Prime Minister Narendra Modi who inducted 19 new ministers into his Cabinet on Tuesday has carried out major changes in the portfolios of his top ministers.
Dayanidhi Maran lost his job following a family spat.
The reshuffle is aimed at speeding up the implementation of the government's ambitious programmes like the SmartCity project and focus on key sectors like Mines, Information Technology and Road Transport.
At the meeting attended by 33 parties, the prime minister said suggestions from public representatives, especially from the Opposition, are valuable as they make the discussion rich.
Breaking a long tradition, the PMO has ensured that specific divisions in each ministry are allocated to junior ministers.
Since reshuffling his Cabinet two weeks ago, Abe lost four party members to scandals.
He was last month appointed as Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs in place of his batchmate Arvind Mayaram, who was first shifted to Tourism and then to Minority Affairs Ministry.
Navjot Sidhu has been given power and new and renewable energy sources, and his tourism and cultural affairs portfolio has been given to Charanjit Singh Channi.
A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique said President A P J Abdul Kalam on Tuesday accepted Azad's resignation.
The impact of Shinzo Abe's towering personality is such that even in death, Abe remains a polarising figure, asserts Dr Rajaram Panda.
In a counter offensive after 13 MLAs resigned on Saturday dealing a blow to the 13-month-old government, a delegation of Congress leaders met Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and submitted the petition seeking, under the anti-defection law, disqualification of the rebel legislators in line with the decision taken at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party on Tuesday.
In a major bureaucratic reshuffle Ajay Vikra, Singh has been appointed as the new defence secretary.
The five ministers in UP government are: Kokab Hamid, Anuradha Chaudhary, Babu Lal, Thakur Tejpal Singh and Swami Omvesh.
'Modi and his team have read the message from the ground.' 'People have started questioning what they have achieved by putting Modi in power.'
'Why do the English-speaking class feel they are the only ones who are efficient in work?' 'My own mother was from a village and she was more efficient than me. She used to handle crises better than me.' 'We will have to come out of our elite perception of governance.'
Wednesday's expansion shows that Modi still has a keen eye on Bengal. The BJP is gearing up for the panchayat elections in Bengal next May and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.
Congress is still undecided about its move
Sensex hit a record high of 27,225.85 and Nifty hit a record high of 8,141.90 in the intra-day trades today.
Five of the six Lok Janshakti Party MPs in Lok Sabha have joined hands against their leader Chirag Paswan and elected Pashupati Kumar Paras, the youngest brother of Paswan's late father and party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, in his place, causing a big churn in Bihar politics.
Opposition parties feel the need for a vote of confidence in the wake of Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Dal's decision to withdraw its ministers.
Mohite is expected to replace Heavy Industries Minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil, who has resigned on the directive of his party chief Bal Thackeray.
Party chief and Uttar Pradesh chief minister said the Bahujan Samaj Party will extend support to the Union government from outside.
K Chandrasekhar Rao gets labour and employment portfolio; Sisram Ola given mines.\n\n
Traders are waiting for the earnings season to kick off.
Kanhaiya, who is out on bail in a sedition case, has been leading a movement demanding justice for Rohith Vemula, a Hyderabad university scholar who was found hanging in his room earlier this year after he along with five others were suspended.
Assam Health and Education Minister Dr Himanta Sarma on Sunday met Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and offered to resign from the Cabinet even as he said that the dissidence in the Congress Legislature Party had come to an end.
She says her priority areas would be military preparedness, defence indigenisation, and the welfare of soldiers.
With the Aam Aadmi Party fighting for survival, Congress struggling for an identity and the BJP seeking to hold on to its political capital, these elections will be one of the most interesting India, says Aditi Phadnis
DEA is currently headed on an interim basis by Corporate Affairs Secretary Tapan Ray
'The Modi Model we see now is still the old Gujarat Model.' 'But with an acknowledgement that governing India is more challenging than governing Gujarat,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
The BJP calculates that simultaneous polls to Parliament and TN assembly could help it, intent as it is on making the state break from its Dravidian past, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Narendra Modi's ministry expansion makes disdain clear for others who are supposedly allies, quite unlike the Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance.
The focus is not only on governance but also to ensure that the BJP's political considerations are taken care of.
Devanik Saha wonders if saffronisation of India is on the rise
She stepped down after failing to win over her ministers with a revised strategy over her plans for the UK's withdrawal from the European Union.
With the Lok Sabha clearing the Telangana Bill, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy will resign on Wednesday, his close aide said.
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But critics caution that over-centralisation can lead to new bottlenecks
