Cabinet Reshuffle: Ex-UNSC president, tech-savvy farmer among new ministers of state

Nine new faces were sworn into Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers as ministers of state today. Among these new entries are the likes of Hardeep Singh Puri, a former IFS officer who joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Mumbai's former Commissioner of Police Satya Pal Singh, and ex-DDA head Kannanthanam J Alphons.

Some of these nine new ministers of state have worked as administrators for government authorities, whereas some hold high educational degrees. Several of them began their political careers as student leaders during the JP movement.

Here's a glimpse into the profiles of the new additon to Modi's Council of Ministers:

Hardeep Singh Puri

Puri has served as a Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Ambassador to Brazil and Britain and Permanent Representative of India to UN in Geneva. He was the UN Security Council President in August 2011 and has held the office of Chairman of the UN's Counter-Terrorism Committee.

He is President and Chairman of Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) think tank and was Vice President of International Peace Institute, New York.

His first stint into politics came during JP movement in which he played an active role. An alumus of Delhi University's Hindu College, he even briefly taught at St. Stephens College before joining the IFS.

Satya Pal Singh

Now a Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh's Baghpat and a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, Singh is a former IPS officer of the 1980 batch. As Commissioner of Police of Mumbai, he brought down organised crime syndicates in Mumbai in the 1990s. He has received Antrik Suraksha Sewa Padak and a Special Service Medal for his exemplary work in the Maoist-infested regions of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in 1990. He has written books on topics like tribal conflict resolution and Maoist violence.

Born in Basauli village in Baghpat, Singh has an MSc and MPhil in Chemistry, MBA in Strategic Management from Australia, MA in Public Administration and PhD on Maoism.

Kannanthanam J. Alphons

Alphons made headlines as Delhi's Demolition Man while heading Delhi Development Authority, demolishing 15,000 illegal building encroaching on DDA areas. With this, he featured in Time Magazine's list of 100 Young Global Leaders in 1994.

Born in Manimala village in Kerala's Kottayam district, he pioneered the literacy movement in India and as District Collector of Kottayam made it the first 100 percent literate town in India back in 1989. Now as a Member of the Committee to prepare the final draft of the National Education Policy 2017, he also authored "Making A Difference".

Kannanthanam had also set up NGO Janshakti in back 1994, to get citizens to believe in their ability to make government accountable to people.

Gajendra Singh Shekhawat

A Lok Sabha MP from Rajasthan's Jodhpur, he is on the Standing Committee on Finance and Chairperson of the Fellowship Committee. Shekhawat is known to be a tech-savvy farmer with a humble way of living.

He holds an MA and MPhil in Philosophy from Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur. With a background in sports too, Shekhawat has played in national-level inter-university basket ball tournaments and is also the president of Basketball India Players Association.

Ashwini Kumar Choubey

Presently a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Estimates and Standing Committee on Energy, Choubey is Lok Sabha MP from Buxar in Bihar. He is also a member of the Central Silk Board. Choubey has held important portfolios including Health, Urban Development and Public Health Engineering as state minister for eight years.

Choubey is a Bachelors of Science in Zoology and has authored a book on the Uttarakhand floods of 2013 after facing the situation at Kedarnath with his family.

Beginning his political stint as the President of the Students Union of Patna University, Choubey was active in JP movement and was taken into custody during the Emergency under MISA.

Choubey coined the slogan "Ghar - Ghar me ho Shauchalaya ka nirman, Tabhi hoga Ladli Bitiya ka Kanyadaan" and has helped construct 11,000 toilets for Mahadalit families in Bihar.

Raj Kumar Singh

A former Home Secretary, Singh is now a Lok Sabha MP from Arrah, Bihar. He is a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on Health and Family Welfare, Personnel, Pensions and Public Grievances and Law and Justice.

Singh studied English Literature at St. Stephens College, New Delhi and later pursued a law degree.

An IAS officer of the 1975 batch, he has held significant positions such as Joint Secretary, Home and Defence Production Secretary. He has headed Home, Industries, Public Works and Agriculture Departments in Bihar Government. His notable achievements include laying down a framework for Disaster Management, and his contributions to schemes for police modernisation and prison modernisation.

Virendra Kumar

Virendra Kumar is a six-term Lok Sabha MP from Tikamgarh, Madhya Pradesh. He is presently Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour, and has been Chairman of the Joint Committee on Office of Profit and Member of National Social Security Board. During his stint in Parliament, he has been a Member of the Committees on Labour and Welfare, Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Privileges, Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Kumar is said to have worked for removing barriers of caste and class and building orphanages, schools and old age homes. He holds a Masters degree in Economics and a PhD in Child Labour. He also took part in the JP movement and went to jail for 16 months under MISA during the Emergency.

Anantkumar Hegde

A Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and Human Resource Development, Hedge is Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka's Uttara Kannada constituney. Elected as an MP for the first time at the age of 28, he has been a member of the lower house for five terms. He has also been a member of the Spices Board of India for four terms.

He is the Founder President of Kadamba, an NGO working for rural welfare initiatives, and a Tae-kwon-do practitioner.

Shiv Pratap Shukla

A Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, Shukla is Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh. Elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly for four consecutive times in 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1996, he was on the state Cabinet for eight years and has worked in fields of rural development, education and prison reforms.

A law graduate from Gorakhpur University, Shukla started as a student leader in the 1970s. He was also a part of the movement against Emergency and was served time in prison for 19 months under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act.