New Delhi: The reshuffle in the union cabinet under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has seen 36 new faces holding various professional degrees. The new cabinet looks promising with two are former IAS officers, eight lawyers, four doctors, four MBA degree holders and several engineers. The inclusion of highly qualified members, apart from addressing regional and community aspirations in the new cabinet, is an an effort to reboot the government midway through its term.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, who has been handed the ew responsibility of Railways as well as Ministry of Communications and Information is a former IAS officer of the 1994 batch. The 50-year-old officer also holds an MBA degree from the prestigious Wharton School, Pennysylvania University and an MTech from IIT Kanpur. During his 15 years' tenure as an IAS officer, Vaishnaw handled key responsibilities and was particularly known for his contribution to the Public Private Participation framework in infrastructure.
In 2004, Vaishnaw was appointed as Vajpayee's private secretary after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lost the 2004 election. Another IAS officer who has made his way into Modi's new cabinet is Ramchandra Prasad Singh, originally hailing from Bihar's Nalanda district. Bureaucrat-turned-politician Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar, is serving his second term as the parliamentarian. He came in the good books of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the late 1990s when the then Samata Party leader was the Union Railway Minister and Singh was on a central deputation. The retired 63-year-old officer made his political debut in 2010 foraying into the Rajya Sabha as a JD(U) leader.
Former Congress leader and now BJP Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya M Scindia is among the new faces in Modi's cabinet with certified management skills. Scindia, who is serving his fifth term as a parliamentarian, has been appointed as the Minister of Civil Aviation replacing Hardeep Singh Puri. The new aviation minister has completed his MBA from Stanford University and BA from Harvard University.
Another pioneer in the new cabinet is Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is an MTech in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, along with Advanced Management Program from Harvard University. Rajeev is a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka and is serving his third term as a parliamentarian.
In the 2.0 cabinet reshuffle, Modi also has medical professionals -- , cardiologists, gynaecologists, surgeons and general practitioners. Subhas Sarkar, a first-time Lok Sabha MP for Bankura in West Bengal is a gynaecologist and board member of AIIMS Kalyani. He holds an MBBS degree from Calcutta University.
Read: From Scindia to Nisith Pramanik, know some prominent faces in new Union Cabinet
