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Agency overview | |
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Formed | 15 August 1947 |
Type | Highest executive body of the Government of India |
Jurisdiction | Republic of India |
Headquarters | New Delhi |
Agency executives |
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Child agencies |
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Website | english.www.gov.in |
The Union Council of Ministers [1] is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which functions as the senior decision-making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by the prime minister and consists of the heads of each of the executive government ministries. Currently, the council is headed by prime minister Narendra Modi and consists of 29 members, including the prime minister. The council is subject to the Parliament of India.
A smaller executive body called the Union Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India; it is a subset of the Union Council of Ministers who hold important portfolios and ministries of the government. [2]
Pursuant to Article 75(3), the Council of Ministers is responsible collectively to the lower house of the Indian parliament, called the Lok Sabha (House of the People). [3] When a bill introduced by a minister in the Lok Sabha is not approved by it, the entire council of ministers is responsible and not the minister. The council of ministers upon losing the confidence of Lok Sabha shall resign to facilitate the formation of a new government.
A minister shall take any decision without being considered by the council of ministers per Article 78(c). All union cabinet members shall submit in writing to the President to propose a proclamation of emergency by the president in accordance with Article 352.
According to the Constitution of India, the total number of ministers in the council of ministers must not exceed 15% of the total number of members of the Lok Sabha. Ministers must be members of parliament. Any minister who is not a member of either of the houses of the parliament for six consecutive months is automatically stripped off his or her ministerial post. [3]
There are five categories of the council of ministers as given below, in descending order of rank:
Pursuant to Article 75, a minister who works at the pleasure of the president, is appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. Since at least the turn of the millennia, evidence indicates that an MP's electoral performance enhances the likelihood of being granted a ministerial portfolio. [5]
Every state in India is governed by its council of ministers with rules and procedures similar to the union council of ministers per Articles 163, 164 and 167(c).
In March 2020, the Supreme Court of India used its powers for the first time to do "complete justice" under Article 142 of the Indian Constitution to remove a minister functioning in the state of Manipur.
Council portfolios are as follows: [6] [7] [8]
Politics of India works within the framework of the country's Constitution. India is a parliamentary secular democratic republic in which the president of India is the head of state & first citizen of India and the Prime Minister of India is the head of government. It is based on the federal structure of government, although the word is not used in the Constitution itself. India follows the dual polity system, i.e. federal in nature, that consists of the central authority at the centre and states at the periphery. The Constitution defines the organizational powers and limitations of both central and state governments; it is well recognised, fluid and considered supreme, i.e. the laws of the nation must conform to it.
The prime minister of India is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the executive. The prime minister has to be a member of one of the houses of bicameral Parliament of India, alongside heading the respective house. The prime minister and their cabinet are at all times responsible to the Lok Sabha.
The president of India is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the supreme commander of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu is the 15th and current president, having taken office from 25 July 2022.
The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past-the-post system to represent their respective constituencies, and they hold their seats for five years or until the body is dissolved by the President on the advice of the council of ministers. The house meets in the Lok Sabha Chambers of the Parliament House, New Delhi.
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. The President of India, in their role as head of the legislature, has full powers to summon and prorogue either house of Parliament or to dissolve the Lok Sabha, but they can exercise these powers only upon the advice of the Prime Minister and their Union Council of Ministers.
The Government of India (GoI), constitutionally known as the Union Government and also called the Central Government, is the national authority of the Republic of India, a federal republic located in South Asia, consisting of 28 states and eight union territories.
Ram Vilas Paswan was an Indian politician from Bihar and the Cabinet Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the first and second Modi ministries. Paswan was also the president of the Lok Janshakti Party, nine-times Lok Sabha member and two-time Rajya Sabha MP. He started his political career as member of Samyukta Socialist Party and was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 1969. Later, Paswan joined Lok Dal upon its formation in 1974, and became its general secretary. He opposed the emergency, and was arrested during this period. He first entered the Lok Sabha in 1977, as a Janata Party member from Hajipur constituency, and was elected again in 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.
Shripad Yesso Naik is an Indian politician serving as the current Minister of State for Tourism and Ports, Shipping and Waterways of India in office 7 July 2021. He was the former Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare. He is the Member of Parliament from North Goa constituency, representing the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Syed Shahnawaz Hussain is an Indian politician and a member of the Central Election Committee of Bharatiya Janata Party. He is one of the national spokespersons of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Hussain was the Minister of Textiles and the Minister Civil Aviation in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He has been the Minister of Industries of the Government of Bihar from 9 February 2021 to 9 August 2022.
Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer and politician, who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs, after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.
Devaragunda Venkappa Sadananda Gowda is an Indian politician who served as the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers of India in the Second Modi ministry from 14 November 2018 to 7 July 2021. He also served as the Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation of India from 5 July 2016 to 24 May 2019 in the First Modi ministry. He is representing the Bangalore North constituency. He also held Ministry of Railways and other cabinet positions in the First Modi ministry. He also served as the 14th Chief Minister of Karnataka.
Sarbananda Sonowal is an Indian politician of Bharatiya Janata Party from Assam who is serving as the current Cabinet Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Cabinet Minister of AYUSH, Government of India and the member of the Rajya Sabha representing Assam since 2021 and also a member of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs since 2021. He is the 14th Chief Minister of Assam from 2016 to 2021 and the former of Assam Legislative Assembly from Majuli from 2016 until he resigned in 2021 and from Moran constituency from 2001 to 2004. Sonowal earlier served as the Assam state unit President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2016. He has also served as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of India, from 2014 to 2016 and the Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Skill Development from 2014 to 2014 and the member of the Lok Sabha from Lakhimpur from 2014 to 2016 and from Dibrugarh from 2004 to 2009. He was also the member of the Asom Gana Parishad from 2001 to 2011.
Manoj Sinha is an Indian politician serving as the 2nd and the current Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. He served as the Minister of State for Communications and Minister of State for Railways in the Government of India. Sinha was elected as Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha, representing Ghazipur for three terms from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Sinha was in the race for the post of UP Chief Minister after 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.
Narendra Singh Tomar is an Indian politician and a member of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly. He is the former Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. He has been Minister of Rural Development, Minister of Panchayati Raj, Minister of Mines and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in the Government of India during different periods of the First and Second Modi ministry. He is a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party. He was also a member of Fifteenth Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014 from Morena; Sixteenth Lok Sabha from 2014 to 2019 from Gwalior and 17th Lok Sabha from 2019 to 2023 from Morena. In 2019, he changed his constituency and was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Morena.
Giriraj Singh is an Indian politician and the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Department in the 23rd Ministry of the Republic of India with a cabinet minister rank. He is the Member of Parliament from the Begusarai Loksabha constituency in the 17th Lok Sabha. He has also formerly served as Minister of Cooperative, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Resources Development in the Government of Bihar.
The First Ministry of Narendra Modi is the Council of Ministers headed by Narendra Modi that was formed after the 2014 general election which was held in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May in 2014. The results of the election were announced on 16 May 2014 and this led to the formation of the 16th Lok Sabha. The Council assumed office from 27 May 2014.
Mahendra Nath Pandey is an Indian politician currently serving as Minister of Heavy Industries he previously served as Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India and Member of Lok Sabha for Chandauli since 2014. He is a member of Bharatiya Janata Party and is the president of the party's Uttar Pradesh unit. He has also served as Union Minister of State for Ministry of Human Resource Development between 2016 and 2017. He is a member of Modi's second ministry. On 30 May 2019, he was appointed as Cabinet minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India.
Jamyang Tsering Namgyal is an Indian politician and Member of Parliament from Ladakh, India's largest parliamentary seat geographically. Namgyal was elected, on 9 November 2018, to be the youngest and 8th Chief Executive Councillor (CEC) of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh. He belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Pratima Bhoumik is an Indian politician who currently serves as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Second Modi ministry since 7 July 2021. She is the first-ever resident from Tripura to become a minister in the union cabinet. In 2019, she was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Tripura West as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party having defeated sitting MP and Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Sankar Prasad Datta and Congress candidate Subal Bhowmick by a huge margin. She was also elected to the Tripura Legislative Assembly in 2023 from the Dhanpur Assembly constituency, but resigned from the position only a few days later to retain her Lok Sabha membership and ministerial berth. Since 2016, she has also been a State General Secretary of the BJP Tripura unit.