PM inducts three new faces, drops no minister

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Cabinet reshuffle falls short of expectations as no minister has been dropped; only the portfolios of some of them have been changed. The Prime Minister has inducted three new faces - Beni Prasad Verma, KC Venugopal and Ashwani Kumar - in the Union Ministry.
Praful Patel, Salman Khursheed and Sriprakash Jaiswal have been elevated to Cabinet rank while the new faces include Beni Prasad Verma and Ashwini Kumar
Patel, who was the minister of state in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, has been made a Cabinet minister and gets the Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises portfolio. Jaiswal has been given Coal Ministry and Salman Khursheed has got Water Resources along with the additional charge of Ministry of Minority Affairs.
Virbhadra Singh has been shifted from Steel to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, while Vilasrao Deshmukh has been shifted from Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises to Rural Development with additional charge of Panchayati Raj.
CP Joshi has been shifted from Rural Development and Panchayati Raj to Road Transport and Highways. Kumari Selja has been shifted from Tourism and gets additional charge of Culture, retains Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
Murli Deora has been shifted from Petroleum to Corporate Affairs Ministry.
The reshuffle is not being seen as a major overhaul as important ministers like Home, Defence, Finance, External Affairs have not been touched. Another Cabinet reshuffle will take place in May after the Budget session of Parliament is over.
"This is a minor reshuffle and after Budget session of Parliament. We will do a more expansive exercise," said Manmohan Singh.
List of Cabinet Ministers:
Praful Patel: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Shriprakash Jaiswal: Coal Ministry
Salman Khursheed: Water Resources and additional charge of Minority Affairs
Minister of State (Independent Charge):
Ajay Maken: Youth Affairs and Sports
Beni Prasad Verma: Steel
Professor KV Thomas: Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
Ministers of state:
Ashwani Kumar: Planning and Parliamentary Affairs and Science and Technology and Earth Sciences
KC Venugopal: Power
Ministers whose portfolios have been changed:
Cabinet ministers:
Sharad Pawar: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
Virbhadra Singh: Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Vilasrao Deshmukh: Rural Development and additional charge of Panchayati Raj
S Jaipal Reddy: Petroleum and Natural Gas
Kamal Nath: Urban Development
Vayalar Ravi: Overseas Indian Affairs and additional charge of Civil Aviation
Murli Deora: Corporate Affairs
Kapil Sibal: Human Resource Development and additional charge of Communications and Information Technology
BK Handique: Development of North-Eastern Region
CP Joshi: Road Transport and Highways
Kumari Selja: Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and additional charge of Culture
Subodh Kant Sahay: Tourism
Dr MS Gill: Statistics and Programme Implementation
Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences
Minister of State (Independent Charge):
Dinsha Patel: Mines
Ministers of State:
E Ahamed: External Affairs
Harish Rawat: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
V Narayanasamy: Parliamentary Affairs and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Prime Minister’s Office
Gurudas Kamat: Home Affairs
A Sai Prathap: Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
Bharatsinh Solanki: Railways
Jitin Prasada: Road Transport and Highways
Mahadev S Khandela: Tribal Affairs
RPN Singh: Petroleum and Natural Gas and Corporate Affairs
Tusharbhai Chaudhary: Road Transport and Highways
Arun Yadav: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
Pratik Prakashbapu Patil: Coal
Vincent Pala: Water Resources and Minority Affairs