Piyush Goyal gets Rlys, Commerce & industry

Piyush Goyal, former Railways and Finance Minister in the 16th Lok Sabha has received the post of Minister of Railways and Minister of Commerce and Industry in the 17th Lok Sabha under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A former investment banker, Piyush Goyal's initiation into politics was as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). Like his father Ved Prakash Goyal, he has also served as the national treasurer for the BJP.

He first came to prominence as a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra when Nitin Gadkari became national president of BJP in 2010. He held various positions in the party and was part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's core team which oversaw his winning campaign during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Following BJP and Modi's mammoth victory in the 2014 elections, Piyush Goyal was instated as the minister of coal and energy. He was much praised for his work in giving shape to Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) scheme meant for taking electricity to every household. The scheme cut LED bulb prices to ₹38 apiece from around ₹310 in 2014. It provided impetus to India’s efforts to cut energy and assisted to shatter dubiousness over the country’s ability to run the world’s largest energy efficiency programme. After Suresh Prabhu was shifted to the commerce ministry, he was given the responsibility of the railways.

He also presented Narendra Modi government's last budget in the absence of finance minister Arun Jaitley, where he announced 1) individual taxpayers with annual income up to Rs. 5 lakh will get full tax rebate 2) Within the next two years, assessment of all tax returns should be done electronically 3) The PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana 4) Increase in Gratuity Limit 5) Pension scheme for unorganised sector workers.

The President appointed Narendra Modi as Prime Minister and administered the Oaths of Office and Secrecy to the Members of the Council of Ministers. Here’s a quick lowdown at the new Modi Cabinet.

Cabinet Ministers

Rajnath Singh
Amit Shah
Nitin Jairam Gadkari
DV Sadananda Gowda
Nirmala Sitharaman
Ramvilas Paswan
Narendra Singh Tomar
Ravi Shankar Prasad
Harsimrat Kaur Badal
Thaawar Chand Gehlot
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’
Arjun Munda
Smriti Zubin Irani
Harsh Vardhan
Prakash Javadekar
Piyush Goyal
Dharmendra Pradhan
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi
Pralhad Joshi
Mahendra Nath Pandey
Arvind Ganpat Sawant
Giriraj Singh
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

Santosh Kumar Gangwar
Rao Inderjit Singh
Shripad Yesso Naik
Jitendra Singh
Kiren Rijiju
Prahalad Singh Patel
Raj Kumar Singh
Hardeep Singh Puri
Mansukh L Mandaviya

Ministers of State

Faggansingh Kulaste
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
Arjun Ram Meghwal
General (Retd.) V. K. Singh
Krishan Pal
Danve Raosaheb Dadarao
G Kishan Reddy
Parshottam Rupala
Ramdas Athawale
Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
Babul Supriyo
Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
Dhotre Sanjay Shamrao
Anurag Singh Thakur
Angadi Suresh Channabasappa
Nityanand Rai
Rattan Lal Kataria
V Muraleedharan
Renuka Singh Saruta
Som Parkash
Rameswar Teli
Pratap Chandra Sarangi
Kailash Choudhary
Debasree Chaudhuri