Cabinet of India

The Cabinet of India (officially called the Union Council of Ministers of India) is the collective decision-making body of the Government of India, composed of the Prime Minister and 35 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers. The Cabinet is the ultimate decision-making body of the executive within the Westminster system of government in traditional constitutional theory.

The Union Cabinet of the Government of India was formed after the Indian general election, 2009 held in five phases in 2009: on 16 April, 22/23 April, 30 April, 7 May and 13 May 2009. The results of the election were announced on 16 May 2009 and led to the formation of the 15th Lok Sabha. Manmohan Singh took oath as the 14th Prime Minister of India on 22 May 2009, followed by the oath-taking ceremonies of the present 'Council of Ministers' in two phases. Most of the cabinet functions from Cabinet Secretariat, at Secretariat Building, New Delhi.

Cabinet Secretary

The head of executive officers is Cabinet Secretary after President of India.The Cabinet Secretary is under the direct charge of the Prime Minister. The administrative head of the Cabinet Secretariat is the Cabinet Secretary who is also the ex-officio Chairman of the Civil Services Board, and thus the head of the Indian Administrative Service. As a matter of convention the senior most civil servant is appointed as a Cabinet Secretary. He belongs to the Indian Administrative Service. The incumbent generally has a tenure of 2 to 3 years. Though there is no fixed tenure, the average tenure of the Cabinet Secretary in India has been less than 3 years. His tenure however, can be extended. The Cabinet Secretary is the head of all the civil services under the constitution like IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS, PCS, PPS etc. Thus, he is the head of all the All India services including the Indian Police Service(IPS), Indian Administrative Service(IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Revenue Service(IRS) and the Indian Forest Service(IFS). He ranks eleventh in the Table of Precedence of India.

The current Cabinet Secretary is Shri A K Seth [1]

The following are the functions of a Cabinet Secretary^{[according to whom?]}:

• Provide assistance to the Council of Ministers
• Act as advisor and conscience keeper of the civil services
• Handle senior appointments
• Prepare of the agenda of the Cabinet
• Attend the meetings of the Cabinet
• Ensure that the Cabinet decisions are implemented
• Advise the Prime Minister
• Act as the Chairman of the Committee of Secretaries on Administration
• Act as the Chairman of the Chief Secretaries Committee
• Provide an element of continuity and stability to administration during crises

In the Government of India Allocation of Business Rules, 1961, "Cabinet Secretariat" finds a place in the First Schedule to the Rules. The subjects allotted to this Secretariat are, firstly, secretarial assistance to Cabinet and Cabinet Committees, and secondly, the administration of the Rules of Business.

The Cabinet Secretariat is responsible for the administration of the Government of India Transaction of Business Rules, 1961 and the Government of India Allocation of Business Rules 1961, facilitating smooth transaction of business in Ministries/Departments of the Government by ensuring adherence to these rules. The Secretariat assists in decision-making in Government by ensuring Inter-Ministerial coordination, ironing out differences amongst Ministries/Departments and evolving consensus through the instrumentality of the standing/adhoc Committees of Secretaries. Through this mechanism new policy initiatives are also promoted.

The Cabinet Secretariat ensures that the President of India, the Vice-President and Ministers are kept informed of the major activities of all Departments by means of a monthly summary of their activities. Management of major crisis situations in the country and coordinating activities of the various Ministries in such a situation is also one of the functions of the Cabinet Secretariat.

The Cabinet Secretariat has 3 wings: Civil, Military and Intelligence. The Civil wing is the main wing and provides aid, advise and assistance to the Union Cabinet. The Military wing provides secretarial assistance to the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, the Military Affairs Committee, the National Defence Council and other committees dealing with defence matters. The Intelligence wing deals with matters pertaining to the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Union Cabinet. The chief of Research and Analysis Wing R&AW also officially first reports to the Cabinet Secretary, and is officially designated Secretary R in the Cabinet Secretariat. The Cabinet Secretary is arguably India's most powerful bureaucrat and right hand of Prime Minister of India.

Council of Ministers

Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh heads his second Cabinet, May 2009 to present

This is a list of current members of the Council of Ministers of the Government of India. All ministers are based in offices of their respective Union Ministries in New Delhi. All Cabinet members are mandated by the constitution to be members of either House of the Parliament of India. In a departure from the norm the current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is a member of the Upper House, the Rajya Sabha. He remained so for the duration of his entire first term (2004–2009) too. Most, but not all, previous Prime Ministers have been elected members of the Lok Sabha.

There are three categories of ministers, in descending order of rank:

• Union Cabinet Minister - senior minister in-charge of a ministry. A cabinet minister may also hold additional charges of other Ministries, where no other Cabinet minister is appointed
• Minister of State (Independent Charges) - with no overseeing Union cabinet minister for that portfolio
• Minister of State (MoS) - junior minister with to overseeing cabinet minister, usually tasked with a specific responsibility in that ministry. For instance, an MoS in the Finance Ministry may only handle taxation.

Cabinet Ministers

Of the following 35 ministers, 30 are from the Indian National Congress including the Prime Minister. The Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and the Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel are from the Nationalist Congress Party and Farooq Abdullah, Minister for New And Renewable Energy heads the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference. The Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister M. K. Azhagiri is from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi is from the Trinamool Congress.

Sl. No.	Name	Ministries	Age	House	State/UT (Constituency)	Education
1	Manmohan Singh	Prime Minister of India and also in-charge of the Ministries/Departments: Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Planning Commission Ministry of Culture Department of Atomic Energy Department of Space	79	Rajya Sabha	Assam	BA Economics (Punjab University), MA (Cambridge), PhD (Oxford)
2	Pranab Mukherjee	Minister of Finance	75	Lok Sabha	West Bengal (Jangipur)	MA, LLB, DLitt (Calcutta University)
3	Sharad Pawar	Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Food Processing Industries	70	Lok Sabha	Maharashtra (Madha)	B.Com
4	A K Antony	Minister of Defence	71	Rajya Sabha	Kerala	LLB (Kerala University)
5	P Chidambaram	Minister of Home Affairs	66	Lok Sabha	Tamil Nadu (Sivaganga)	LLB, MBA (Harvard)
6	Kishore Chandra Deo[1][2]	Minister of Tribal Affairs Minister of Panchayati Raj	64	Lok Sabha	Andhra Pradesh (Araku (ST))	B.A. (Economics), M.A. (Political Science) Educated at Madras Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
7	S. M. Krishna	Minister of External Affairs	79	Rajya Sabha	Karnataka	Law Graduate, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX and The George Washington University Law School, Washington D.C.
8	Virbhadra Singh	Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises	77	Lok Sabha	Himachal Pradesh (Mandi)	MA
9	Vilasrao Deshmukh	Minister of Science and Technology Minister of Earth Sciences	66	Rajya Sabha	Maharashtra	B.Sc. & B.A. from M.E.S Abasaheb Garware College, Pune University & L.L.B. from the ILS Law College, Pune University
10	Ghulam Nabi Azad	Minister of Health and Family Welfare	61	Rajya Sabha	Jammu and Kashmir	MSc
11	Sushilkumar Shinde	Minister of Power	70	Rajya Sabha	Maharashtra, Solapur	LLB (Mumbai University)
12	Veerappa Moily	Minister of Corporate Affairs	71	Lok Sabha	Karnataka (Chikkballapur)	B.A., B.L. Educated at Government Law College, Bangalore, Karnataka
13	Farooq Abdullah	Minister of New and Renewable Energy	74	Lok Sabha	Jammu and Kashmir (Srinagar)	MBBS
14	Jaipal Reddy	Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas	69	Lok Sabha	Andhra Pradesh (Chevella)	MA (Osmania University)
15	Kamal Nath	Minister of Urban Development	64	Lok Sabha	Madhya Pradesh (Chindwada)	B Com
16	Vayalar Ravi	Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs and Minister of Civil Aviation	74	Rajya Sabha	Kerala	LLB
17	Kapil Sibal	Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Minister of Human Resource Development	63	Lok Sabha	Delhi (Chandni Chowk)	LLM (Harvard)
18	Ambika Soni	Minister of Information and Broadcasting	68	Rajya Sabha	Punjab	B.A. (Hons.)
19	Salman Khurshid	Minister of Law and Justice Minister of Minority Affairs	58	Lok Sabha	Farrukhabad (Farrukhabad)	B.A. (English and Jurisprudence), M.A., B.C.L. Educated at St. Stephen`s College, Delhi and St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, Oxford, U.K.
20	Mallikarjun Kharge	Minister of Labour and Employment	69	Lok Sabha	Karnataka (Gulbarga)	LLB
21	C. P. Joshi	Minister of Road Transport and Highways	61	Lok Sabha	Rajasthan (Bhilwara)	Ph.D
22	Anand Sharma	Minister of Commerce and Industry Ministry of Textiles	58	Rajya Sabha	Himachal Pradesh	BA, LLB (Shimla)
23	Praful Patel	Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises	54	Lok Sabha	Maharashtra (Bhandara-Gondiya)	B Com
24	Kumari Selja	Minister of Culture and Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation	49	Lok Sabha	Haryana (Ambala)	MA, MPhil.
25	Subodh Kant Sahay	Minister of Tourism	60	Lok Sabha	Jharkhand (Ranchi)	B.Sc., LL.B. from (A N College, Patna and Ranchi University)
26	Beni Prasad Verma	Minister of Steel	70	Lok Sabha	Uttar Pradesh (Gonda)	B.A.,LL.B. Educated at Lucknow University, Lucknow,Uttar Pradesh
27	G K Vasan	Minister of Shipping	46	Rajya Sabha	Tamil Nadu	B.A.
28	Pavan Kumar Bansal	Minister of Parliamentary Affairs	63	Lok Sabha	Chandigarh, Chandigarh	BSc, LLB
29	Mukul Wasnik	Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment	52	Lok Sabha	Maharashtra (Ramtek)	MBA
30	Dinesh Trivedi	Minister of Railways	61	Lok Sabha	West Bengal (Barrackpore)	B. Com, M.B.A. Educated at St. Xavier`s College, Calcutta University and University of Texas, USA
31	Jairam Ramesh	Minister of Rural Development	57	Rajya Sabha	Andhra Pradesh	B.Tech., M.S. and Graduate Study Educated at I.I.T., Bombay, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A. and M.I.T., U.S.A.
32	M. K. Azhagiri	Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers	60	Lok Sabha	Tamil Nadu (Madurai)	B.A. (Presidency College, Chennai)[3]
33	Shriprakash Jaiswal	Minister of Coal	67	Lok Sabha	Uttar Pradesh (Kanpur)	Intermediate (D.A.V. College, Kanpur)[4]

Ministers of State (Independent Charges)

A 'Minister of State with independent charge' is a junior Minister in the Federal (State) or Central Government of India but is in charge of a ministry, unlike Minister of State who is also a junior Minister but assists a cabinet minister. All the following seven ministers are from the Indian National Congress.

Sl. No.	Name	Responsible Ministries	Age	Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha	Educational Qualification
1	Srikant Kumar Jena	Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation	60	Lok Sabha, Balasore, Orissa	B.A. Educated at College, Utkal University, Cuttack, Orissa
2	Dinsha Patel	Minister of State of the Ministry of Mines	74	Lok Sabha, Gujarat(Kaira)	Matriculate
3	Krishna Tirath	Minister of State of the Ministry of Women and Child Development	55	Lok Sabha, North West Delhi (SC) (Delhi)	M.A., B.Ed. (University of Delhi)
4	K. V. Thomas	Minister of State of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution	64	Lok Sabha, Ernakulam, Kerala	M.Sc.(Chemistry)
5	Ajay Maken	Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports	47	Lghjghj	6	Jayanthi Natarajan	Minister of State of the Ministry of Environment and Forests	57	Rajya Sabha, Tamil Nadu	B.A., B.L. Educated at Ethiraj College and Madras Law College
7	Paban Singh Ghatowar	Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region	61	Lok Sabha, Dibrugarh	B.A.

Ministers of State

Sl. No.	Name	Ministries	Age	Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha	Educational Qualification
1	E. Ahamed	Ministry of External Affairs	74	Lok Sabha Malappuram, Kerala	BA, LLB
2	Mullappally Ramachandran	Ministry of Home Affairs	66	Lok Sabha Vadakara,Kerala	MA, LLB
3	V. Narayanasamy	Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Planning	63	Lok Sabha Puduchery
4	Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia	Ministry of Commerce and Industry	40	Lok Sabha Guna,M.P	MBA, Stanford University, U.S.A
5	Daggubati Purandeswari	Ministry of Human Resource Development	51	Lok Sabha, Vishakapattnam Andhra Pradesh	BA
6.	K. H. Muniyappa	Ministry of Railways	63	Lok Sabha Kolar, Karnataka
7	Lakshmi Panabaka	Ministry of Textiles	52	Lok Sabha, Nellore,Andhra Pradesh
8	Namo Narain Meena	Ministry of Finance	67
9	Mallipudi Mangapathi Pallam Raju	Ministry of Defence	49	Lok Sabha Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh	BE from Andhra University, India & MBA from Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
10	Saugata Roy	Ministry of Urban Development	63	Lok Sabha, Dum Dum	M.Sc., Ll.B.
11	S. S. Palanimanickam	Ministry of Finance	61	Lok Sabha Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
12	Shri Jaipal Sudini Reddy	Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas	37
13	Sai Prathap Annayyagari	Ministry of Steel	66
14	Preneet Kaur	Ministry of External Affairs	66	Lok Sabha Patiala,Punjab	BA
17	Gurudas Kamat	Ministry of Communications and Information Technology	56	Lok Sabha Mumbai North-West,Maharashtra
18	Harish Rawat	Ministry of Labour and Employment	64		Uttrakhand
20	Bharatsinh Madhavsinh Solanki	Ministry of Power	57
21	Mahadev S. Khandela	Ministry of Road Transport and Highways		Lok Sabha, Sikar, Rajasthan
22	Sudip Bandyopadhyay	Ministry of Health and Family Welfare	59	Lok Sabha, Kolkata Uttar	B.Com, M.B.A
23	Sisir Adhikari	Ministry of Rural Development	70	Lok Sabha, Contai
24	Sultan Ahmed	Ministry of Tourism	58	Lok Sabha, Uluberia
25	Choudhury Mohan Jatua	Ministry of Information and Broadcasting		Lok Sabha, Mathurapur
26	D. Napolean	Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment	47	Lok Sabha Perambalur, Tamil Nadu
27	S. Jagathrakshakan	Ministry of Information and Broadcasting	61	Lok Sabha Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu
28	S. Gandhiselvan	Ministry of Health and Family Welfare		Lok Sabha Namakkal, Tamil Nadu	M.A, M.PHIL
29	Tushar Amarsinh Chaudhary	Ministry of Tribal Affairs	45
30	Sachin Pilot	Ministry of Communications and Information Technology	31	Lok Sabha Ajmer, Rajasthan	Wharton School, Uni. of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
31	Mukul Roy	Ministry of Shipping	57	Rajya Sabha, West Bengal
32	Arun Yadav	Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports
33	Pratik Patil	Ministry of Coal	37
34	R. P. N. Singh
35	Pradeep Jain Aditya	Ministry of Rural Development	47	Lok Sabha, Jhansi	L.L.B
36	Vincent Pala	Ministry of Water Resources
37	Agatha Sangma	Ministry of Rural Development	31	Lok Sabha Tura, Meghalaya
38	KC Venugopal	Ministry of Power (India)	47	Lok Sabha Alappuzha, Kerala	Msc
39	Dr. Charan Das Mahant	Ministry of Agriculture and Food Processing Industry		Lok Sabha Korba, Chhattisgarh

Demographics of the Council of Ministers

UPA Cabinet by Party

Source: Various news organizations^[5][6][7][8]
The new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) included 79 members, 78 members in the cabinet plus Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The first 20 cabinet ministers including Manmohan Singh, swore in on 22 May 2009, while the other 59 cabinet members swore in on 27 May 2009. The non-Congress cabinet ministers, include M.K. Azhagiri (DMK President Karunanidhi's Son) from the DMK, Dinesh Trivedi from Trinamool Congress, Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel from Nationalist Congress Party and Farooq Abdullah from National Conference.

Party	Cabinet Ministers	Ministers of State	Total
Indian National Congress	27	31	58
Trinamool Congress	1	6	7
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam	1	4	5
Nationalist Congress Party	2	1	3
Jammu and Kashmir National Conference	1	0	1
Indian Union Muslim League	0	1	1
Total	33	45	78

United Progressive Alliance Cabinet by States

Sources:^{[9][10][clarification needed]}

State	Cabinet Ministers	Ministers of State (I)	Ministers of State	Total
Maharashtra	5	2	5	12
Tamil Nadu	3	0	7	10
Bihar	2	—	8	10
Kerala	2	1	3	6
Andhra Pradesh	1	1	4	6
Madhya Pradesh	2	—	1	3
Karnataka	3	0	1	4
W.B	—	3	—	3
Himachal Pradesh	1	—	—	1
Meghalaya	—	—	—	2
Orissa	—	—

See also

• Cabinet Secretary of India
• Politics of India
• United Progressive Alliance

References

1. ^ http://india.gov.in/govt/loksabhampbiodata.php?mpcode=2354
2. ^ http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/who-is-v-kishore-chandra-deo-118624
3. ^ http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/Members/Biography.aspx?mpsno=4551
4. ^ http://164.100.47.132/LssNew/Members/Biography.aspx?mpsno=4551
5. ^ http://news.oneindia.in/2009/05/27/manmohan-list-78-member-council-of-ministers-upa.html
6. ^ http://www.groundreport.com/World/59-new-ministers-inducted-in-Manmohan-s-cabinet-go_3
7. ^ http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1480123.php/59_ministers_sworn_in_to_complete_Indias_new_government
8. ^ http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/2009/05/14-cabinet-ministers-7-mos-independent.html
9. ^ http://www.hindu.com/2009/05/29/stories/2009052955061100.htm
10. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Naveen-ups-the-ante-over-states-share-in-PM-team/articleshow/4590533.cms

External links

• Council of Ministers–Official Portal of the Indian Government
• Cabinet Secretariat–Government of India