Greeva Garg –
The creation of the Council of Ministers by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi constitutes an eclectic mix of professionals with 36 new faces.
The council consists of eight Lawyers, four Doctors, two former IAS Officers and four MBA Degree Holders.
In addition to addressing regional and community aspirations, the focus seems to have been on bringing in highly qualified members and people with experience in administration in the states in the middle of their tenure in the effort to restart government.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, who has been given charge of the Railways Ministry besides Communication and Electronics and Information Technology, is a former IAS officer of the 1994 batch.
Another IAS officer who has made it to the council of ministers is Ramchandra Prasad Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP for Bihar serving his second term as MP. He is the new Steel minister.
Among the new faces with management skills is former Congress leader and now BJP Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya M Scindia, who is serving his fifth term as a parliamentarian.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a Rajya Sabha MP for Karnataka who is serving his third term, has an MTech in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology, along with an Advanced Management Program from Harvard University.
Bhagwanth Khuba, a Lok Sabha MP for Bidar in Karnataka, holds a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Subhas Sarkar, a first-time Lok Sabha MP for Bankura in West Bengal, is a gynaecologist and board member of AIIMS Kalyani. He holds an MBBS degree from Calcutta University.
Another doctor in the fold with expertise in multiple fields of medicine, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, is a Rajya Sabha MP for Maharashtra, serving his first term as MP.
With a three-decade-long career as a cardiologist and professor of medicine in Gujarat, Munjapara Mahendrabhai, a Lok Sabha MP for Surendranagar, will join Modi’s council of ministers as a first time MP.
Another first-time MP, Bharati Pravin Pawar from Dindori in Maharashtra, was a medical practitioner before joining politics.
Meenakshi Lekhi, a Lok Sabha MP for New Delhi who is still practising in the Supreme Court.
Sarbananda Sonowal, a two-Lok Sabha MP from Assam who served as its chief minister from 2016-21, has an LLB from Guwahati University.
L Murugan, the BJP Tamil Nadu chief and another new inductee, had practised law at Madras High Court for 15 years before joining public life full-time.
The others with law degrees include Bhupender Yadav, a Rajya Sabha MP for Rajasthan, serving his second term.
First-time MP from Nainital, Ajay Bhatt practiced as a lawyer in Ranikhet. Fifth term MPs, Satya Pal Singh Baghel and Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, also have an LLB degree.
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