Cabinet reshuffle; UPA dream-team finalised

New Delhi, Jan 19: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dream team is all set, ready and geared to rumble. The Cabinet reshuffle is being held amidst widespread protests by the public and Opposition on the ruling governments failure to curb the rising inflation levels. The new set of ministers will have to carry a crown of thorns on their heads and will have to tread the path of responsibility carefully.

The much-awaited Union Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took place on Wednesday, Jan 19. The new incumbents took oath in a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Salman Khurshid, Praful Patel and Sriprakash Jaiswal were elevated to Cabinet ranks. In the UPA-II government after it regained power in May 2009, this is the first Cabinet reshuffle.

The new set of Ministers and their portfolios are given under -

• Kamal Nath – Urban Development
• Veerappa Moily – Law and Justice
• Sharad Pawar - Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, Food
• AK Antony - Defence
• P Chidambaram - Home Affairs
• Mamata Banerjee - Railways
• SM Krishna - External Affairs
• Virbhadra Singh - Steel
• Vilasrao Deshmukh - Rural Development, Panchayati Raj
• Ghulam Nabi Azad - Health and Family Welfare
• Sushil Kumar Shinde - Power
• Farooq Abdullah - New and Renewable Energy
• S Jaipal Reddy - Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister
• Vayalar Ravi - Overseas Indian Affairs
• Dayanidhi Maran - Textiles
• Murli Deora - Corporate Affairs
• Ambika Soni - Information and Broadcasting
• Mallikarjun Kharge - Labour and Employment
• Kapil Sibal - Human Resource Development, Science and Technology,Earth Science, Communications and Information Technology
• Praful Patel – Heavy Industries
• BK Handique - Mines, Development of North Eastern Region
• Anand Sharma - Commerce and Industry
• CP Joshi - Road Transport and Highways
• Kumari Selja - Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Tourism
• Subodh Kant Sahay - Tourism
• GK Vasan - Shipping
• Pawan K Bansal - Consumer Affairs, Food and PDS
• Mukul Wasnik - Social Justice and Empowerment
• Kantilal Bhuria - Tribal Affairs
• MK Alagiri -Chemicals and Fertilizers
• Ajay Maken - Youth Affairs and Sports
• MS Gill – Satistics and Program Implementation
• Salman Khursheed- Water and Minority Affairs
• Vayalar Ravi -Overseas Indian Affairs, Civil Aviation
• K G Thomas- Consumer Affairs, Food
• Beni Prasad Verma - Steel

The Congress has also made effort to address the government image crisis created by a series of scams like 2G Spectrum.

After the budget session in May, the second reshuffle is expected to take place.

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