24 Ministers sworn in as Union Cabinet Ministers; 34 as Ministers of State
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Thursday evening administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ramnath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in a glittering ceremony attended by world leaders, leaders from opposition parties and Bollywood stars.
Along with Modi 24 leaders were sworn in as the Union Cabinet Ministers while 34 others were sworn in as the Ministers of State.
24 member cabinet included BJP National President Amit Shah, while names like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Suresh Prabhu were missing from the list.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister DV Sadanand Gowda, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, Ram Vilas Paswan, Narendra Singh Tomar, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Harsimrat Kaur Badal were among the first few to take oath after PM Modi, Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh.
Others in the 24 member Cabinet of PM Modi includes, Thawar Chand Gehlot, Smriti Irani, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Prahdhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Mahendranath Pandey, Giriraj Singh, Ganjendra Singh Shikhwat.
Six new faces were introduced in the cabinet including Party President Amit Shah who was not a part of the previous cabinet. The others being Dr. S Jaishankar, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Arjun Munda, Prahlad Joshi and Arvind Ganpat Sawant.
Apart from the cabinet 34 members of parliament were also administered the oath of office and secrecy which included names like Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Inderjit Singh, Shripad naik, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Kiran Rejiju, Prahlad Singh Patel, Rajkumar Singh, Hardeep Singh Poori, Mansukh Mandaviya, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Arjun Ram Meghwal, V K Singh.
The others in the list includes Krishan Pal Gurjar, Danve Rao Saheb, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Gangapuram Kishan Reddy, Parshottam Rupala, Ramdas Athawale, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, babul Supriyo, Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan, Anurag Singh Thakur, V. Muralidharan.
The new faces in the list of Minister of States include Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao, Suresh Angadi, Nityanand Rai, Ratan Lal Kataria, V Muralidharan, Rameshwar Teli, Somprakash, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, kailash Choudhry and Deboshree Chowdhry.
Notable exclusions from the Ministers of the State included Rajyavardhan Rathore and Anant Kumar Hegde.
The event was attended by Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Hema Malini, Yogi Adityanath, Kangana Ranaut, Karan Johar, Shahid Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Shashi Tharoor and others.
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345 Indian fishermen stranded in Iran return home via Armenia
New Delhi (PTI): A group of 345 Indian fishermen, who were stranded in Iran amid escalating regional tensions, returned to India via Armenia on Saturday, officials said.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar thanked his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan for assistance in return of the Indian nationals.
The Indian nationals arrived in Chennai this evening, the officials cited above said.
The circumstances that led to them being stranded in Iran were not immediately known.
"Thank FM @AraratMirzoyan and the Government of Armenia for facilitating the evacuation of Indian fishermen today from Iran, through Armenia to India," Jaishankar said on social media.
Over 1,500 Indian nationals have left Iran through land border crossings in Armenia and Azerbaijan since the start of the West Asia conflict over a month ago.
"A group of Indian fishermen, stranded in Iran, are returning home via Armenia today; their flight is expected to reach India this evening," a government statement said.
It said the Ministry of External Affairs continues to closely monitor the evolving situation in the West Asian region, with the safety, security and welfare of the Indian community being accorded the highest priority.
It also made a mention of five Indians being injured in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
According to Abu Dhabi authorities, the Indian nationals were among the 12 people injured by debris from an intercepted missile.
"In an attack in Abu Dhabi, five Indian nationals were injured; four have been discharged, one remains under treatment," the Indian government's statement said.
It said the Indian mission in Abu Dhabi is extending "full" assistance and coordinating with local authorities, adding that their flight is expected to reach India this evening.
