Parrikar gets Defence, Suresh Prabhu new Railway Minister

Manohar Parrikar is the new Defence Minister and Suresh Prabhu will head the Railway Ministry Minister in the expansion-cum-reshuffle of the Narendra Modi ministry after 21 new Ministers were sworn-in today.
Parrikar, who quit as Goa Chief Minister yesterday to join the Union Cabinet, takes over the charge from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who held the Defence portfolio as an additional charge. Interestingly, Jaitley has been given the additional charge of Information and Broadcasting Ministry.
J P Nadda, who also joined the Union Cabinet, gets the portfolio of Health and Family Welfare portfolio, held by Harsh Vardhan who has been shifted to the Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Ministry.

Haryana leader Birender Singh, who had quit the Congress recently, is the new Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water and Sanitation, a charge held by Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari till now after the demise of Gopinath Munde.
D V Sadananda Gowda, who has been shifted from the Railways Ministry, has been made the Law and Justice Minister, relieving Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from the charge.
Rajiv Pratap Rudy is the new Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Ministry. He also gets the charge of Parliamentary Affairs as MoS alongwith Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is also MoS for Minority Affairs with Najma Heptulla retained as the Cabinet Minister.

Bandaru Dattatreya is the new Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment while Mahesh Sharma gets the charge of Tourism as MoS (IC).