After being promoted to the union cabinet today, Nirmala Sitharaman has been made the country’s new defence minister. She takes charge of the ministry from Arun Jaitley, who has been saying for a long time that he would like to focus his attention entirely on the finance ministry.
Sitharaman is India’s first woman defence minister after Indira Gandhi.
On Sunday, nine new ministers were inducted in the cabinet and four ministers including Sitharaman were elevated to the cabinet.
“I will wait for the portfolio to be announced,” Sitharaman told NDTV today after she took oath as a cabinet minister, when asked about what her priority would be in her new role as a member of the cabinet.
Meanwhile 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. Prabhu was given the commerce ministry which was held by Sitharaman.
