Council of Ministers
This is a list of current members of the Council of Ministers of the Government of India. All ministers are based in offices of their respective Union Ministries in New Delhi.
All Cabinet members are mandated by the constitution to be members of either House of the Parliament of India. In a departure from the norm the current Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is a member of the upper house, the Rajya Sabha. He remained so for the duration of his entire first term (2004–2009) too. Most, but not all, previous Prime Ministers
have been elected members of the Lok Sabha.
There are three categories of ministers, in descending order of rank:
- Union Cabinet Minister – senior minister in-charge of a ministry. A cabinet minister may also hold additional charges of other Ministries, where no other Cabinet minister is appointed
- Minister of State (Independent Charges) – with no overseeing Union cabinet minister for that portfolio
- Minister of State (MoS) – junior minister with to overseeing cabinet minister, usually tasked with a specific responsibility in that ministry. For instance, an MoS in the Finance Ministry may only handle taxation.
Read more about this topic: Cabinet Of India
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