Narendra Damodar Modi, 63, took oath as India’s Prime Minister on Monday evening, ringing in a new era of governance for the world’s largest democracy. Almost 4,000 people were present at the ceremony held in the forecourt of the magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan. Lakhs more, including Mr Modi’s mother, watched on television and online.

Modi led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a decisive victory in India’s national elections this month, winning 282 of 543 seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Fueled by a strong anti-incumbency sentiment across the country, it was the biggest victory for a single party in decades, and has given Modi and his administration a clear mandate to move forward with the reforms he promised voters throughout the five weeks of polling.

Mr Modi invited leaders from eight South Asian neighbours to his swearing-in ceremony, including Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, an unprecedented gesture that was as much a show of his determination to be a key player on the global stage as a celebration of his stunning election victory 10 days ago. Also present in the audience were two former presidents, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi of the defeated Congress, top industrialists, Bollywood actors and saints and seers in saffron robes. The former Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh was also present.

The portfolios of the new government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi were announced on Tuesday.

Prime Minister

Narendra Modi: Personnel, public grievances and pensions, department of atomic energy, department of space, all important policy issues and other portfolios not allocated to any minister.

Cabinet ministers:

Rajnath Singh: Home affairs

Sushma Swaraj: External affairs, overseas Indian affairs

Arun Jaitley: Finance, corporate affairs, defence

M Venkaiah Naidu: Urban development, housing and urban poverty alleviation, parliamentary affairs

Nitin Gadkari: Road transport and highways, shipping

D V Sadananda Gowda: Railways

Uma Bharati: Water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation

Najma A Heptulla: Minority affairs

Gopinathrao Munde: Rural development, panchayati raj, drinking water and sanitation

Ram Vilas Paswan: Consumer affairs, food and public distribution

Kalraj Mishra: Micro, small and medium enterprises

Maneka Gandhi: Women and child development

Ananth Kumar: Chemicals and fertilizers

Ravi Shankar Prasad: Communications and information technology, law and justice

Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati: Civil aviation

Anant Geete: Heavy industries and public enterprises

Harsimrat Kaur Badal: Food processing industries

Narendra Singh Tomar: Mines, steel, labour and employment

Jual Oram: Tribal affairs

Radha Mohan Singh: Agriculture

Thaawar Chand Gehlot: Social justice and empowerment

Smriti Irani: Human resource development

Harsh Vardhan: Health and family welfare

Minister of States

V K Singh: Development of northeastern region (independent charge), external affairs, overseas Indian affairs

Inderjit Singh Rao: Planning (independent charge), statistics and programme implementation (independent charge), defence

Santosh Kumar Gangwar: Textiles (independent charge), parliamentary affairs, water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation

Shripad Yesso Naik: Culture (independent charge), tourism (independent charge)

Dharmendra Pradhan: Petroleum and natural gas (independent charge)

Sarbananda Sonowal: Skill development, entrepreneurship, youth affairs and sports (independent charge)

Prakash Javadekar: Information and broadcasting (independent charge), environment, forest and climate change (independent charge), parliamentary affairs

Piyush Goyal: Power (independent charge), coal (independent charge), new and renewable energy (independent charge)

Jitendra Singh: Science and technology (independent charge), earth sciences (independent charge), Prime Minister office, personnel, public grievances and pensions, department of atomic energy, department of space

Nirmala Sitharaman: Commerce and industry (independent charge), finance, corporate affairs

G M Siddeshwara: Civil aviation

Manoj Sinha: Railways

Nihalchand: Chemicals and fertilizers

Upendra Kushwaha: Rural development, panchayati raj, drinking water and sanitation

P Radhakrishnan: Heavy industries and public enterprises

Kiren Rijiju: Home affairs

Krishan Pal: Road transport and highways, shipping

Sanjeev Kumar Balyan: Agriculture, food processing industries

Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava: Tribal affairs

Raosaheb Dadarao Danve: Consumer affairs, food and public distribution

Vishnu Deo Sai: Mines, steel, labour and employment

Sudarshan Bhagat: Social justice and empowerment

[Images Attribute: Indian Express]