Cabinet reshuffle: New team will meet challenges ahead, Manmohan says

October 28, 2012

singh

New Delhi, October 28: Battling perceptions of policy paralysis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday effected a major reshuffle of his council of ministers and expressed confidence that the new team would be able to meet the challenges ahead.

"It is a combination of youth, experience and relevance to the portfolios that have been entrusted to the ministers," Singh told reporters soon after the new ministers were sworn in at a brief ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Singh was asked about the message he sought to give through the reshuffle.

Asked about the road ahead for the government, the Prime Minister said, "The road ahead is full of challenges. But this is a team, which I hope will be able to meet those challenges."

Singh said that this would probably be the last reshuffle of the council of ministers before the 2014 general elections.

The Prime Minister also ruled out early elections and said polls would be held on time.

Asked about the ministers who were dropped from the Cabinet, Singh said that their services were required in the party.

"Well, the party also needs strengthening. Men and women of experience can be equally productive in strengthening the party," he said.

Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, SM Krishna, Subodhkant Sahay, Mahadeo Singh Khandela and Vincent Pala were among those who resigned from the council of ministers ahead of the exercise.

The Prime Minister himself is also in-charge of the ministries/departments not specifically allocated to the charge of any minister namely ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions; ministry of planning; department of atomic energy and department of space.

Manmohan Singh's team as it looks now:

CABINET MINISTERS

Sharad Pawar: Minister of agriculture and minister of food processing industries

AK Antony: Minister of defence

P Chidambaram: Minister of finance

Sushil Kumar Shinde: Minister of home affairs

Salman Khursheed: Minister of external affairs

Ghulam Nabi Azad: Minister of health and family welfare

M Veerappa Moily: Minister of petroleum and natural gas

Farooq Abdullah: Minister of new and renewable energy

S Jaipal Reddy: Science and technology and earth sciences

Kamal Nath: Minister of urban development & parliamentary affairs

Ajit Singh: Minister of civil aviation

Vayalar Ravi: Minister of overseas indian affairs

Mallikarjun Kharge: Minister of labour and employment

Kapil Sibal: Minister of communications and information technology

Anand Sharma Minister of Commerce and Industry Minister of Textiles

CP Joshi: Minister of road transport and highways

Kumari Selja: Minister of social justice and empowerment

GK Vasan: Minister of shipping

Pawan K Bansal: Minister of railways

MK Alagiri: Minister of chemicals and fertilizers

Praful Patel: Minister of heavy industries and public enterprises

Shriprakash Jaiswal: Minister of coal

K Rahman Khan: Minister of minority affairs

V Kishore Chandra Deo: Minister of tribal affairs minister of panchayati raj

Beni Prasad Verma: Minister of steel

Jairam Ramesh: Minister of rural development

Dinsha Patel: Minister of mines

Ajay Maken: Minister of housing and urban poverty alleviation

MM Pallam Raju: Minister of human resource development

Ahswani Kumar: Minister of law and justice

Harish Rawat: Minister of water resources

Chandresh Kumari Katoch: Minister of culture

MINISTERS OF STATE WITH INDEPENDENT CHARGE

Manish Tewari: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of information and broadcasting

Krishna Tirath: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of women and child development

K Chiranjeevi: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of tourism

KV Thomas: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution

Srikant Jena: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation and minister of state of the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers

Jayanthi Natrajan: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of environment and forests

Paban Singh Ghatowar: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of development of north eastern region and minister of state of the ministry of parliamentary affairs

Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of power.

KH Muniappa: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises

Sachin Pilot: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of corporate affairs

Jitendra Singh: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of youth affairs and sports

Bharatsinh Solanki: Minister of state (independent charge) of the ministry of drinking water and sanitation

MINISTERS OF STATE:

E Ahamed: Minister of state in the ministry of external affairs

D Purandeswari: Minister of state in the ministry of commerce and industry

Jitin Prasada: Minister of state in the ministry of defence and human resource development

S Jagathrakshakan: Minister of state in the ministry of new and renewable energy

KC Venugopal: Minister of state in the ministry of civil aviation

Rajeev Shukla: Minister of state in the ministry of parliamentary affairs and planning

Mullappally Ramachandran: Minister of state in the ministry of home affairs

V Narayanasamy: Minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions minister of state in the prime minister's office

RPN Singh: Minister of state in the ministry of home

Panabaka Lakshmi: Minister of state in the ministry of textiles.

KJ Surya Prakash Reddy: Minister of state in the ministry of railways

Ranee Narah: Minister of state in the ministry of tribal affairs

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury: Minister of state in the ministry of railways

AH Khan Choudhury: Minister of state in the ministry of health and family welfare

Sarvey Sathyanarayana: Minister of state in the ministry of road transport and highways

Ninong Ering: Minister of state in the ministry of minority affairs

Deepa Dasmunsi: Minister of state in the ministry of culture

Porika Balram Naik: Minister of state in the ministry of social justice and empowerment

Shri Kruparani Killi: Minister f state in the ministry of communications and information technology

Lalchand Kataria: Minister of state in the ministry of defence

Namo Narain Meena: Minister of state in the ministry of finance

SS Palanimanickam: Minister of state in the ministry of finance

Preneet Kaur: Minister of state in the ministry of external affairs

Sisir Adhikari: Minister of state in the ministry of rural development

D Napoleon: Minister of state in the ministry of social justice and empowerment

S Gandhiselvan: Minister of state in the ministry of health and family welfare

Tusharbhai Chaudhary: Minister of state in the ministry of road transport and highways

Prateek Prakashbapu Patil: Minister of state in the ministry of coal

Pradeep Jain: Minister of state in the ministry of rural development

Charan Das Mahant: Minister of state in the ministry of agriculture minister of state in the ministry of food processing industries

Milind Deora: Minister of state in the ministry of communications and information technology

Shashi Tharoor: Minister of state in the ministry of human resource development

Kodikunnil Suresh: Minister of state in the ministry of labour and employment

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Ujjwala beneficiaries to get free LPG cylinders in next three months; this will benefit 8.3 crore BPL families: FM.

News Network

March 26,2020

New Delhi, Mar 26: Ujjwala beneficiaries will get free gas cylinders (LPG cylinders) in the next three months, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Thursday. Addressing a press briefing amid coronavirus pandemic, the finance minister said the announcement is set to benefit 8.3 crore BPL families.

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'Bangladeshis are like Indians, originally Hindus'

News Network

January 1,2020

Kolkata, Jan 1: US-based Bangladeshi author and playwright Sharbari Zohra Ahmed feels that the people of the country of her origin are more alike than different from Indians as they were originally Hindus.

But Bangladeshis now want to forget their Hindu roots, said the author, who was born in Dhaka and moved to the United States when she was just three weeks old.

Ahmed, who is the co-writer of the Season 1 of 'Quantico', a popular American television drama thriller series starring Priyanka Chopra, rues that her identity as a Bengali is getting lost in Bangladesh due to the influence of right-wing religious groups.

"How can Bangladesh deny its Hindu heritage? We were originally Hindus. Islam came later," Ahmed said while speaking to PTI here recently.

"The British exploited us, stole from us and murdered us," she said about undivided India, adding that the colonialists destroyed the thriving Muslin industry in Dhaka.

Ahmed said the question of her belief and identity in Bangladesh, where the state religion is Islam, has prompted her to write her debut novel 'Dust Under Her Feet'.

The British exploitation of India and the country's partition based on religion has also featured in her novel in a big way.

Ahmed calls Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during World War II, a "racist".

"He took the rice from Bengal to feed his soldiers and didn't care when he was told about that.

"During my research, I learnt that two million Bengalis died in the artificial famine that was created by him. When people praise Churchill, it is like praising Hitler to the Jews. He was horrible," she said.

The author said her novel is an effort to tell the readers what actually happened.

"Great Britain owes us three trillion dollars. You have to put in inflation. Yet, they (the British) still have a colonial mentality and white colonisation is on the rise again," Ahmed, who was in the city to promote her novel, said.

The novel is based in Kolkata, then Calcutta, during World War II when American soldiers were coming to the city in large numbers.

The irony was that while these American soldiers were nice to the locals, they used to segregate the so-called "black" soldiers, the novelist said.

"Calcutta was a cosmopolitan and the rest of the world needs to know how the city's people were exploited, its treasures looted, people divided and hatred instilled in them," she said.

"Kolkata was my choice of place for my debut novel since my mother was born here. She witnessed the 'Direct Action Day' when she was a kid and was traumatised. She saw how a Hindu was killed by Muslims near her home in Park Circus area (in the city)," Ahmed said.

Direct Action Day, also known as the Great Calcutta Killings, was a massive communal riot in the city on August 16, 1946 that continued for the next few days.

Thousands of people were killed in the violence that ultimately paved the way for the partition of India.

'Dust Under Her Feet' is set in the Calcutta of the 1940s and Ahmed in her novel examines the inequities wrought by racism and colonialism.

The story is of young and lovely Yasmine Khan, a doyenne of the nightclub scene in Calcutta.

When the US sets up a large army base in the city to fight the Japanese in Burma, Yasmine spots an opportunity.

The nightclub is where Yasmine builds a family of singers, dancers, waifs and strays.

Every night, the smoke-filled club swarms with soldiers eager to watch her girls dance and sing.

Yasmine meets American soldier Lt Edward Lafaver in the club and for all her cynicism, finds herself falling helplessly for a married man who she is sure will never choose her over his wife.

Outside, the city lives in constant fear of Japanese bombardment at night. An attack and a betrayal test Yasmine's strength and sense of control and her relationship with Edward.

Ahmed teaches creative writing in the MFA program in Manhattanville College and is artist-in-residence in Sacred Heart University's graduate film and television programme.

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Is she trying to take over Shoorpanakhi Taslim Nasreen?

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Coronavirus: States asked to step up surveillance of international passengers

News Network

March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has asked states to urgently strengthen the surveillance of international travellers who entered the country before the lockdown as there appeared to be a "gap" between the actual monitoring for COVID-19 and the total arrivals.

In a letter to chief secretaries of all States and Union Territories, Gauba said such a gap in monitoring of international passengers for coronavirus "may seriously jeopardise the efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19", given that many amongst the persons who have tested positive so far in India have history of international travel.

"As you are aware, we initiated screening of international incoming passengers at the airports with effect from January 18, 2020. I have been informed that up to March 23, 2020, cumulatively, Bureau Of Immigration has shared details of more than 15 lakh incoming international passengers with the States/UTs for monitoring for COVID-19.

"However, there appears to be a gap between the number of international passengers who need to be monitored by the States/UTs and the actual number of passengers being monitored," Gauba said in his letter.

The government had started monitoring of all international passengers who have arrived in India in last two months in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Gauba said,"it is important that all international passengers are put under close surveillance to prevent the spread of the epidemic."

He said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has repeatedly emphasised the importance of monitoring, and requested the states and UTs to take immediate steps in this regard.

"I would, therefore, like to request you to ensure that concerted and sustained action is taken urgently to put such passengers under surveillance immediately as per MoHFW guidelines," he said.

The cabinet secretary also urged the chief secretaries to actively involve the district authorities in this effort.The screening of international incoming passengers at airports was done from January 18 in a phased manner.

The Central and state governments have unleashed unprecedented and extraordinary measures to contain the spread of the fast-spreading coronavirus, which has already infected more than 700 people in the country and claimed at least 17 lives.

A nationwide lockdown was also announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday for 21 days.

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