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

October 28, 2012

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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.

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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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News Network
July 22,2020

New Delhi, Jul 22: Congress leader Sachin Pilot has served a legal notice to party MLA Giriraj Malinga, for claiming that the former had offered him money to join the BJP.

"Former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot has served a legal notice to Congress MLA Giriraj Malinga for his Rs 35 crore bribery allegation," a source close to Pilot said.
P
Earlier, addressing a press conference, Malinga said, "Those MLAs who are stuck either in Haryana or Jaipur, are running after money. To say, they are not, are false claims. Even I was offered the same by Pilot, which I had refused. Came to this party knowing BJP and Congress do not accept money to give tickets."

When asked by the reporters whether he was offered Rs 35 crore, he claimed by saying, "Yes, 35." The MLA claimed he was himself the prove when the reporters asked for the same.

The political situation in Rajasthan is in turmoil after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot sacked his then-deputy Sachin Pilot and the latter's confidants from his council of ministers. The Congress has also claimed that BJP was trying to buy its party MLAs.

On Monday, the Rajasthan High Court had said that it would hear the petition filed by Pilot and 18 of his loyalist MLAs on July 24, against the disqualification notices issued against them, a lawyer said.

"The arguments in the matter have been concluded. The court has heard the arguments from all the parties. The High Court has slated the matter for orders on July 24," Advocate Prateek Kasliwal told reporters after the hearing. 

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Agencies
July 6,2020

New Delhi, Jul 6: The Indian Academy of Sciences, a Bengaluru-based body of scientists, has said the Indian Council for Medical Research's (ICMR) target to launch a coronavirus vaccine by August 15 is "unfeasible" and "unrealistic".

The IASc said while there is an unquestioned urgent need, vaccine development for use in humans requires scientifically executed clinical trials in a phased manner.

While administrative approvals can be expedited, the "scientific processes of experimentation and data collection have a natural time span that cannot be hastened without compromising standards of scientific rigour", the IASc said in a statement.

In its statement, the IASc referred to the ICMR's letter which states that "it is envisaged to launch the vaccine for public health use latest by 15th August 2020 after completion of all clinical trials".

The ICMR and Bharat Biotech India Limited, a private pharmaceutical company, are jointly developing the vaccine against the novel coronavirus -- SARS-CoV-2.

The IASc welcomes the exciting development of a candidate vaccine and wishes that the vaccine is quickly made available for public use, the statement said.

"However, as a body of scientists including many who are engaged in vaccine development IASc strongly believes that the announced timeline is unfeasible. This timeline has raised unrealistic hope and expectations in the minds of our citizens," it said.

Aiming to launch an indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by August 15, the ICMR had written to select medical institutions and hospitals to fast-track clinical trial approvals for the vaccine candidate, COVAXIN.

Experts have also cautioned against rushing the process for developing a COVID-19 vaccine and stressed that it is not in accordance with the globally accepted norms to fast-track vaccine development for diseases of pandemic potential.

The IASc said trials for a vaccine involve evaluation of safety (Phase 1 trial), efficacy and side effects at different dose levels (Phase 2 trial), and confirmation of safety and efficacy in thousands of healthy people (Phase 3 trial) before its release for public use.

Clinical trials for a candidate vaccine require participation of healthy human volunteers. Therefore, many ethical and regulatory approvals need to be obtained prior to the initiation of the trials, it added.

The IASc said the immune responses usually take several weeks to develop and relevant data should not be collected earlier.

"Moreover, data collected in one phase must be adequately analysed before the next phase can be initiated. If the data of any phase are unacceptable then the clinical trial is required to be immediately aborted," it said.

For example, if the data collected from Phase 1 of the clinical trial show that the vaccine is not adequately safe, then Phase 2 cannot be initiated and the candidate vaccine must be discarded.

For these reasons, the Indian Academy of Sciences believes that the announced timeline is "unreasonable and without precedent", the statement said.

"The Academy strongly believes that any hasty solution that may compromise rigorous scientific processes and standards will likely have long-term adverse impacts of unforeseen magnitude on citizens of India," it said.

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News Network
May 12,2020

Ahmedabad, May 12: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday declared state BJP minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama's election in 2017 as void on grounds of malpractice and manipulation.

Justice Paresh Upadhyay cancelled Bhupendrasinh Chudasama's election in an order passed on a petition filed by Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod, challenging the BJP leader's victory from Dholka constituency by a margin of 327 votes in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls.

In his election petition, Ashwin Rathod alleged that Bhupendrasinh Chudasama indulged in "corrupt practice and breach of many of the mandatory instructions of the Election Commission, at various stages of the election process, more particularly at the time of counting of votes".

Bhupendrasinh Chudasama currently holds charge of the education, law and justice, legislative and parliamentary affairs, and some other departments in the Vijay Rupani government.

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