THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF INDIA

THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF INDIABY-SANYAM SURANAYEAR 2015INTRODUCING THE COUNCILINTRODUCTIONTheUnion Council of Ministersexercisesexecutive authorityin theRepublic of India.It consists of seniorministers, called "Cabinet Ministers", and junior ministers, called "Ministers of State". It is led by thePrime Minister. A smaller executive body, called theUnion Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India.INTRODUCTION continuedOnly the Prime Minister and ministers of the rank of "Cabinet Minister" are members of the Cabinet. The most senior civil servant in India, called theCabinet Secretary, leads theCabinet Secretariat, and provides administrative assistance to the Council of Ministers.Ministers of State are tasked with assisting Cabinet Ministers in their work.

REGULATIONSAs a collective, the Council of Ministers is responsible to the lower house of theIndian Parliament, called theHouse of the People.According to theConstitution of India, the total number of ministers in the Council of Ministers must not exceed 15% of the total number of members of the House of the People. REGULATIONS continuedMinisters must be members of parliament. Any minister who is not a member of either the lower or upper houses of parliament for six consecutive months is automatically stripped of his or her ministerial post.

RANKINGThere are three categories of ministers, in descending order ofrank:Cabinet Minister: member of cabinet; leads a ministryMinister of State (Independent Charges): junior minister not reporting to a cabinet ministerMinister of State (MoS): junior minister reporting to a cabinet minister, usually tasked with a specific responsibility in that ministry

FUNCTIONSThough there is an elected President at the top of the Government structure, the constitution in reality establishes a British cabinet type of Government in India.Article 74(1) requires thePresidentto have a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head to aid and advice him in the exercise of his power. To remove the impression that the advice given by the Council of Ministers may not be binding on the President, the 42nd amendment of the constitution has made the ministerial advice expressly binding on the President.

FUNCTIONS continuedIn terms of Article 74(1) the President is bound to have a Council of Ministers with the Prime Minister at the head. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President and all other ministers are appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. India has a three-tier ministry consisting of cabinet ministers, ministers of state and the deputy ministers. The term cabinet is absent in the constitution. Usually senior ministers with independent charge of ministries constitute a body that the Prime Minister consults in arriving at policy decisions, constitute the cabinet. The cabinet thus is the policy making part of the ministry. It is an informal body and its members are chosen by the Prime Minister himself.FUNCTIONS continuedArticle 75 make the Council of Minister responsible to the House of People. This obliges the President to appoint the leader of the majority party as the Prime Minister and to appoint other ministers on his advice. Thus the Prime Minister is not the Presidents nominee but the nations choice. The nation votes a party to power and its leader becomes the Prime Minister. Indian general elections are really elections of the Prime Minister.FUNCTIONS continuedThe Prime Minister and the members of the council of ministers serve legally during the pleasure of the President. But the Presidents pleasure is not personal but political. So long the Prime Minister retains his support in the House of People; the President cannot withdraw pleasure from the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers.FUNCTIONS continuedThe executive government in India is really the Prime Ministers government. The cabinet, as in England is the steering wheel of the government. As the nations chief executive body, the cabinet performs the following principal functions.FUNCTIONS continuedFirstly, it is in charge of administering all the subjects entrusted to the national government by the union list. Principal among these functions are providing for security and defence of the country, maintaining and conducting the nations foreign affairs, maintaining the system of communication within the country, keeping the national economy in good health, preserving and improving inter-state relations and a host of other things. Ministers are put in charge of administrative departments. The ministers are in reality political heads of administrative departments of governments. An elaborate bureaucracy conducts the day to day administration, under the political control of the ministers. Thus the Cabinet and the Prime Minister administers the country.FUNCTIONS continuedIn the sphere of law making the cabinet is equally supreme and the President has only a formal role. The President is no doubt an integral part of the Parliament. The President addresses the joint sessions of the Parliament after every general election and at the beginning of each session of the Parliament. But the President only reads out the address drafted for him by the Cabinet. The President signs the bills passed by the Parliament into law. But the President does exactly what the cabinet asks him to do.

FUNCTIONS continuedAgain strictly constitutionally, the Parliament is the nations supreme law making body. But the Prime Minister and the cabinet have a firm control over the Parliamentary majority. Because of this majority support, the Prime Minister and the cabinet can make the Parliament pass whatever law, the Prime Minister wants the Parliament to pass. Conversely, the Parliament shall never pass a bill which the Prime Minister and the Cabinet oppose. Thus the law making powers of the Parliament is also the powers of the Cabinet.

FUNCTIONS continuedThe Prime Minister and the Cabinet also have an absolute control over the nations finances. The annual budget is prepared at the instance of the cabinet. The proposals for taxes and expenditures are really made by the Cabinet, and only formally approved by the Parliament.

FUNCTIONS continuedFinally, Indian constitution is partially based on the theory of Parliamentary sovereignty. The sovereignty of the Parliament realistically means the sovereignty of the cabinet. Even the judiciary is not beyond cabinet control. Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts are appointed and transferred by the President on Cabinet advice. Similarly the Presidents rights to grant pardon or reprieve or remission of sentences are also the powers of the Cabinet. Thus the Indian Cabinet, like its British counterpart enjoys powers of dictatorial dimensions.

PORTFOLIO OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERSPRIME MINISTERShri Narendra ModiPersonnel, Public Grievances and PensionsDepartment of Atomic EnergyDepartment of SpaceAll important policy issuesandAll other portfolios not allocated to any MinisterPRIME MINISTER: SHRI NARENDRA MODI

ContinuedCABINET MINISTERSShri Raj Nath Singh (Home Affairs)Smt. Sushma Swaraj (External AffairsOverseas Indian Affairs)Shri Arun Jaitley (FinanceCorporate Affairs Information & Broadcasting)Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu (Urban DevelopmentHousing and Urban Poverty AlleviationParliamentary Affairs)ContinuedShri Nitin Jairam Gadkari (Road Transport and Highways Shipping)Shri Manohar ParrikarDefenceShri Suresh Prabhu (Railways)Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda (Law & Justice)ContinuedSushri Uma Bharati (Water Resources,River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation)Dr. Najma A. Heptulla (Minority Affairs)Shri Ramvilas Paswan (Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution)ContinuedShri Kalraj Mishra (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises)Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi (Women and Child Development)

ContinuedShri Ananth Kumar (Chemicals and Fertilizers)Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad (Communications and Information Technology)Shri Jagat Prakash Nadda (Health and Family Welfare)Shri Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati (Civil Aviation)Shri Anant Geete (Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises)Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal (Food Processing Industries)ContinuedShri Narendra Singh TomarMinesSteel21Shri Chaudhary Birender SinghRural DevelopmentPanchayati RajDrinking Water and Sanitation22Shri Jual OramTribal Affairs23Shri Radha Mohan SinghAgriculture24Shri Thaawar Chand GehlotSocial Justice and EmpowermentContinuedSmt. Smriti Zubin Irani (Human Resource Development)Dr. Harsh Vardhan (Science and TechnologyEarth Sciences)ContinuedMINISTERS OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE)General V. K. Singh (Statistics and Programme Implementation (Independent Charge)External AffairsOverseas Indian Affairs Shri Inderjit Singh RaoPlanning (Independent Charge)DefenceShri Santosh Kumar GangwarTextiles (Independent Charge)Shri Bandaru Dattatreya Labour and Employment (Independent Charge)ContinuedShri Rajiv Pratap RudySkill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge)Parliamentary AffairsShri Shripad Yesso NaikAYUSH (Independent Charge)Health & Family WelfareShri Dharmendra PradhanPetroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge)Shri Sarbananda SonowalYouth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge)Shri Prakash JavadekarEnvironment, Forest and Climate Change (Independent Charge)ContinuedShri Piyush GoyalPower (Independent Charge)Coal (Independent Charge)New and Renewable Energy (Independent Charge)Dr. Jitendra SinghDevelopment of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge)Prime Ministers OfficePersonnel, Public Grievances & PensionsDepartment of Atomic EnergyDepartment of SpaceContinuedSmt. Nirmala SitharamanCommerce and Industry (Independent Charge)Dr. Mahesh SharmaCulture (Independent Charge)Tourism (Independent Charge)Civil AviationContinuedMINISTERS OF STATEShri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (Minority AffairsParliamentary Affairs)Shri Ram Kripal Yadav (Drinking Water and Sanitation)Shri Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary (Home Affairs)Shri Sanwar Lal Jat (Water Resources,River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation)ContinuedShri Mohanbhai Kalyanjibhai Kundariya (Agriculture)Shri Giriraj Singh(Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises)Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir (Chemicals & Fertilizers)Shri G. M. Siddeshwara (Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises)ContinuedShri Manoj Sinha (Railways)Shri Nihalchand (Panchayati Raj)Shri Upendra Kushwaha (Human ResourcesDevelopment)Shri Radhakrishnan (Road Transport & HighwaysShipping)ContinuedShri Kiren Rijiju (Home Affairs)Shri Krishan Pal (Social Justice & Empowerment)Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan (Agriculture)Shri Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava (Tribal Affairs)ContinuedShri Vishnu Deo Sai (MinesSteel)Shri Sudarshan Bhagat (Rural Development)Prof. (Dr.) Ram Shankar Katheria (Human ResourceDevelopment)Shri Y. S. Chowdary (Science and TechnologyEarth Science)ContinuedShri Jayant Sinha (Finance)Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Information & Broadcasting)Shri Babul Supria (Babul Supriyo) Bara (lUrban DevelopmentHousing and Urban Poverty Alleviation)

ContinuedSadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Food Processing Industries)Shri Vijay Sampla (Social Justice & Empowerment)

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