NEW DELHI, Sep 3:  Nirmala Sitharaman, who was promoted to the cabinet today, is the country's new Defence Minister. She takes charge of the crucial ministry from Arun Jaitley, who has been saying for some time that he would like to focus his attention entirely on the Finance Ministry.

Ms Sitharaman, 58,  is India's first woman Defence Minister after Indira Gandhi. She is a Rajya Sabha member.

After nine new ministers were inducted today and four ministers including Ms Sitharaman were elevated to the cabinet, there was confusion over whether Mr Jaitley would remain Defence Minister for now. 
"Somebody who has come from a small town, grown into the party with all the support of the leadership, and if given such responsibility, it just makes you feel sometimes that cosmic grace is there. Otherwise it is impossible," she told reporters after taking oath.

There has been concern, given aggravated tension with Pakistan and China, about the lack of a full-time defence minister.

In other major changes today, Piyush Goyal has been assigned Railways, he takes over from Suresh Prabhu who offered his resignation weeks ago after two major train accidents in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Prabhu was given the Commerce Ministry which was held by Ms Sitharaman.

State BJP hails cabinet rejig

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party has hailed the cabinet reshuffle effected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The promotion of Piyush Goyal, Nirmala Sitharaman, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Dharmendra Pradhan as cabinet ministers is a huge step towards rewarding persons who were excellent performers and the Prime Minister deserves all praise for this.

The induction of new faces in the ministry chosen from the list of former top bureaucrats and technocrats will highly accelerate the developmental process of the central government and they will be the pillars of the government to push for Naya Bharat Nirman by 2022.

Appointment of  Nirmala Sitharaman as Defence Minister of the country  shall surely boost the modernization  of defence equipment and technology, as she has international capability with a revolutionary zeal, the State BJP said in a release.

The state unit further congratulated all the new inductees.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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