Javadekar replaces Irani as HRD minister

Big Cabinet revamp indicates Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rewarded performers and beefed up portfolios

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday reshuffled the portfolios of several of his key ministers, including Smriti Irani who was shifted from Human Resource Development (HRD) to textiles ministry, while Prakash Javadekar was promoted to Cabinet rank and moved from the ministry of environment and forests to the crucial HRD ministry.

The changes, announced on Tuesday evening after a meeting of the PM and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah, indicated Modi has rewarded performers and beefed up portfolios, which were found to be laggardly. Irani being shifted is an indication that the PM thought it better to have humbler individual at the HRD, apart from the fact her performance was thought to have been average. No meaningful reform has taken place in the HRD ministry.

Another key change was entrusting the parliamentary affairs ministry to Ananth Kumar, while M Venkaiah Naidu was moved to the information and broadcasting Ministry, which was the additional portfolio of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The change comes barely a fortnight before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament, where the government is keen to pass the goods and services tax Constitution amendment Bill. Many in the BJP have felt that Ananth Kumar would do a better job of floor management. To strengthen his hands, the PM has made veteran S S Ahluwalia a minister of state for parliamentary affairs, divesting Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the portfolio.

In the finance ministry, the PM has appointed two new ministers to Jaitley, while his deputy Jayant Sinha has been shifted to civil aviation. Arjun Ram Meghwal and Santosh Gangwar will be ministers of state in the finance ministry. Party leaders see Sinha’s reallocation as a promotion, at a time when the civil aviation sector is active, and the ministry is headed by Telugu Desam Party’s Ashok Gajapathi Raju.

Sadananda Gowda, the former Karnataka chief minister, was clearly a non-performer and has been sent to the ministry of statistics and programme Implementation. The law portfolio has been given to Ravi Shankar Prasad, but Uttar Pradesh leader Manoj Sinha has been promoted and given Independent charge of the ministry of communications. It was earlier with Prasad.

Minister	Before	Now
Prakash Javadekar	MoS Environment and Forest (Independent Charge)	Cabinet Minister of Human Resource Development
Smriti Irani	Cabinet Minister HRD	Cabinet Minister Textile
M Venkaiah Naidu	Cabinet Minister Parliamentary Affairs; Urban Development, Housing and Poverty Alleviation	Cabinet Minister Information and Broadcasting; Urban Development, Housing and Poverty Alleviation
Narendra Singh Tomar	Cabinet Minister Steel and Mines	Cabinet Minister Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation
Chaudhary Birender Singh	Cabinet Minister Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and Sanitation	Cabinet Minister Steel and Mines
Ananthkumar	Cabinet Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers	Cabinet Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Chemicals and Fertilizers
Manoj Sinha	MoS Railways	Communications (Independent Charge) and Railways
Anil Madhav Dave	BJP Rajya Sabha MP	MoS (Independent Charge) Environment and Forests
Jayant Sinha	MoS Finance	MoS Civil Aviation
Santosh Gangwar	MoS (Independent Charge) Textiles	MoS Finance
Arjun Ram Meghwal	BJP Chief Whip in Lok Sabha	MoS Finance and Corporate Affairs

CABINET MINISTERS
1	Shri Raj Nath Singh	Home Affairs
2	Smt. Sushma Swaraj	External Affairs
3	Shri Arun Jaitley	Finance Corporate Affairs
4	Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu	Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Information  & Broadcasting
5	Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari	Road Transport and Highways Shipping
6	Shri Manohar Parrikar	Defence
7	Shri Suresh Prabhu	Railways
8	Shri D.V. Sadananda Gowda	Statistics & Programme Implementation
9	Sushri Uma Bharati	Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
10	Dr. Najma A. Heptulla	Minority Affairs
11	Shri Ramvilas Paswan	Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
12	Shri Kalraj Mishra	Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
13	Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi	Women and Child Development
14	Shri Ananthkumar	Chemicals and Fertilizers Parliamentary Affairs
15	Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad	Law & Justice Electronics & Information Technology
16	Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda	Health & Family Welfare
17	Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati	Civil Aviation
18	Shri Anant Geete	Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
19	Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal	Food Processing Industries
20	Shri Narendra Singh Tomar	Rural Development Panchayati Raj Drinking Water and Sanitation
21	Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh	Steel
22	Shri Jual Oram	Tribal Affairs
23	Shri Radha Mohan Singh	Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
24	Shri Thaawar Chand Gehlot	Social Justice and Empowerment
25	Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani	Textiles
26	Dr. Harsh Vardhan	Science and Technology Earth Sciences
27	Shri Prakash Javadekar	Human Resource Development

MINISTERS OF STATE
1	Shri Rao Inderjit Singh	Planning (Independent Charge)  Urban Development Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation
2	Shri Bandaru Dattatreya	Labour and Employment (Independent Charge)
3	Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy	Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)
4	Shri Vijay Goel	Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)  Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
5	Shri Shripad Yesso Naik	AAYUSH (Independent Charge)
6	Shri Dharmendra Pradhan	Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)
7	Shri Piyush Goyal	Power (Independent Charge) Coal (Independent Charge) New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge) Mines (Independent Charge)
8	Dr. Jitendra Singh	Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) Prime Minister’s Office Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space
9	Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman	Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge)
10	Dr. Mahesh Sharma	Culture (Independent Charge) Tourism (Independent Charge)
11	Shri Manoj Sinha	Communications (Independent Charge)  Railways
12	Shri Anil Madhav Dave	Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)
13	General V.K. Singh	External Affairs
14	Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar	Finance
15	Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste	Health & Family Welfare
16	Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi	Minority Affairs Parliamentary Affairs
17	Shri S.S. Ahluwalia	Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Parliamentary Affairs
18	Shri Ramdas Athawale	Social Justice & Empowerment
19	Shri Ram Kripal Yadav	Rural Development
20	Shri Haribhai Parthbhai Chaudhary	Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
21	Shri Giriraj Singh	Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
22	Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir	Home Affairs
23	Shri G.M. Siddeshwara	Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises
24	Shri Ramesh Chandappa Jigajinagi	Drinking Water & Sanitation
25	Shri Rajen Gohain	Railways
26	Shri Parshottam Rupala	Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Panchayati Raj
27	Shri M.J. Akbar	External Affairs
28	Shri Upendra Kushwaha	Human Resources Development
29	Shri Radhakrishnan P.	Road Transport & Highways Shipping
30	Shri Kiren Rijiju	Home Affairs
31	Shri Krishan Pal	Social Justice & Empowerment
32	Shri Jasvantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor	Tribal Affairs
33	Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan	Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
34	Shri Vishnu Deo Sai	Steel
35	Shri Sudarshan Bhagat	Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
36	Shri Y.S. Chowdary	Science and Technology  Earth Science
37	Shri Jayant Sinha	Civil Aviation
38	Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore	Information & Broadcasting
39	Shri Babul Supriyo	Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
40	Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti	Food Processing Industries
41	Shri Vijay Sampla	Social Justice & Empowerment
42	Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal	Finance Corporate Affairs
43	Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey	Human Resource Development
44	Shri Ajay Tamta	Textiles
45	Smt. Krishna Raj	Women & Child Development
46	Shri Mansukh L. Mandaviya	Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Chemicals & Fertilizers
47	Smt. Anupriya Patel	Health & Family Welfare
48	Shri C.R. Chaudhary	Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution
49	Shri P.P. Chaudhary	Law & Justice Electronics & Information Technology
50	Dr. Subhash Ramrao Bhamre	Defence