The New Ministers In Charge Of Health, Education, Labour, Railways, Law, IT, Civil Aviation, Cooperation...

Several important ministries now have new leaders in charge after Prime Minister Modi expanded his council of ministers and shuffled portfolios.

While the ministers in charge of key economic portfolios — finance and corporate affairs (Nirmala Sitharaman), commerce (Piyush Goyal), roads transport (Nitin Gadkari) — remain unchanged, new leaders have been appointed at the ministries of health, education, labour, environment, railways, law, information technology, communication, broadcast, civil aviation, among others.

Taking over as health minister in the middle of a pandemic is Mansukh Mandaviya. The 49-year-old minister of state has retained the chemicals and fertilisers portfolio that oversees the pharmaceutical industry. Mandaviya is a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat and holds a postgraduate degree in Political Science from Bhavnagar University. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth arm — Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarti Parishad — in 1990.

Mandaviya replaces Dr. Harsh Vardhan who stepped down from the council of ministers on Wednesday.

The new education minister is Dharmendra Pradhan. As a cabinet minister his earlier portfolios were petroleum and natural gas and steel. Pradhan has also been put in charge of skill development and entrepreneurship, a ministry earlier headed by Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' was the education minister before this. He resigned on Wednesday and is no longer a minister.

Pradhan represents Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha and was earlier a Lok Sabha MP from Odisha. The 52-year-old has a masters degree in anthropology from Utkal University, Odisha.

Bhupender Yadav is a new member in Modi's council of ministers. He has been given charge of the Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change as well labour and employment ministry. Yadav, 52, is a second-term Rajya Sabha member from Rajasthan, has a law degree from the Government Law College in Ajmer and was an advocate in the Supreme Court. He's the national general secretary of the BJP.

Santosh Kumar Gangwar, the earlier labour and employment minister, stepped down on Wednesday. As did Prakash Javadekar who held the environment information and broadcasting and heavy industries and public enterprises.

The new minister for law is Kiren Rijiju — earlier minister of state with independent charge for youth affairs and sports and now elevated to the cabinet. The 1971-born minister is a third-term Lok Sabha member from Arunachal Pradesh. He has a law degree from Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi.

Rijiju replaces Ravi Shankar Prasad who resigned and is no longer in the council of ministers.

New inductee in the council of ministers, Ashwin Vaishnaw has been given charge of three portfolios;

• Railways, earlier with cabinet minister Piyush Goyal.

• IT, earlier with Ravi Shankar Prasad.

• Communications, also earlier with Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Vaishnaw is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The 50-year-old MP is a former IAS officer and a first-term Rajya Sabha member from Odisha.

Anurag Thakur, earlier minister of state for finance, has now been elevated to cabinet rank and given charge of the Information and Broadcast Ministry and the Youth Affairs and Sports ministry. He replaces Prakash Javadekar in the former, and Kiren Rijiju in the latter. Javadekar resigned ahead of the cabinet reshuffle. Rijiju has also been elevated to cabinet rank.

Thakur, 47, is a third-term Lok Sabha member from Himachal Pradesh. He has a degree in arts from Doaba College, Jalandhar.

Former Congress Party leader Jyotiraditya Scindia shifted allegiance to the BJP last year and has now been included in Modi's council of ministers, with cabinet rank.

Scindia is now civil aviation minister, replacing Hardeep Singh Puri who has been allocated a new portfolio.

50-year old Scindia is a Rajya Sabha member serving his fifth term as MP. He's an alumnus of Doon School, Dehradun, Harvard University and Stanford University (Graduate School of Business).

Hardeep Singh Puri has been promoted from minister of independent charge to cabinet minister. His new portfolio is petroleum and natural gas, while he continues to retain the earlier charge of housing and urban affairs.

The 69-year-old former Indian Foreign Service officer is a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh.

Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has returned to the council of ministers with a cabinet rank. His new portfolio of ports, shipping and waterways was earlier held Mansukh Mandaviya as minister of state with independent charge.

Shripad Yesso Naik was minister of state with independent charge of the Ayush ministry which covers traditional and non-conventional medicine and health care such as ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, siddha, sowa-rigpa and homoeopathy.

Sonowal is a former Lok Sabha member. Born in 1962, he has graduate degrees in arts, law and communication from Dibrugarh University and Gauhati University.

Narayan Rane is the new cabinet minister in charge of the micro, small and medium enterprises. This portfolio was earlier with Nitin Gadkari, who continues as a cabinet minister in charge of road transport and highways.

Rane, 69, is a former chief minister of Maharashtra. He was earlier a member of political party Shiv Sena, then switched to the Congress Party before starting his own. Within a year he decided to support the BJP and secured their support for his election to the Rajya Sabha.

Rane dropped out after class 10.

On July 6, the Modi government created a new Cooperation Ministry to "provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country," according to a government statement.

Home Minister Amit Shah adds this ministry as a new portfolio.