New Delhi:
On Thursday, Anand Sharma was made the new Commerce and Industry Minister as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expanded his Council of Ministers inducting 59 more and giving portfolios of HRD to Kapil Sibal, Law to Veerappa Moily and Road Transport and Highways to Kamal Nath.
With this induction, the size ofCouncil of Ministers went up to 79 -- 34 Cabinet Ministers, 7 Ministers ofState with Independent Charge and 38 Ministers of State.
While eight of the Cabinet Ministers retained the portfolios they had in the previous UPA government, Singh sprang surprises by giving Shipping to G K Vasan, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises to Vilasrao Deshmukh and steel to Virbhadra Singh.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has been given Health and Family Welfare while Farooq Abdullah got New and Renewable Energy.
Ambika Soni, who had Tourism and Culture in the earlier government, has been entrusted with Information and Broadcasting while Meira Kumar has been shifted from Social Justice and Empowerment to Water Resources.
New entrants Mukul Wasnik, a dalit leader, gets Social Justice and Empowerment, Mallikarjun Kharge Labour and Employment, B K Handique Minister for Mines and Development of North Eastern Region, C P Joshi Rural Development and Panchayati Raj and Kantilal Bhuria Tribal Affairs.
DMK nominee A Raja retains Communications and IT while his party colleagues Dayanidhi Maran and M K Alagiri get Textiles, and Chemicals and Fertilisers respectively.
Selja, who has been elevated to Cabinet rank, has been given Tourism besides Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation which she earlier had.
Those who retained their ministries are Sushil Kumar Shinde (Power), Jaipal Reddy (Urban Development), Murli Deora (Petroleum and Natural Gas), Subodh Kant Sahay (Food Processing Industries), M S Gill (Youth Affairs and Sports), Vayalar Ravi (Overseas Indian Affairs) and Pawan Kumar Bansal (Parliamentary Affairs).
Among the seven Ministers of State with Independent Charge, Praful Patel retains Civil Aviation while Prithviraj Chavan gets Science and Technology and Earth Sciences with Independent Charge besides continuing as MoS in PMO, Personnel and Public Grievances. He has also been made MoS in Parliamentary Affairs.
Salman Khursheed, who stages a comeback after 13 years, gets charge of Minority Affairs and Corporate Affairs, while Sriprakash Jaiswal becomes MoS Independent Charge of Coal and Statistics and Programme Implementation.
Dinsha Patel, another MoS with Independent charge, gets Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises while Krishna Tirath gets Women and Child Development and Jairam Ramesh Environment and Forest.
Among the 38 Ministers of State, Shashi Tharoor, former UN diplomat, and Preneet Kaur, wife of former Punjab Chief Minister, have been put in the External Affairs Ministry.
Sachin Pilot and Gurudas Kamat have been made MoS in IT and Communication while Jyotiraditya Scindia shifts to Commerce and Industry, from IT and Communications.
E Ahamed, who was MoS External Affairs in the previous government, has been shifted to Railways along with K H Muniyappa.
Mullapally Ramachandran from Kerala and Ajay Maken from Delhi become MoS in Home Affairs.
Srikant Jena has been named MoS Chemicals and Fertilisers while Mukul Roy has been made MoS in Shipping. Dinesh Trivedi and S Gandhiselvan have been given Health and Family Welfare while S Jagathrakshakan Information and Broadcasting.
V Narayansamy, who was MoS for Parliamentary Affairs in the earlier government, has been given additional charge of Planning.
D Purandeswari retains the portfolio of MoS HRD, S S Palanimanickam Finance and M M Pallam Raju Defence.
Namo Narain Meena, who was MoS Environment and Forests in the previous government, goes to Finance Ministry in the same rank. Panabaka Lakshmi moves from Health to Textiles.
Agatha Sangma, the youngest minister in the Cabinet, has been made MoS Rural Development while R P N Singh has Road Transport and Highways.