17th Cabinent

Recently parliamentary elections were held and its fervor is still not over as the formation of the government is under process. Modi as the Prime Minister, is at the helm of the cabinet comprising of various Ministers each heading a particular ministry. To have a more vivid view of the cabinet, its formation and function, let’s have cursory glance over it.

Formation of cabinet

Roots for the development of our cabinet dates long back, in 1861, after the war of the first revolt of independence. It was Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan who took the initiative to advice the British government to admit Indians and pass an Act in the parliament of UK. Thus resulting into the transformation of viceroy’s executive council into a miniature cabinet that worked upon the portfolio system based on the,The Indian council act of 1861. And five ordinary members were assigned the distinct departments namely home, revenue, military, finance and law in calcutta’s government.

Before we move ahead what is a Portfolio?

It is an area of minister’s (holding a position in cabinet) responsibility which in fact is further comprising numerous agencies in each department.

Functions of cabinet

Cabinets are the sole body for undertaking day to day management of the ruling government under the directions of the prime minister. They can also be said as the important originators of the legistlation and supreme decision making body. Actually they prepare the proposed bill in the ministeries before it is passed to the parliament. They have crucial role as administrator of executive branches and government departments.

In the countries following parliamentary system, legislation passes and the direction of the government is decided by the cabinet. India being the most brilliant example for this form of parliament. While in another form of government, following presidential system like US, cabinethave a role in giving advice to the president upon the forthcoming decisions for the administration.

17^th cabinet

On May 30, 2019 with the oath-taking ceremony of India's 16th Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his Council of Ministers marked the formulation of the 17th cabinet. Modi in his second term also decided to drop 28 ministers out of the 71 ministers from the previous team, while 23 fresh faces have been included in the new Cabinet.

The most discussed were the introduction of Amit shah as debutant Home minister, others were Rajnath singh as the Defence minister, Nirmala sitaraman as the first woman Finance minster and Nitin Gadkari as the Minister of road transport Highways and many others.

Prime minister himself is also in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space and all other portfolios not allocated any minister.