News Analysis India

Tag: Union Cabinet

  • Union ministers taking charge after Cabinet reshuffle vow to fulfil PM Modi’s vision for country

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Several ministers, who took charge after a major Cabinet reshuffle, on Thursday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership and vowed to realise his vision for the country.

    Newly appointed Union ministers and those elevated in the Cabinet reshuffle, including Ashwini Vaishnaw, Anurag Thakur and Mansukh Mandaviya, took charge of their respective ministries on Thursday.

    Bureaucrat-entrepreneur-turned-politician Vaishnaw, took charge as the country’s new railway minister, while Thakur who was elevated as Information and Broadcasting Minister also assumed office. Vaishnaw also holds two other important portfolios of Communications and Electronics, and Information Technology.

    “I thank the honourable prime minister for the great opportunity he has given me to serve the nation. Telecommunications, IT and Railways. There are lots of synergies in the three and I will be working to ensure that his vision is implemented,” Vaishnaw told reporters.

    “Excellent work has been done in the railways over the past 67 years. I am here to take the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi forward,” he said while taking charge.

    Interacting with reporters after assuming charge as the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Thakur said that Prime Minister Modi has given him a huge responsibility and he will make best efforts to fulfil it.

    He said reaching out to the masses through the Information and Broadcasting Ministry will be his main area of focus. “Modi ji has done fantastic work in the last seven years. My endeavour will be to meet his expectations, reach out to maximum people and take the legacy of my predecessors forward,” Thakur said.

    Late last night, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was sworn in as a Cabinet minister, thanked Prime Minister Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda and the party leadership for entrusting him with the responsibility to serve as Civil Aviation Minister. “Looking forward to working under the guidance and vision of the PM to build a strong aviation sector for Aatmanirbhar Bharat!” Scindia tweeted.

    आपकी आत्मीय शुभकामनाओं के लिए ह्रदय से धन्यवाद।देश के यशस्वी प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी के कुशल नेतृत्व में, मैं आप सभी की अपेक्षाओं पर खरा उतरने का पूरा प्रयास करूंगा। https://t.co/4Wwa6um6xJ
    — Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) July 8, 2021

    Bhupender Yadav, who assumed charge of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and as the Labour Minister, said, “I am grateful to the prime minister. I have already taken charge as labour minister. Now I take charge as environment minister. I will put my best foot forward to fulfil the responsibility given to me by the PM and the confidence he has shown in me.”

    Mansukh Mandaviya, who took charge as the country’s new health and family welfare minister, said he is committed to realizing Prime Minister Modi’s dream of a healthy India. John Barla, who took charge as the Minister of State for Minority Affairs, thanked Prime Minister Modi for entrusting him with this assignment and said he would make all efforts to fulfil his responsibilities.

    Subhas Sarkar, who took charge as the new Minister of State for Education, expressed his commitment to devote himself to fulfil the vision of the prime minister.

    Bureaucrat-turned politician Raj Kumar Singh, who assumed charge as the Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, expressed gratitude to Modi for giving him the responsibility, and said the prime minister has shown great confidence and “we will live up to that”.

    In his brief interaction with the media after assuming charge, Singh said, “We have achieved targets of electrification set by the prime minister well before the schedule and will strive to ensure that the benefits of power and energy sector reach the common man.

    In a major Union Cabinet makeover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday dropped 12 ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar and brought Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Scindia and 33 other new members to his government.

    Apart from 15 Cabinet ministers, 28 Ministers of State, comprising new faces and those elevated, were sworn in at a ceremony which was held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

  • Cabinet expansion cannot cover up government’s wrong policies: BSP chief Mayawati

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: A day after the Union Cabinet expansion, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Thursday said the exercise would neither cover up the wrong policies, activities and other shortcomings of the government nor divert the attention of people from it.

    2. साथ ही, यूपी की भाजपा सरकार भी यहाँ जनहित व जनकल्याण के सभी मोर्चे पर अधिकांश विफल ही रही है और कोरोना प्रकोप में तो इनकी नीति व कार्यशैली तथा इनके अन्य हवा-हवाई वादों व घोषणाओं आदि से यहाँ की समस्त जनता काफी दुःखी है।
    — Mayawati (@Mayawati) July 8, 2021

    “The elaborate expansion and reshuffle done in the Union Cabinet can neither cover up the wrong policies, activities and other shortcomings of the government, nor can it divert the people’s attention from it. The people of the country are waiting for a change at the right time,” she said in tweets in Hindi.

    “At the same time, the BJP government in UP has also failed on all fronts of public interest and public welfare. All the people are very sad due to its policies, working style, tall promises and announcements during the Covid outbreak,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

    In a major overhaul, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted several new members in his cabinet and dropped 12 ministers, including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.

  • All you need to know about newly-inducted ministers in Narendra Modi’s cabinet

    By Express News Service
    Mansukh Mandaviya and Anurag Thakur will be the new ministers for Health and Information and Broadcasting respectively replacing Harsh Vardhan and Prakash Javedekar who were among the 12 dropped in the revamped Union Cabinet on Wednesday.  

    Ahead of the key Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi  also brought in Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Jyotiraditya Scindia and 33 other new members.

    Here’s a brief insight into the new and old faces of Modi’s faces

    Narayan Rane

    First-time Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra; six-time MLA and CM for a few months in 1999. Expelled from Shiv Sena in 2005; joined Congress; formed own outfit in 2017 which then merged with BJP

    Sarbananda Sonowal

    A law graduate, he was CM of Assam from 2016-2021; two-time Lok Sabha MP; was minister of state (independent charge) in the Modi government earlier; has been an MLA twice; seen as a major figure 

    Virendra Kumar

    MP from Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh; elected to Lok Sabha seven times; a PhD in child labour, he has served as MoS for Women & Child Development and Minority Affairs in the Modi govt in the past

    Jyotiraditya Scindia

    Five-time MP, currently Rajya Sabha member; was a minister in the UPA govt; quit Congress and joined BJP last year with 22 MLAs and helped the saffron party regain power in Madhya Pradesh; just reward, it seems

    Ram Chandra Prasad Singh

    An alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University and a retired IAS officer of 1984 batch, he is a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar; is the president of Janata Dal-United and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s close confidante

    Ashwini Vaishnav

    Is a former IAS officer from Odisha and Rajya Sabha MP; has done MBA from Wharton School, Pennysylvania University and MTech from IIT Kanpur; has held leadership positions in global companies

    Pashupati Paras

    A Lok Sabha MP from Hajipur in Bihar and brother of the late Ram Vilas Paswan; has been a 7-time MLA; is heading the breakaway faction of LJP following the recent coup against nephew Chirag Paswan

    Bhupendra Yadav

    A lawyer and two-time Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan; close to Amit Shah; known for his leadership across various parliamentary committees; played key role in BJP’s accession to power in several states  

    Kiren Rijiju

    A prominent leader of BJP from Northeast (Arunachal); gets a promotion with Cabinet rank; was minister of state for sports and youth affairs earlier; was MoS Home in Modi government’s first term

    RK Singh

    Bureaucrat-turned politician who steered Modi govt’s power sector reforms agenda; two-term Lok Sabha MP from Arrah in Bihar; was MoS for power and renewable energy and skill development earlier

    Hardeep Singh Puri

     Is Rajya Sabha MP; was a 1974 batch IFS officer and one of India’s top diplomats who held several key positions such as Permanent Represen-tative to UN; was earlier minister for civil aviation, housing and urban affairs 

    Mansukh Mandaviya

    Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat; was minister of state for port & shipping and chemical & fertilisers; started his political career as member of the BJP’s youth wing; became the youngest MLA in Gujarat in 2002

    G Kishan Reddy

    MP from Secunderabad, Telangana; was earlier MoS; was earlier a three-time MLA and BJP floor leader in Telangana and undivided Andhra assemblies; was BJP state president in Telangana and undivided Andhra

    Parshottam Rupala

    A Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat; was earlier minister of state for agriculture and panchayati raj; is known for his humour and oratory skills; the 66-year-old served as a minister in state earlier

    Anurag Thakur

    Is the youngest from Himachal Pradesh to hold Cabinet rank in Union council of ministers; was earlier minister of state for finance; has served three terms spanning  seven years as BJPs Youth Wing president

    Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma

    Lok Sabha MP from Jalaun in Uttar Pradesh, serving his fifth term in Parliament; in 2001, he became vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP’s SC Morcha and a decade later, he became its president

    Rajeev Chandrasekhar

    Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka; served on various parliamentary committees; has MTech in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology and Advanced Management Program from Harvard University

    Meenakshi Lekhi

    Lawyer and two-time Lok Sabha MP from New Delhi; appointed vice-president of BJP’s Mahila Morcha in 2010; her contempt petition had forced Rahul Gandhi to apologise to Supreme Court for ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ jibe

    Shobha Karandlaje

    Lok Sabha MP from Udupi Chikmangalur in Karnataka; was an MLA and MLC earlier; is a close associate of Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddiyurappa; was a minister in his cabinet earlier

    Pankaj Choudhary

    Six-time Lok Sabha MP from Maharajganj in UP; began his political career in 1989-91 as member of Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation, later became deputy mayor; became member of BJP working committee in 1990

    Anupriya Patel

    President of BJP’s ally Apna Dal (S) and Lok Sabha MP from Mirzapur, UP; serving her second term; was earlier MoS-health in the Modi government; was a professor before entering politics

    SP Singh Baghel

    Lok Sabha member from Agra and serving his fifth term; holds PhD and law degrees; was minister in the Uttar Pradesh government in th past; a prominent SC face in this crucial heartland state; was in SP and  BSP earlier

    Darshana Vikram Jardosh

    A three-time MP from Gujarat’s Surat; was a corporator earlier and member of the Gujarat Social Welfare Board; an OBC face of the party; has served as a member of different committees of Parliament

    Annpurna Devi

    First-time MP from Kodarma, Jharkhand; was a four-time MLA and also served as a minister in the states of Jharkhand as well as Bihar; she has done Masters in History from the Ranchi University

    A Narayana Swamy

    First-time Lok Sabha MP from Chitradurg, Karnataka; was MLA for four terms earlier and minister in the state; SC face of BJP; said to be close to party national general secretary BL Santosh

    Kaushal Kishore

    The 61-year-old two-time MP represents Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh; belongs to SC (Pasi) community; state chief of BJP’s Scheduled Caste wing; was in Samajwadi Party earlier

    Ajay Bhatt

    MP from Nainital, elected first time to Lok Sabha; was a practising lawyer before joining politics; Brahmin face from Kumaon in Uttarakhand; was three-time MLA and Cabinet minister in the hill state

    BL Verma

    The 59-year-old is first time Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh; hails from Badaun district; is prominent OBC face; became UP BJP vice-president in 2018; is in Parliament Committee on Welfare of OBCs

    Ajay Kumar

    Lok Sabha MP from Khiri constituency in Uttar Pradesh; is the lone Brahmin face from among the ministers appointed from the state; represent Terai region; the 60-year-old former MLA also holds a law degree

    Chauhan Devusinh

    A two-term Lok Sabha member from Kheda in Gujarat; an OBC, was 2-time MLA earlier; prior to his full-time political career, he has served as an Engineer in All-India Radio; holds a diploma in Electrical Engineering 

    Bhagwanth Khuba

    Elected to Lok Sabha from Bidar in Karnataka for second term; hails from politically dominant Lingayat community; holds BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering; in Parliament’s Standing Committee on Agriculture

    Kapil M Patil

    Is Lok Sabha MP from Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, serving his second term; is BJP’s OBC face; shifted to the party from NCP; has been member of standing committee on defence & committee on absence of members from House

    Pratima Bhoumik

    First-time MP from Tripura West Lok Sabha seat; the 52-year-old BJP leader is from a humble background and holds a graduate degree in Bio-Science; is the first to be made minister from the state in three decades

    Subhas Sarkar

    Is a first-term Lok Sabha MP from Bankura in West Bengal; is a gynaecologist and board member of AIIMS Kalyani; has been BJP’s organisation man in the state; was made vice-president of West Bengal BJP in 2013 to 2017

    Bhagwat K Karad

    Rajya Sabha MP for Maharashtra, serving his first term; a doctor by profession, runs Dr Karad Multi Specialty Hospital & Research Center in Aurangabad; the 64-year-old has also served as mayor of Aurangabad

    Rajkumar Ranjan Singh

    Is a first-time MP of the BJP from Inner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency. The 68-year-old Singh was a professor of geography for four decades before becoming a lawmaker; holds MA and PhD degrees

    Shantanu Thakur

    Elected to Lok Sabha from Bongaon constituency of West Bengal; is an influential Matua dharma guru; has been actively involved in spreading Matua culture as a leader of All India Matua Mahasangha

    Bishweswar Tudu

    Is a Lok Sabha MP from Mayurbhanj in Odisha; hails from the Cuttack region; the 56-year-old holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering,  worked as an engineer in state water resources dept prior to joining politics

    Bharati Pravin Pawar

    Is first-time Lok Sabha MP from Dindori in Maharashtra; holds MBBS degree and was a medical practitioner before joining politics; the 42-year-old also served as member of Nashik Zila Parishad

    Munjapara Mahendrabhai

    Is Lok Sabha MP from Surendranagar, Gujarat, serving his 1st term; prior to his political career, he had a 3 decades long career as a Cardiologist and Professor of Medicine in Gujarat; is known to be a social worker at heart

    L Murugan

    Practised law in the Madras High Court for 15 years before joining public life; was Vice Chairman of the National Commission of SCs from 2017 to 2020; he holds a LLM and PhD in Law from Madras University

    John Barla

    Is a Lok Sabha MP from Alipurduars, West Bengal, serving his first term; he started off as a tea garden worker at the age of 14 and has worked for the rights of tea garden workers for more than two decades

    Nisith Pramanik 

    He is a Lok Sabha MP from Cooch Behar constituency in West Bengal, serving his first term as a member of Parliament; the 35-year-old has worked as an Assistant Teacher in a Primary School and has a BCA degree

  • Pratima Bhowmick, first politician from Tripura to join Union Cabinet

    By PTI
    AGARTALA: Fifty-two-year-old Pratima Bhowmik, popularly known as ‘Pratima di’ Wednesday scripted history, becoming the only politician from Tripura to be sworn-in as a central minister.

    Earlier, Santosh Mohan Deb and Triguna Sen were elected as member of Parliament from Tripura and inducted in the central cabinet.

    However, they were not from Tripura.

    While Deb hailed from Silchar in Assam, Sen was from West Bengal.

    On Bhowmick’s achievement, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb tweeted: “A moment of immense pride for #Tripura that @PratimaBhoumik ji, foremost representative of #NariShakti of the state, has joined PM Shri @narendramodi led Union Council of Ministers.”

    Bhowmick is a first time MP, elected from West Tripura constituency in the last general elections.

    Prior to this, she was the general secretary of the Tripura unit of BJP, but relinquished the post after being elected as Member of Parliament and at present holds the post of vice-president of the state unit.

    A graduate in Science from Tripura Women’s College here, Bhowmik has always maintained a low profile despite being an active politician for long.

  • Year post ‘ghar wapsi’, Jyotiraditya Scindia rewarded for giving MP to BJP

    By PTI
    BHOPAL: More than a year after playing a key role in installation of a BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, Jyotiraditya Scindia was rewarded with a berth in the Union Cabinet, a familiar terrain for the Rajya Sabha member who had served as a junior minister in the Congress-led UPA government.

    Scindia (50) resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP in March 2020 and his move triggered a chain of events which finally culminated in the collapse of the Kamal Nath government just 15 months after its formation, paving the way for the saffron party to assume power which it lost towards the end of 2018.

    Cabinet Reshuffle LIVE | Scindia, Sonowal, Narayan Rane take oath as Union Ministers

    On joining the BJP, he was made a Rajya Sabha member, while Shivraj Singh Chouhan came back as the chief minister.

    The scion of the former royal family of Gwalior had started showing signs of restlessness after the Congress high command chose veteran Kamal Nath over him to take over as the chief minister in December 2018.

    Things came to a head when Scindia warned of “hitting the streets” against his own party-led government if promises made to people in the manifesto were not fulfilled. The then chief minister Kamal Nath’s retort that Scindia was free to carry out his threat to launch an agitation, finally proved his undoing.

    Born on January 1, 1971, and educated in Harvard and Stanford institutions, Scindia has traversed a long way after contesting his maiden election as a Congress candidate in 2002, a bypoll in the Guna Lok Sabha constituency, which was held because of the sudden death of his father, Madhavrao Scindia, in a plane crash.

    Supporters of BJP MP Jyotiraditya Scindia celebrate his inclusion in the new Union Cabinet, outside the BJP office in Bhopal.”There is enthusiasm among MP youth. We are celebrating, distributing sweets as Modiji has given an opportunity to youth leadership,” said a supporter pic.twitter.com/jR2H1q0Xh4
    — ANI (@ANI) July 7, 2021

    In 2007, he was inducted into the UPA government and remained a part of the Union Cabinet till 2014 by serving as a minister of state for communications, commerce and industry and power. In 2014, he was again elected from Guna, his traditional seat for a fourth time but lost from the constituency in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to BJP candidate KP Yadav, who was once close to him.

    Scindia was the face of the Congress campaign in his capacity as the chairman of the poll campaign committee during the 2018 assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh. However, when the party came to power in the state after a drought of 15 years, the coveted post of chief minister went to Nath.

    After that he also lost the Lok Sabha polls from Guna and since then, he was not feeling comfortable with the Congress leadership in the state, sources close to him said.

    “While in the Congress, Scindia once paid a courtesy visit to Shivraj Singh Chouhan (then he was not CM) and that was the first indication of Scindia hobnobbing with the BJP,” his close aide Pankaj Chaturvedi said.

    Then came the big act – 22 Congress MLAs loyal to Scindia, including six ministers, resigned from their assembly’s membership and toppled the Congress government. The BJP rewarded his loyalists by inducting most of them into the cabinet of Chouhan.

    A majority of them later won assembly bypolls necessitated by the mass resignations of Congress MLAs.

    In the run-up to the bypolls in Madhya Pradesh, when Scindia was asked about the ‘political coup’ and when he had taken the final call to topple the Congress government, he told PTI, “When Nath asked me to hit the road and that was the final call.”

    Scindia was the second member from his clan to pull down a Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, decades after ‘Rajmata’ Vijaya Raje Scindia toppled the “anti-people” Congress government in the state, Chouhan earlier said.

    The entire Scindia family is now part of one party (BJP), Chouhan had said.

  • Cabinet reshuffle: Anupriya Patel returns to council of ministers after two years

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) president Anupriya Patel, who has been jockeying for a separate ministry to solve problems faced by other backward classes, is back in the Union council of ministers after a two-year gap.

    An MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, 40-year-old Patel belongs to the Kurmi community and had been a minister in the first government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Her inclusion in the Modi’s team is significant ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next year and the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 as the Other Backward Classes (OBC) have a sizeable number of voters in the key Purvanchal region.

    “We have demanded the formation of a ministry for OBCs on the lines of the Ministry of Minorities to solve the problems of the backward classes,” she had said at a meeting of party workers on the 72nd birth anniversary of Apna Dal founder Sonelal Patel earlier this month.

    A champion of the cause of the backwards and deprived sections, she has been saying that though they are getting their share in the administration, still the gap of inequality is huge. “We have to struggle a lot to bridge it,” she says, while making a demand for the setting up of a national memorial to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Delhi.

    Her party has been continuously raising its voice in Parliament for resolving the problems of farmers and proper implementation of the Swaminathan Commission recommendations so that they could get a fair price for their produce.

    The buzz that she could be accommodated in the Union ministry grew louder after she recently met the BJP brass in New Delhi after staying away from the corridors of power ever since the NDA embarked on its second term in 2019.

    Anupriya was a minister of state at the Centre from 2016 to 2019. This is her second stint in the Union council of ministers.

  • Cabinet reshuffle driven by distribution of the spoils of power: Congress

    Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said if the cabinet expansion was to be done on the basis of performance then the prime minister should have been the first one to be removed for his failures.

  • Cabinet 2021: Five-time MP Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma gets ministerial berth

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Sworn in as a Union minister for the first time on Wednesday, five-time Lok Sabha MP Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma hails from a small place in Jalaun district of Uttar Pradesh. Yadav (63) had become an MLA in 1991.

    Chaudhary got elected to the Lok Sabha five times–in 1996, 1998, 2004, 2014 and 2019–from the Jalaun constituency. In 2001, he became vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP’s SC Morcha and a decade later, he became its president.

    As an MP, he was a member of the Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

  • Cabinet reshuffle: Narayan Rane’s journey from Shiv Sena ‘shakha pramukh’ to Union minister

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Having spent the better part of his political career in the Shiv Sena, Narayan Rane has come a long way, leaving two parties and forming his own outfit for a while, before joining hands with the BJP and becoming a Union minister.

    Rane (69) began his political career as a ‘shakha pramukh’ (local ward chief) in the Sena and rose up the ranks to become chief minister at the fag end of the Shiv Sena-BJP government’s term in 1999.

    Not known to mince words, the Maratha leader having pockets of influence in the coastal Konkan region, was picked by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray as chief minister when he decided to remove the genial Manohar Joshi ahead of the 1999 assembly elections.

    However,, Thackeray expelled Rane from the Sena in July 2005 for “anti-party activities” after he alleged that tickets and posts were for sale in the Shiv Sena.

    Cabinet Reshuffle LIVE | Scindia, Sonowal, Narayan Rane take oath as Union Ministers

    Rane joined the Congress in August 2005 and quit it in September 2017. “I waited for 12 years.When I found that there was no scope for me in the Congress, I decided to quit from the primary membership of the party and membership of the legislative council,” he had said in his rant against the party over “injustice” done to him and his supporters.

    Rane then said he had joined the Congress because he was assured that he will be made chief minister in six months. After quitting the Congress, Rane launched the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha in October 2017.

    In 2018, he declared support for BJP and was elected to the Rajya Sabha on that party’s nomination. In October 2019, he merged his party with the BJP.

    Over the years, Rane’s political rivals have been linking him to several incidents of violence, claiming his involvement in the murder of Shiv Sena worker Shridhar Naik and some other crimes in his Sindhudurg region of Konkan.

  • Harsh Vardhan steps down as Union health minister ahead of cabinet reshuffle

    By Online Desk
    Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday resigned from the Union Cabinet ahead of the nuch-awaited cabinet reshuffle later in the evening. The Minister of state for health Ashwini Chaube also stepped down a little later.

    Their resignations come at a time when the central government is at the receiving end of criticism over its handling of the brutal Covid second wave that left lakhs dead and many more desperate for oxygen and hospital beds. 

    The new health minister will have several challenges ahead as the government battles to avoid a third Covid wave.

    Among the pressing challenges is vaccinating all Indians above the age of 18 as soon as possible. This at a time when vaccine supply constraints are being highlighted by countless state governments.

    At a bigger level is the need to ramp up the health infrastructure across the country even as health spend in the union budget still lags behind in comparison to the developed countries of the world.  

    The first rejig in PM Modi’s second term will see 43 new ministers taking the oath of office on Wednesdday evening.