Swearing-in ceremony of Modi, 44 ministers ends at Rashtrapati Bhavan

The hour-and-half-long swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as India's 15th Prime Minister and that of his 44-member Cabinet ended on Monday evening.

The ceremony concluded with the national anthem and was followed by a photo opportunity of the entire Cabinet with President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari.

Thereafter, seven SAARC heads of government and the Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament congratulated Modi on his assumption of office, shook hands with the President and Vice-President, and then posed for a group photograph. This in itself was a historic occurrence.

The dignitaries are now attending a banquet hosted by the President.

The ministers who were sworn-in included Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani, Nitin Gadkari, Venkaiah Naidu, Gopinath Munde, Ravi Shankar Prasad, V.K.Singh, RamVilas Paswan among others.

Earlier, Narendra Damodardass Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of the countr.

The oath of office and secrecy to Modi was administered by President Pranab Mukherjee. He took his oath in Hindi.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by several world leaders including Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

Heads of Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Mauritius were also present at the swearing-in ceremony.

The swearing-in ceremony was also attended by a host of Bollywood celebrities including Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Vivek Oberoi, Dharmendra.

Outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi, besides leaders of various other parties and chief ministers of a number of states were also present at the swearing-in ceremony.