• Narendra Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on June 9. 

• Modi became the first non-Congress leader and second after Jawaharlal Nehru to achieve the feat. Nehru served as Prime Minister for 17 years from 1947 to 1964.

• Modi, 73, first became Prime Minister in 2014 and then returned to office in 2019.

• Modi took the oath for the third straight term, days after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured 293 seats out of 543 in the Lok Sabha polls.

‘Neighbourhood First’ policy at PM Modi’s swearing-in

• Top leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean Region graced the swearing-in ceremony of PM Modi and the Union Council of Ministers.

• Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay and Vice-President of Seychelles Ahmed Afif, Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe attended the ceremony.

• Among the foreign leaders, the decision to invite Muizzu assumed significance as it came against the backdrop of the ties between India and the Maldives witnessing significant strain. It is Muizzu’s first visit to India after he became the island nation’s President on November 17, 2023.

• India has been cooperating with the countries of the Indian Ocean Region under the broader policy framework of Security and Growth for all in the Region (SAGAR).

• The leaders of regional grouping SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries attended Modi’s first swearing ceremony when he took the reins as the PM after a massive electoral victory for BJP in 2014.

• Leaders of the BIMSTEC countries attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, in 2019 when he became PM for the second consecutive term.

Council of Ministers

• Articles 74 and 75 deal with the Council of Ministers.

• Article 74(1) states that: “There shall be a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advise the President who shall, in the exercise of his functions, act in accordance with such advice.”

• Article 75(1) states that: “The Prime Minister shall be appointed by the President and the other Ministers shall be appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister.”

• The Prime Minister decides who will be the ministers in the Council of Ministers. The Prime Minister allocates ranks and portfolios to the ministers. 

• The Council of Ministers comprises ministers who are members of Cabinet, Ministers of State (independent charge), Ministers of State and Deputy Ministers.

• Depending upon the seniority and political importance, the ministers are given the ranks of Cabinet Minister, minister of State and deputy minister.

• Cabinet Ministers hold high-profile portfolios. It is these ministers who constitute the Cabinet, which has been described as “a wheel within a wheel”. 

• The total number of ministers, including the Prime Minister, in the Council of Ministers shall not exceed 15 per cent of the total number of members of the Lok Sabha.

• Before a minister enters upon his office, the President shall administer to him the oaths of office and of secrecy according to the forms set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule.

• With a 72-member Council of Ministers taking oath in the third term of the Modi government, it is only nine short of the maximum permissible strength of 81 and six less than the maximum of 78 ministers the Modi government had between 2019 and 2024.

• The maximum strength of the Council of Ministers is 81, including the Prime Ministers, which is 15 per cent of the total strength of 543 in the Lok Sabha.

• The Modi government had touched the maximum strength of 78 in 2021 after expansion, but the outgoing council of ministers had 72 members, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

• The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999 had a total of 74 ministers. 

• In May 2009, the Manmohan Singh government had the maximum strength of 79 ministers, including the Prime Minister. During UPA-1 too, the Manmohan Singh-led government touched the maximum strength of 79 ministers.

• As many as 37 ministers have been dropped from the government in Modi’s third term and these include seven with cabinet rank.

• President Murmu administered the Oaths of Office and Secrecy to the 72-member Council of Ministers on June 9. 

Cabinet Ministers

1) Rajnath Singh

2) Amit Shah

3) Nitin Gadkari

4) J.P. Nadda

5) Shivraj Singh Chouhan

6) Nirmala Sitharaman

7) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar

8) Manohar Lal Khattar

9) H.D. Kumaraswamy

10) Piyush Goyal

11) Dharmendra Pradhan

12) Jitan Ram Manjhi

13) Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh

14) Sarbananda Sonowal

15) Dr. Virendra Kumar

16) Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu

17) Pralhad Joshi

18) Jual Oram

19) Giriraj Singh

20) Ashwini Vaishnaw

21) Jyotiraditya M. Scindia

22) Bhupender Yadav

23) Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

24) Annpurna Devi

25) Kiren Rijiju

26) Hardeep Singh Puri

27) Mansukh Mandaviya

28) G. Kishan Reddy

29) Chirag Paswan

30) C.R. Patil

Ministers of State (Independent Charge)

1) Rao Inderjit Singh

2) Jitendra Singh

3) Arjun Ram Meghwal

4) Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao

5) Jayant Chaudhary

Ministers of State

1) Jitin Prasada

2) Shripad Yesso Naik

3) Pankaj Chaudhary

4) Krishan Pal

5) Ramdas Athawale

6) Ram Nath Thakur

7) Nityanand Rai

8) Anupriya Patel

9) V. Somanna

10) Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani

11) S.P. Singh Baghel

12) Sobha Karandlaje

13) Kirtivardhan Singh

14) B.L. Verma

15) Shantanu Thakur

16) Suresh Gopi

17) L. Murugan

18) Ajay Tamta

19) Bandi Sanjay Kumar

20) Kamlesh Paswan

21) Bhagirath Choudhary

22) Satish Chandra Dubey

23) Sanjay Seth

24) Ravneet Singh 

25) Durgadas Uikey

26) Raksha Nikhil Khadse

27) Sukanta Majumdar

28) Savitri Thakur

29) Tokhan Sahu

30) Raj Bhushan Choudhary

31) Bhupathi Raju Srinivasa Varma

32) Harsh Malhotra

33) Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya

34) Murlidhar Mohol

35) George Kurian

36) Pabitra Margherita.

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