Smriti Irani Gets Additional Charge Of I&B Ministry

Smriti Irani, Minister for Textiles, will hold an additional charge of the Information & Broadcasting ministry. Following the resignation of Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Modi on Tuesday made Smriti Irani the Information and Broadcasting minister (additional charge). Naidu, who filed his election papers on Tuesday, quit the Modi cabinet hours after he was picked to take on opposition's Gopalkrishna Gandhi in the August 5 election.

Textiles minister Smriti Irani will hold additional charge of information and broadcasting while Narendra Singh Tomar, who is Minister of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (Incumbent), will also take care of the urban development ministry, the PMO said on Tuesday.

Irani would be the fourth I&B minister of Modi government. Within a span of three years, Modi government has given the country three Union I&B Ministers. Initially, Prakash Javadekar took the charge of the ministry but it was shortly after handed over to Arun Jaitley for a period of two years from 2014-2016. Thereafter, Naidu took over the reins of MIB.