

2. Nirmala Sitharaman has been announced the Minister of Finance; and Minister of Corporate Affairs. Earlier, reports said that Shah might be given the Finance portfolio.

3. Rajnath Singh has been appointed the Defence Minister.

4. Nitin Gadkari will be Minister of Road Transport and Highways and will also handle the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises.

5. Former foreign secretary Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has been appointed the External Affairs Minister, a post that was held by Sushma Swaraj, who this time did not feature in Modi government list.

6. Smriti Irani will be Minister for Women and Child Development; and Minister of Textiles.

7. Ravi Shankar Prasad will be the Minister of Law and Justice; Minister of Communications; and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.

8. Dr Harsh Vardhan has been appointed as Minister of Health and Family Welfare; Minister of Science and Technology; and Minister of Earth Sciences.

9. Gajendra Singh Shekhwat will be the Minister of Jal Shakti.

10. Prakash Javadekar has been appointed as Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and Minister of Information and Broadcasting.

11. Piyush Goyal gets Railways and also Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

12. DV Sadananda Gowda has been appointed as the Minister of Chemical and Fertilizers.

13. Ram Vilas Paswan will be the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.

14. Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will be the Minister of Minority Affairs.

15. Pralhad Joshi has been named the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs; Minister of Coal; and Minister of Mines.

16. Mahendra Nath Pandey has been appointed as the Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

17. Harsimrat Kaur Badal has been appointed as the Minister of Food Processing Industries.

18. Giriraj Singh has been appointed as the Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.

19. Arvind Ganpat Sawant as the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprise.

20. Narendra Singh Tomar has been given the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare; Ministry of Rural Development and; Ministry Panchayati Raj.

21. Thaawar Chand Gehlot gets Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

22. Dharmendra Pradhan has been appointed Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas; and Minister of Steel.

23. Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' will be the Minister of Human Resource Development.

24. Arjun Munda has been appointed as Minister of Tribal Affairs.

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

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

2. Rao Inderjit Singh – Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Planning.

3. Shripad Naik – Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH); and Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence.

4. Dr 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; and Minister of State in the Department of Space.

5. Kiren Rijiju – Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs

6. Prahalad Singh Patel – Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Culture; and Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Tourism.

7. 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; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

8. Hardeep Singh Puri – Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Civil Aviation; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

9. Mansukh L Mandaviya – Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Shipping; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Ministers of State

1. Faggansingh Kulaste – Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel

2. Ashwini Kumar Choubey – Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

3. Arjun Ram Meghwal – Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

4. General (Retd.) V. K. Singh – Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

5. Krishan Pal – Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

6. Danve Raosaheb Dadarao – Minister of State in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

7. G Kishan Reddy – Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs

8. Parshottam Rupala – Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

9. Ramdas Athawale – Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowermen

10. Niranjan Jyoti – Minister of State in the Ministry of Rural Development

11. Babul Supriyo – Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

12. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan – Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries

13. Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao – Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development; Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

14. Anurag Singh Thakur – Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

15. Angadi Suresh Channabasappa – Minister of State in the Ministry of Railways

16. Nityanand Rai – Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs

17. Rattan Lal Kataria – Minister of State in the Ministry of Jal Shakti; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

18. V Muraleedharan – Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs

19. Renuka Singh Saruta – Minister of State in the Ministry of Tribal Affair

20. Som Parkash – Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry

21. Rameswar Teli – Minister of State in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries

22. Pratap Chandra Sarangi – Minister of State in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries.

23. Kailash Choudhary -Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

24. Debasree Chaudhuri – Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development

Meanwhile, the first meeting of the new Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the Lok Sabha elections will take place in Delhi on Friday.

Modi, who returned to power with a massive mandate in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, was administered oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Nath Kovind at a grand ceremony on Thursday evening at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Many prominent ministers in the previous government were not considered for a seat. Among them were Suresh Prabhu, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, JP Nadda, Mahesh Sharma, Jayant Sinha and Maneka Gandhi. Ally Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal was also left out.

Sushma Swaraj, the former External Affairs Minister and Arun Jaitley, the Finance Minister in the previous government, had opted out of the government citing poor health.

The BJP won 303 of the 542 seats on which elections were held. The NDA ended with a tally of 353 seats.

Copyright: The Statesman/Asia News Network