Former IAS Officer Ashwini Vaishnaw has taken charge as India's new Railways Minister and IT Minister in the first major cabinet reshuffle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet on July 8, 2021.
Ashwini Vaishnaw is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Odisha. He has been appointed the Minister of Railways, Minister of Communications and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.
The 50-year-old has replaced Ravi Shankar Prasad as Minister of Communications, and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology and succeeded Piyush Goyal, who has been in charge of the Ministries of Commerce and Industry; Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; and Textiles.
After taking charge, the first-time Minister said that Railways is a major part of PM Modi's vision and he will work to make the vision a reality. He said that "PM Modi's vision for railways is to transform the lives of the people, that everyone - common man, farmers, the poor - gets the benefit of the railway. I will work for that vision."
Railway is a major part of PM Modi's vision. His vision for railways is to transform the lives of the people, that everyone - common man, farmers, the poor - gets the benefit of railway. I will work for that vision: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw pic.twitter.com/ad8rtrulYx
— ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2021
Who is Ashwini Vaishnaw?
• Ashwini Vaishnaw is an IIT-Kanpur alumnus, as he did his MTech from the institute in the industrial and management engineering department. He is a resident of Pali District Near Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
• He is a former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Odisha cadre. He had cracked IAS in 1994 with an all-India rank of 27.
• Ashwini Vaishnaw left for the US to do his MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2008.
• Ashwini Vaishnaw is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and became a member of the Parliament, representing Odisha in the Rajya Sabha in June 2019.
• As a civil servant, he served as a collector in Balasore and Cuttack districts. He was appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2003.
• Ashwini Vaishnaw was appointed as former PM Vajpayee's private secretary after the BJP-led NDA lost the 2004 General Elections.
• He became the deputy chairman of Mormugao Port Trust, where he worked for the next two years in 2006.
• Vaishnaw has also previously served as Managing Director of GE Transportation and Vice President - Locomotives & Head Urban Infrastructure Strategy at Siemens. He quit the corporate sector in 2012 and set up two automotive components manufacturing units in Gujarat.
• His political career began when he won the Rajya Sabha election unopposed with the support of Biju Janata Dal members in Odisha.
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