PM Modi to head two new Cabinet committees on economy, employment

Apart from Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal are members of both the committees

To address the challenges of slowing economic growth and inadequate job creation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday constituted two Cabinet committees — one on investment and growth and another on employment and skill development. The PM will chair both the committees. A formal notification from the Cabinet Secretariat is expected on Thursday.

Apart from Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal are members of both the committees. The fifth member of the Cabinet committee on investment and growth is Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari.

PM Modi to head two new Cabinet committees on economy, unemployment The government of India’s (transaction of business) rules, 1961, empower the Prime Minister to set up, add, reduce or modify the numbers and functions of cabinet committees. The PM did not create any new cabinet committee in his first term, but did scrap four by a cabinet secretariat order of June 26, 2014. Currently, there are eight Cabinet committees. These are on appointments, accommodation, security, economic affairs, investment, parliamentary affairs, political affairs and skill development. The last new cabinet committee — on skill development — was created by the Congress-led UPA government on June 10, 2013.

The four cabinet committees Modi scrapped in his first term as PM, on June 26, 2014, were those on management of natural calamities, prices, WTO matters and Unique Identification Authority of India. Some of their functions were subsumed in the existing cabinet committees, particularly the cabinet committee on economic affairs. Gadkari, who is also the cabinet minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) — a key ministry in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s 2019 Lok Sabha poll manifesto to boost job growth — is not in the 10-member Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development formed on Wednesday.