CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■ chennai l monday l june 10, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his ministers after the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday. President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar are also seen | Shekhar Yadav Coalition and continuity in Modi Rajnath, Shah, Gadkari, Sitharaman, Jaishankar in top team RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi returned to power on Sunday with almost all his topranked ministers, giving a clear indication that he will take forward the policies and agendas set in the NDA-II government. However, the Modi 3.0 government will have to take its coalition partners along. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office and secrecy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his 72member cabinet comprising 30 cabinet ministers, 5 ministers with independent charge, and 36 ministers of state at the forecourts of the Rashtrapti Bhavan. The event was attended by about 8,000 guests, which included specially invited foreign dignitaries. With the oath taken for a third consecutive term, Modi also became the first non-Congress leader and the second PM after Jawaharlal Nehru to remain in power for three consecutive terms. Dressed in a white kurta with a matching blue-colured jacket, Modi took the oath in Hindi as the head of NDA-III government. After Modi, Rajnath Singh, who was the defence minister in the previous government, was administered the oath of office. Amit Shah, home minister in the previous government, was the next to be sworn in. Nitin Gadkari and J P Nadda fol- lowed next. In the 2024 general election, the BJP did not achieve its target of winning of 370 Lok Sabha seats on its own as it got only 240 while the NDA as a whole won 293 seats. After taking oath, PM Modi said his government will continue working for 140 crore Indians and fulfil their dreams. Notably, Modi dropped three senior leaders — Anurag Thakur (elected but not inducted), Smriti Irani (lost the elect i o n ) , a n d R a j e ev C h a n drasekhar (lost) — though there were speculation they might be included in the cabinet. Among the 30 cabinet ministers who took the oath included Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, Piyush Goyal, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hardeep Puri, Giriraj Singh, Dr Jitendra Singh, Ram Das Athawale, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Meghawal, Bhupendra Yadav, Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju, G Kishan Reddy, Nityanand Rai, Dharamendra Pradhan, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Pralhad Joshi, Virendra Kumar, S P Singh Baghel, L Murugan, and Anupriya Patel. Among the new faces are Suresh Gopi and George Kurian from Kerala; Ajay Tamta (Uttarakhand); Shantanu Thakur and Sukanta Majumdar (West Bengal); C R Patil (Gujarat); Raj Bhushan Chaudhary and Ramnath Thakur (Bihar), among others. Chouhan, Nadda, Khattar among new ministers Representation from across states, sections, and classes BJD defeat: Pandian quits politics RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new cabinet reflects a pan-India presence as it has representation from across 24 states and Union territories. The ministers belong to various sections, classes, and backgrounds. Though the BJP did not fare well in Uttar Pradesh, the representation of ministers from this state is at 9 – higher than other states and UTs. Bihar has 8 ministers, Maharashtra and Gujaraat have 6 ministers each, while Karnataka has 5. As assembly elections in Bihar is in 2025 and BJP with JDU and other local allies is aiming to win big in assembly elections, the state was given 8 ministers spread across its allies JDU, LJP and HAM. Out of the 72 ministers inducted in the cabinet, 43 ministers have more than 3 terms in the ministry while 39 are with past ministerial experiences. Thirty-four have already served in state legisla- Former bureaucrat V K Pandian on Sunday announced his withdrawal from active politics following the BJD’s drubbing in both the assembly and Lok Sabha polls. “My intent in joining politics was only to assist Naveen Babu, and now I consciously decide to withdraw from active politics,” he said | P5 tures. Notably, 23 ministers inducted in the third term cabinet of Modi government have experience in working as ministers in states and 27 are from OBC, 10 from Scheduled Castes, and five from Scheduled Tribes. Among the most notable inductions are Suresh Gopi and George Kurian from Left-ruled Kerala, where the BJP managed to open its account this time. Also, ministerial berths have been given to 5 MPs from various minority communities. This time, the cabinet has more experienced politicians as ministers than the NDA’s first and second terms. With a target of making India the world’s third largest economy in next five years, PM Modi has five former chief ministers— Jitan Ram Manjhi from Bihar, H D Kumaraswami from Karnataka, Shivraj Singh Chauhan from Madhya Pradesh, Manohar Lal Khattar from Haryana, and Sarbananda Sonowal from Assam. The Modi 3.0 cabinet will have seven women ministers, including two in the Cabinet role. The new ministers inducted into the council of ministers are former Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman; BJP MPs Annpurna Devi, Shobha Karandlaje, Raksha Khadse, Savitri Thakur, and Nimuben Bambhaniya; and Apna Dal MP Anupriya Patel. There were 10 women ministers in the previous council of ministers, which was dissolved on June 5. JEE-A topper scores 355/360 K a v i ta B aje l i - D att @ New Delhi Ved Lahoti from IIT Delhi zone topped this year’s Joint Entrance Exam-Advanced (JEE Advanced) scoring a record 355 out of 360 marks. Dwija Dharmeshkumar Patel of IIT Bombay zone is the top-ranked female candidate. She scored 322 and her all-India rank is 7, according to IIT Madras which conducted the exam this year. Aditya from Delhi zone bagged the second rank followed by Bhogalpalli Sandesh of Madras zone at the third position. Others in the top 10 are Aditya (IIT Delhi zone), Bhogalpalli Sandesh (IIT Madras zone), Rhythm Kedia (IIT Roorkee zone), Putti Kushal Kumar (IIT Madras zone), Rajdeep Mishra (IIT Bombay zone), Koduri Tejeswar (IIT Madras zone), Dhruvi Hemant Doshi (IIT Bombay zone) and Alladabona SSDB Sidhvik Suhas (IIT Madras zone). Four of the top 10 rank-holders are from IIT-Madras. The maximum number of candidates have qualified from the IIT Madras zone, followed by the IIT Delhi Zone and the IIT Bombay zone. As many as 48,248 candidates out of the 1,80,200 who had appeared for papers 1 and 2 in JEE (Advanced) 2024 have qualified, IIT-Madras said. The exam was held on May 26. Aryaman Prasad, TN topper, scored 315 out of 360 marks IIT Madras zone, which includes IITs of Hyderabad, Madras, Tirupati and Palghat covering the states of TN, AP, Telangana and Kerala, saw the highest number of students qualifying in JEE (Adv) with 11,180 clearing the exam this year. Among those who cleared the exam, four candidates from the zone were in top 5, 25 in top 100, 53 in top 200, and 145 were among top 500. Aryaman Prasad, who scored 315 out of 360, is TN topper. N Shriram from Coimbatore with 313 marks got 48th rank. Full report: P2 Terrorists open fire at bus with pilgrims in J&K, 9 dead F aya z w a n i @ Srinagar At least nine persons were killed and 43 injured when a bus carrying pilgrims plunged into a gorge after coming under terrorist fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district on Sunday evening. As the terrorists opened fire, the driver lost control of the vehicle and the 53-seater bus fell into a gorge, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Reasi, Mohita Sharma said. Sharma said the bus was on its way from Shiv Khori to Katra when it was ambushed in the Kanda area of Pouni, which falls on the border of Reasi and Rajouri districts. “The rescue operation has been completed and nine people have died in the incident,” the SSP said. Police found empty cartridges near the site of the attack. An official said eight pilgrims died on the spot while another died while being rushed to the hospital. “Nineteen injured have been referred to Reasi hospitals while 25 injured were rushed to Rajouri hospitals for treatment,” he said. As per doctors treating them, some of the injured are in critical condition. Asked whether any of the dead or injured were hit by bullets, the SSP said, “It is being ascertained”. The pilg r i m s we r e f r o m U t t a r Pradesh. Stalin seeks support to end NEET, shares report in 9 languages E X P R E S S N E W S S E R VI C E @ Chennai Amid nationwide opposition to NEET due to allegations of irregularities, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday reached out to other states for support to end NEET by sharing the translated copies of the report of the Justice A K Rajan committee in nine languages in a post on his ‘X’ handle. The DMK outreach came just hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed PM Narendra Modi over the alleged irregularities in the test and promised to be the voice of students in Parliament. The DMK government had appointed the Rajan committee to study whether NEET-based admission to medical courses has adversely affected the social, economic and federal polity, and poor students. The CM shared the copies of the report in English, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi and Bengali, and said the ill-effects of NEET could be understood better through the report. P5 Carlos wins 1st french open title Jasprit Bumrah claimed three wickets while Hardik Pandya chipped in with two scalps as India defended a modest total (119) to beat Pakistan | afp Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest men’s player to win Majors in all three surfaces. The 21-year-old prevailed 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 against Alexander Zevrev in Paris on Sunday | P11 NCP rejects MoS rank, insists on cabinet berth S udh i r S ur ya w a n sh i @ Mumbai Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Sunday turned down the BJP’s offer to make its leader Praful Patel a minister of state with independent charge in the new NDA government. Patel said since he had already served as a cabinet minister in the UPA government, accepting the office of the minister of state with independent charge would be a demotion for him. Par ty leader Ajit Pawar concurred and said the NCP has told the BJP it is ready to wait for a few more days, but it wants a cabinet berth. BJP leader and Maharashtra deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said the BJP had decided on a criteria for handing out ministerial berths to coalition partners on the basis of their nunbers. “But because of one party , the criteria cannot be twisted,” he said. “The NCP will be accommodated in future whenever their will be an expansion of the Cabinet,” he added. Murugan makes it to Modi 3.0 | P4 Cabinet ministers Rajnath Singh Amit Shah Nitin Gadkari JP Nadda Shivraj Singh Chouhan Nirmala Sitharaman S Jaishankar Manohar Lal Khattar HD Kumaraswamy Piyush Goyal Dharmendra Pradhan Jitan Ram Manjhi Lalan Singh Sarbananda Sonowal Virendra Kumar Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu Pralhad Joshi Jual Oram Ashwini Vaishnaw Giriraj Singh Jyotiraditya Scindia Bhupender Yadav Gajendra Singh Shekhawat Annapurna Devi Kiren Rijiju Hardeep Singh Puri Mansukh Mandaviya G Kishan Reddy Chirag Paswan CR Patil Ministers of State with independent charge Rao Inderjit Singh Jitendra Singh Arjun Ram Meghwal Prataprao Ganpatrao Jadhav Jayant Chaudhary Ministers of State Jitin Prasada Shripad Naik Pankaj Chaudhary Krishan Pal Gurjar Ramdas Athawale Ram Nath Thakur Nityanand Rai Anupriya Patel V Somanna Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani SP Singh Baghel Shobha Karandlaje Kirti Vardhan Singh BL Verma Shantanu Thakur Suresh Gopi L Murugan Ajay Tamta Bandi Sanjay Kumar Kamlesh Paswan Bhagirath Chaudhary Satish Chandra Dubey Sanjay Seth Ravneet Singh Bittu Durga Das Uikey Raksha Khadse Sukanta Majumdar Savitri Thakur
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