Aviation to retain Ravi till 2014

Neelam Mathews

July 12, 2011

Civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi who recently informed the 14-odd employee unions of Air India that employees were expected to contribute through sacrifices to revive the loss-making airline, gets to keep his portfolio till the end of the government’s term in 2014.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured this would be the last reshuffle till 2014 when his government goes to the polls.

Another change – with Congress spokeswoman Jayanthi Natarajan replacing  the vociferous Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, analysts say, may move projects including airports stuck with environment clearance issues, faster.

NEW
Cabinet ministers
V. Kishore Chandra Deo: Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj
Beni Prasad Verma: Steel
Dinesh Trivedi: Railways
Jairam Ramesh: Rural Development (earlier Environment and Forests)
Ministers of State (independent)
Srikant Jena: Statistics and Programme Implementation and Minister of State in the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers
Jayanthi Natarajan: Environment and Forests
Paban Singh Ghatowar: Development of North Eastern Region
Gurudas Kamat: Drinking Water and Sanitation
Ministers of State
Sudip Bandopadhyaya: Health and Family Welfare
Charan Das Mahant: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries
Jitendra Singh: Home Affairs
Milind Deora: Communications and Information Technology
Rajiv Shukla: Parliamentary Affairs

CHANGED PORTFOLIOS

 Cabinet Ministers
Vilasrao Deshmukh: Science and Technology and Earth Sciences
M. Veerappa Moily: Corporate Affairs 
Anand Sharma: Commerce and Industry; and additional charge of Textiles
Pawan Kumar Bansal: Parliamentary Affairs and additional charge of Water Resources
Salman Khursheed: Law and Justice and additional charge of Minority Affairs
Ministers of State
E. Ahamed: External Affairs and Human Resource Development
V. Narayanasamy: Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; and Prime Minister's Office
Harish Rawat: Agriculture and Food Processing Industries; and Parliamentary Affairs
Mukul Roy: Shipping
Ashwani Kumar: Planning; Science and Technology and Earth Sciences