Milind Deora is new MoS in IT ministry

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday announced a minor reshuffle to his cabinet without bringing about much changes in the key portfolios like Finance, Home, Defence, etc.

IT and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal, who also handles HRD Ministry, got a new state minister in the latest reshuffle and the new face is Milind Deora, who will be the minister of state for communications and IT. However, his father Murli Deora has been dropped as Corporate Affairs Minister.

Vilasrao Deshmukh is the new minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences. He replaces Pawan Kumar Bansal, who was earlier handling two portfolios including Parliamentary Affairs.

The list of 13 new ministers inducted in the cabinet includes new faces like Jayanthi Natarajan, who replaces Jairam Ramesh as the new environment minister. Ramesh has been elevated to the Cabinet rank and he will head the Rural Development Ministry.

The new Cabinet has no new names from the DMK, even though the party has said that its ties with UPA is intact despite the 2G scam, which saw the exit of two of its ministers — A.Raja and Dayanidhi Maran