Live Updates: S Jaishankar Takes Charge As External Affairs Minister As Newly-Elected Ministers Take Oath

PM Narendra Modi's cabinet in his historic third term has retained the known faces in the big four ministries - Amit Shah (Home), Rajnath Singh (Defence), S Jaishankar (Foreign), and Nirmala Sitharaman (Finance).

S Jaishankar today took charge as the External Affairs Minister a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi retained him in his cabinet in his historic third term. Mr Jaishankar is among the senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, and Nitin Gadkari, who have retained the ministries they handled in the previous government.

Other ministers are also set to take charge of their respective ministries today.

Ministries have been allocated to the 71 ministers who joined the Modi 3.0 in a grand swearing-in ceremony on Sunday with the Prime Minister himself handling the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Space.

Among new entrants to the Union Cabinet are former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has got Agriculture and Rural Development Ministries, and BJP president JP Nadda, who has returned to the Health Ministry.