Newly inducted ministers find place in Cabinet committees

The government has reconstituted the powerful cabinet committees under which Union ministers Smriti Irani, Bhupender Yadav, Mansukh Mandviya and  Giriraj Singh and Sarbananda Sonowal have been made part of the all-important Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Union ministers Virendra Kumar, Kiren Rijiju and Anurag Singh Thakur have been included in the rejigged Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Secretariate  on Monday night.  Minister of housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has been included in the committee on accommodation where he was a special invitee earlier in his position as a minister of state. Ministers of state are special invitees to the committees.This committee has the task of overseeing and drafting the rules for the allotment of government accommodation.

Newly introduced ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Narayan Rane and Ashwini Vaishnaw have been included in the committee to oversee investment and growth. The committee has the task to identify key projects required to be implemented on a time-bound basis. In 2019, the Modi government set up two new committees, the committee on investment and growth, and employment and skill development. In the committee on employment and skill development, Vaishnaw and Yadav are the new additions. While the appointments committee of the Cabinet has Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, the Cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) has the PM, defence minister Rajnath Singh, external affairs minister S Jaishankar, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, road, transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, commerce minister Piyush Goyal and education minister Dharmendra Pradhan.