Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted nine members into his cabinet on Sunday, 3 September. This is the third reshuffle of Modi's team, and perhaps the final rejig ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Here are the nine new ministers who joined the union cabinet on Sunday.
Anantkumar Hegde
A member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and Human Resource Development, Hegde is a Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada, Karnataka. He became MP at the age of 28 years and is serving his fifth term as a lawmaker.
An expert in Taekwondo and Korean martial arts, he has been a member of many parliamentary standing committees.
Raj Kumar Singh
Raj Kumar Singh serves on Parliamentary Standing Committees on health and family welfare, personnel, pensions and public grievances and law and justice. A former top bureaucrat, Singh was the Home Secretary for India when he retired. He is the Lok Sabha MP representing Arrah in Bihar. In his long bureacratic stint, he had also served the Bihar Home Department.
Satya Pal Singh
This Lok Sabha MP from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh is a former Indian Police Service officer. He was the chairperson of the Joint Committee on Offices of Profit and also seved in the Ministry of Home affairs.
He was awarded Special Service Medal for his tenure in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh where he was involved in anti-naxal operations.
Alphons Kannanthanam
Alphons Kannanthanam, a former bureaucrat and a practicing advocate, made it to the Time Magazine's list of 100 Young Global leaders for his efforts to declare Kottayam in Kerala as the India's first 100 per cent literate town in 1989. He was the district collector of Kottayam then.
While serving in Delhi, he launched a drive to rid Delhi Development Authority of about 15,000 illegal buildings. Later he entered politics and was elected to Kerala Assembly as an independent backed by the Left in 2006. He joined BJP
Recently, he was a part of the committee that prepared the final draft of the National Education Policy 2017.
Hardeep Singh Puri
This former diplomat represented India at the United Nations as the ambassador and permanent representative. He has also been an Indian ambassador to several nations that include Brazil and United Kingdom. In his long career in the foreign service, spanning four decades, Puri has served as the chairman of Counter- Terrorism Committee of the United Nations Security Council.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat
The MP from Jodhpur, Shekhawat was on Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and is a chairperson of the Fellowship Committee. Shekhawat was also a member of All India Council of Sports and the president of the Basketball India Players Association.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
This Lok Sabha MP is known for raising the slogan - "Ghar-ghar me ho shouchalaya ka nirman, tabhi hoga ladli bitiya ka kanyadaan," on the need for having toilets in each house. He even helped for the construction of 11,000 toilets for poor dalit familes
He was a member of Parliamentary Committee on Estimates and Standing Committee on Energy and also of Central Silk Board. As a Cabinet Minister of Bihar for 8 years, he handled several portfolios including Health, Urban Development and Public health Engineering.
Shiv Pratap Shukla
A law graduate from Gorakhpur University, Shiv Prata Shukla entered politics as a student leader in the 1970s. He is a Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh and a member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development. Known for his work in rural development, education and prison reform, Shukla was also a member of UP legislative assembly for four consecutive terms.
Virendra Kumar
This MP from Takamgah in Madhya Pradesh was the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour. He was active in the Socialist movement led by Jayaprakash Narayanan in the 1970s. This is his sixth term as Lok Sabha member.
