Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha, Ashwini Vaishnaw, took charge as the new Railways Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet on Thursday.
After taking charge, the new Minister said that Railways is a major part of PM Modi's vision and he would work to make the vision a reality.
"His (PM Modi's) vision for railways is to transform the lives of the people, that everyone - common man, farmers, the poor - gets the benefit of the railway. I will work for that vision," said Vaishnaw.
A former IAS officer, Vaishnaw has been appointed the Minister of Railways, Minister of Communications, and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.
The Railway Minister was earlier under Union Minister Piyush Goyal who has been given charge of the Ministries of Commerce and Industry; Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution; and Textiles.
The 50-year-old also replaced Ravi Shankar Prasad, as Minister of Communications, and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.
The first time Minister has an MBA from Wharton School, Pennysylvania University, and MTech from IIT Kanpur.
Some other key figures inducted into PM Modi's cabinet include Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Sarbananda Sonowal, Anurag Thakur and Pashupati Kumar Paras.
In Wednesday's reshuffle and expansion of PM Modi's Council of Ministers, a total of 43 political leaders were sworn in as Union ministers, and some have been elevated as cabinet ministers.
( With inputs from ANI )
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