Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been given an additional charge of the newly created ‘Ministry of Cooperation’. While newly inducted cabinet minister Narayan Rane will be in charge of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, supported by Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma as Minister of State, Ashwini Vaishnaw is now Minister of Communications, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology as well as Minister of Railways. Rajeev Chandrasekhar is made Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Nirmala Sitharaman is retained as Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs, Pankaj Chaowdhary and Dr Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad have become Ministers of State in the Ministry of Finance and Rao Inderjit Singh Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Piyush Goyal is now holding multiple portfolios as Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles. He is supported by 2 Ministers of State in the Commerce and Industry – Som Parkash as well as Anupriya Singh Patel. Parshottam Rupala, promoted to cabinet rank, will be holding charge of the Ministery of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. Giriraj Singh will be having Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Anurag Singh Thakur is now Minister of Information and Broadcasting; and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports. Mansukh Mandaviya is the new Minister for Health and Family Welfare Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, has been given charge of Civil Aviation and Bhupender Yadav Labour Ministry. Kiren Rijiju is the new Law & Justice minister.
With the induction of 43 ministers, the new Council of Ministers is tUnionermed as the youngest one in the history of India. After the reshuffle, there are now 30 Cabinet Ministers and 47 Ministers of State. 7 existing MoS have been promoted as cabinet ministers. The new Cabinet has a number of MPs from OBCs, SCs & STs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in-charge of a number of portfolios, which include Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, and all other portfolios not allocated to any minister.
In a historic move, a separate ‘Ministry of Cooperation’ has been created for realizing the vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’. This ministry will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country. The Ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘Ease of doing business’ for cooperatives and enable development of Multi-State Cooperatives. The government has signalled its deep commitment to community based developmental partnership. Amit Shah has been active in the cooperative sector and associated with the Gujarat State Cooperative Bank as well as the Ahmedabad DCCB.
Satish Marathe, Founder Member, Sahakar Bharati, and Director, Central Board, RBI, said: “Sahakar Bharati was the first organization to demand a separate Ministry for the cooperative sector. We thank Prime Minister Modiji for accepting our demand and hope it will now empower the cooperatives to play a meaningful role in making Bharat Atmanirbhar.”
Jyotindra Mehta, President, NAFCUB and Chairman, Gujarat Urban Cooperative Banks Federation, says: “Sahakar se Samriddhi. A dream comes true for the cooperative sector after the government has created a new ministry for co-operation. The road map for the development of the country through cooperation has been unveiled. Thank you, Narendra Modiji for this historic decision.”
