Key pronouncements of some of the newly appointed ministers

Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance
"The challenges are very obvious. We have torestore the pace of growth, contain inflation, and obviously concentrate on fiscal consolidation itself"

Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Commerce & Industry
"We have explained about FDI in multi-brand retail. It is probably not best opened up now because medium and small sized traders and small farmers have not been adequately empowered... if you open up the floodgates of FDI, it may affect them"

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Law
"Retrospectivity in law should normally be avoided, as it is very evident that India needs foreign investment"

Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Power
"The immediate task is to bring in quality and adequate power to all. Gujarat has some great examples of energy security and accessibility, especially in solar power. We will try to take these to the whole nation"

Prakash Javadekar, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Environment, Forests and Climate Change
"We will ensure that environment becomes a public movement, and there is more convergence between environment and growth"

Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of Agriculture
"We will launch a Prime Minister's Gramin Sinchayi Yojana to expand irrigation coverage and reduce dependence on monsoons. We will launch an agricultural income insurance scheme to provide compensation in case of crop damage arising out of factors like drought"

M. Venkaiah Naidu,Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Poverty Alleviation
"Housing is my passion. My priority will be to ensure housing for all by 2020 and to reduce interest rate on home loans"

Ram Vilas Paswan

Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution
"Streamlining the working of FCI and making the public distribution system more effective will be a priority"

Nitin Gadkari

Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways
"It is my dream to restore the sacred Ganga's glory and utilise this ancient river's full potential by using it as a waterway from Gangotri to Kanpur and Kanpur to Patna"

Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister of Civil Aviation
"I will discuss Air India's situation with the prime minister. We will have to analyse the reasons for the losses. Is it competition or something else?"