Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who has been given the additional portfolio of Information and Broadcasting, addresses a press conference in New Delhi yesterday. Also seen are Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (right) who is the minister of state for Information and Broadcasting, and Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar.

Agencies/New Delhi

Several new ministers started work yesterday, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his cabinet and reshuffled ministries in a move aimed at speeding up economic reforms.

Twenty-one new ministers were sworn in on Sunday, following which the portfolios were announced.

Among the prominent faces who took charge were Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Health Minister J P Nadda and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also took additional charge of the information and broadcasting ministry.

Harsh Vardhan, who was removed from the health ministry, took over as the new science and technology minister.

D V Sadanand Gowda, who was replaced by Prabhu as the railway minister, took charge as the law and justice minister.

Some prominent names who will take over today are Ministers of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rural Development Minister Birendra Singh.

Speaking to reporters, Jaitley said: “Earlier too, I have been the information and broadcasting minister, but then print media was more and very little electronic media. But now radio and digital media have grown tremendously.”

Parrikar, who is a former chief minister of Goa, said indigenisation of defence manufacturing and higher transparency were his top priorities.

Nadda’s appointment as health minister comes amid a controversy over All India Institute of Medical Services whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into his removal as the institute’s chief vigilance officer. It was reported that Nadda had written to the then health minister, Harsh Vardhan, for Chaturvedi’s removal as CVO.

Others who assumed office were Sanwarlal Jat as minister of state (MoS), water resources; Babul Supriyo as MoS, urban development; V K Singh as MoS, programme implementation,;Vijay Sampla and Krishan Pal as MoS, social justice and empowerment;

Y S Chowdary as MoS science and technology and P Radhakrishnan as MoS road transport, highways and shipping.

Others who also assumed office included Bandaru Dattatreya as labour and employment minister, Jayant Sinha as MoS, finance, Jitendra Singh as minister for development of northeast region (DoNER), Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore as MoS, information and broadcasting and Sudarshan Bhagat as MoS, rural development.

This was the first ministry expansion since Modi took over as prime minister in May after leading the Bharatiya Janata Party to a landslide election victory.

Modi earlier promised a lean government but industry heads welcomed the expansion, saying it was needed to speed up economic reforms.

India now has 66 ministers, junior ministers and ministers of state.

Modi has promised to get India back to the 8% GDP growth path, up from the below 5% of the previous two years.

New minister to  promote yoga

Yoga-loving Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday appointed a new minister to promote the ancient discipline along with various systems of traditional medicine. Shripad Yesso Naik is to take charge of the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AAYUSH). It was previously part of the Health Ministry. The Bharatiya Janata Party government earlier announced the National Aayush Mission to give a push to alternative medicine with a special focus on Ayurveda. It envisages setting up departments and hospitals offering traditional medicine to improve healthcare services in the country. Modi, a vegetarian who has been practicing yoga for years, is a proponent of traditional medicine and yoga. He has called on the UN to observe an international yoga day and also discussed the practice with President Barack Obama during a visit to US.