Smriti Irani out of I&B, Goyal to handle finance in Modi's team rejig

In a major cabinet rejig, the Narendra Modi government today announced that Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal will now be given the additional charge of the Finance Ministry till Arun Jaitley recovers from a kidney transplant surgery.

Smriti Irani has been moved out of the Information & Broadcasting Ministry and will look after the textiles ministry. Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore will be taking Irani's place.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Rathore has been assigned the independent charge as Minister of State in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

This is the second time that Irani has been moved from a key ministry as she was earlier shifted from the HRD Ministry to the relatively low-profile Textile Ministry. She remain the Textile Minister.

The communique said that during the indisposition of Arun Jaitley, the portfolio of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs, have been "temporarily" been assigned to Goyal.

Union minister of state S S Ahluwalia, was relieved of his charges of Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation and was assigned the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

Alphons Kannanthanam has been relieved as Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

He continues as Minister of State for Tourism.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, 65, has been working from home since early April due to a kidney problem. He underwent a successful kidney transplant at AIIMS on Monday and is stable after the over four-hour-long surgery, hospital authorities said.