Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 September 2017 held the third major Cabinet reshuffle, which saw the change of portfolios of 32 ministers and selection of nine new ministers.
The most considerable of them all is the elevation of Nirmala Sitharaman as a Defence Minister, making her the first woman after Indira Gandhi to hold the portfolio of Defence Minister.
PM Modi’s third cabinet reshuffle that seems to be targeting 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, showcases priorities of NDA Government as it chooses performance above politics.
Reshuffled Cabinet
• Nirmala Sitharaman: She was given the portfolio of Minister of Defence. Prior to this, she was handling the portfolio of Minister of State for Commerce.
• Piyush Goyal: He was given the portfolio of Minister of Railways and will also continue to serve as Minister of Coal.
• Dharmendra Pradhan: He will now look after Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship while serving as the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
• Muqtar Abbas Naqvi: He was elevated as a Cabinet Minister and will continue to handle the portfolio of Minister of Minority Affairs.
• Suresh Prabhu: He was appointed as the Union Minister of Commerce and was removed as Railways Minister. This decision came after Prabhu offered to resign following a chain of critical train disasters.
• Nitin Gadkari: He was given the charge of Ministry of Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation along with Union Transport Ministry.
• Uma Bharti: She was removed as Minister of Water Resources and was given the charge of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
• Vijay Goel: He was given the charge of Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Statistics & Programme Implementation. Earlier, he was handling the Sports Ministry.
• Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: He was given the portfolio of Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports.
Nine New Ministers
| Name | Portfolio |
| Hardeep Puri | Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs |
| Raj Kumar Singh | Minister of Power and Minister of New and Renewable Energy |
| KJ Alphons | Minister of Tourism and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) |
| Gajendra Singh Shekhawat | Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare |
| Shiv Pratap Shukla | Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance |
| Ashwini Kumar Choubey | Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare |
| Satya Pal Singh | Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation |
| Virendra Kumar | Minister of State in the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs. |
| Anant Kumar Hegde | Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship |
Apart from these appointments, Union Cabinet also witnessed end of term of 6 ministers- Kalraj Mishra (Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises), Rajiv Pratap Rudy (MoS Independent Charge of Skill Development), Bandaru Dattatreya (Labour Ministry), Faggan Singh Kulaste (Minister of State of Health), Sanjiv Balyan (Minister of State of Water Resources) and Mahendra Nath Pandey (Minister of State of Human Resource Development).
With this cabinet reshuffle, there will now be 76 ministers in the Council of Ministers, up from 73.
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