Arun Jaitley
Finance, Defence
  • Touted as the biggest tax reform of Independent India, the GST is expected to reduce prices of several essential goods. As per the revenue secretary, GST will cut inflation by up to two per cent.
  • The finance minister recently informed that 91 lakh new tax payers have been added to the rolls in the financial year 2016-17.
  • Garib Kalyan Yojna scheme provides an opportunity to people to declare their undeclared income after investing 25 per cent of it in the scheme. It has strengthened the government's 'pro-poor' image.
  • Non-performing assets or bad loans of public sector banks have reached over Rs 6 lakh crore.
  • Job creation in the country last year was lowest since 2009.
  • The poor implementation of demonetisation was widely criticised. The rules changed frequently in the two-month period and over a 100 people died in bank queues.
  • Jaitley is often termed as a 'part-time' defence minister who is not able to dedicate as much time to the crucial ministry as it requires.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Rajnath Singh
Home
  • An initiative by the MHA to pay respects to martyrs. The portal also enables individual donations to martyr's family.
  • A liberalised and simplified visa regime has come into force from April 1, which the government hopes would make travel to India, particularly for business, tourism and medical purposes, easier.
  • Repeated attacks by Naxals have forced the Centre to review its anti-Naxal strategy. However, so far, the government has been unable to curb the attacks.
  • The Valley is on the boil since July last year. It was under curfew for four months continuously.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Sushma Swaraj
External affairs
  • Promptly approaching the International Court of Justice to stay Kulbhushan Jadhav's death sentence by Pakistan.
  • Known for her effective use of social media to help Indians in distress, Swaraj launched the 'Twitter Seva' to enable timely, transparent and large-scale response to citizens' tweets in real time.
  • India's relations with Pakistan and China are in doldrums.
  • Despite taking up the issue with nations concerned, racist attacks on Indians continue in the US and Australia.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Suresh Prabhu
Railways
  • New high-speed trains (such as Tejas and Talgo) have been introduced; efficiency and cleanliness of trains and service provided on trains and platforms have also improved.
  • Optional travel insurance at the time of booking, with coverage up to Rs 10 lakh and the premium at only 92 paise.
  • In 2016, there were more than 10 major incidents of derailments in India -- raising questions over railway safety.
  • Revenue in 2015-16 rose 4.6 per cent, much lower than the 10-19 per cent growth registered in last 4 years. Freight volumes and passenger business both fell.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Nitin Gadkari
Road transport and highways, shipping
  • Effective implementation of the ban on red beacons for VIPs, is a popular, and long-overdue, measure.
  • Crackdown on traffic violators by amending the Motor Vehicles Act to include heavy fines, even cancellation of driving licence.
  • Ambitious target of constructing 41 km of roads per day is way off target, the actual work hovering at the halfway mark, around 22 km per day.
  • The long-awaited Mumbai water transport project is still hanging fire for various approvals. Will it ever take off?
How do you think this minister has fared?
Venkaiah Naidu
Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation / Information & Broadcasting
  • Enacted the much-needed Real Estate Regulation Act, that ushers transparency in the real estate sector and tackles growing instances of late delivery of homes by builders.
  • Pushed the BJP's poll promise of housing for all by 2022 by approving large-scale investments in affordable housing projects, apart from offering various incentives to encourage private partnership.
  • The Swachh Bharat campaign has sort of meandered along. Even the Swachh Sarvekshan announced recently was criticised for not following the progressive parameters of waste management.
  • Unsatisfactory dealing with the media, especially with the one-day ban imposed on NDTV India (the Hindi channel) for its coverage of Pathankot terror attacks which were lifted following protests.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Prakash Javadekar
Human resource development
  • Changing Right to Education rules to make it mandatory for state governments to set minimum grade-wise learning outcomes for elementary schools.
  • Barring the National Council for Teachers Education from approving private teachers educational institutes and to start a process of de-recognising institutes that got approvals fraudulently.
  • Even though the draft was released last year, the "transformative and more meaningful" education policy is still to kick off.
  • More focus on promoting PM's pet projects like Swachh Bharat and digital payments for educational institutions than actually improving the standard of school education.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Piyush Goyal
Power (Independent Charge), Coal (Independent Charge), New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)
  • Goyal has claimed that 7,779 remote villages out of 18,452 un-electrified villages have already been connected and has vowed to electrify all Indian villages by 2019.
  • During the current year 2016-17 (April-February), India exported around 5,798 million units to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, which is 213 million units more than the import of around 5,585 million units from Bhutan.
  • Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, a government bailout scheme has proceeded very slowly and has reportedly resulted in increase in electricity rates.
  • Allegation that the power ministry came under the influence of Kiren Rijiju to make payments to a contractor of power plant in Arunachal Pradesh.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Uma Bharti
Water Resources/Ganga rejuvenation
  • Jal Manthan convention, a national conference to brain-storm new ideas to resolve water-related issues in the country, has been made an annual feature.
  • First instalment of Rs 1,500 crore was released to the states as central assistance for 99 prioritised irrigation projects under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme.
  • The progress on building sewer treatment plants has been sluggish. Only Rs 734.70 crore of the Rs 1,675 crore allocated last year for the project was used. Bharti recently announced that the first timeline to clean up Ganga would be delayed by eight months.
  • Works on the river linking project are yet to start. Recent media reports suggested that it may be delayed further.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Ramvilas Paswan
Consumer Affairs/Food & Public Distribution minister
  • Implementation of National Food Security law covered the entire nation last year. Ministry's figures said that as many as 80 crore people are covered under this law.
  • Major steps taken towards automation of public distribution system across the states.
  • The production of tur dal nearly doubled in the last financial year, leading to wholesale prices coming under pressure. Farmers complained of not getting even the minimum support price.
  • Though the ministry said there will be no law to regulate how much one should eat at five star hotels, the hotel administrations have been asked to encourage customers to order only what they can eat.
How do you think this minister has fared?
Ashok Gajapathi Raju
Civil Aviation
  • Launched Udaan -- a scheme to provide subsidised regional flights by reviving existing airstrips and airports, boosting air connectivity.
  • India's first no-fly rules drafted to bar unruly fliers and ensure safety of passengers and cabin crew.
  • 2016 saw highest 'near miss incidents' and 151 pilots suspended for violating safety norms, a 38 per cent increase from the previous high of 109 in 2012.
  • Air India continues to be a sore point -- despite massive loans, its financial condition continues to be "precarious".
How do you think this minister has fared?
Smriti Irani
Textiles
  • Uses Twitter to propagate handloom and cotton fabrics. Also launched #cottoniscool and #Iwearhandloom campaigns, which were big hits with politicos and celebs alike.
  • Drafted a special package which will see the creation of jobs for 1 crore people.
  • Unable to preserve and encourage handloom vis-a-vis the powerloom, leading to job loss.
  • Unable to reduce the decline in exports of cotton-based textile goods.
How do you think this minister has fared?