As Modi government marks one year in office, here are my five best performing Ministers/Ministries in the last one year.
1. Sushma Swaraj (EAM) – obviously the best Minister / Ministry given the number of achievements in the Foreign policy/affairs in the last one year. Though Foreign policy itself was hijacked by PM/PMO to a large extent, Sushma ji in a quiet and understated way made her own mark. The evacuation of Indians from Iraq, Yemen and such places and also speedy response to NRIs in distress and the way Embassies of India abroad have been effectively turned around, EAM (along with V K Singh) is the top performer.
2. Piyush Goyal (PowerMin) – Another silent and understated achiever, his Ministry has done a remarkable job in increasing overall power production capacity and power generation over the last year. The Coal auction was another big achievement. His vision and committed action in making 24×7 power availability for all as envisioned by the PM is a stellar example of how Ministries should work.
3. Nirmala Sitharaman (Industries and Trade) – Ease of business, championing Make in India, and her strong and firm negotiations with WTO put her as another brilliant performer among the Ministers/Ministries.
4. Rajnath Singh (Home) – Another silent but significant performer. His visit to Israel and also his bold actions to ban / revoke visas for those who are foreign evangelists, the tough action against Ford Foundation, Greenpeace etc. and his morale boosting visits to remote areas of BSF, all make him another good performing minister.
5. Suresh Prabhu (Railways) – Prabhu lost a bit of time as he succeeded Sadanada Gowda. So it is unfair to evaluate his performance compared to others. But in such short time, he has made his mark and is breaking the bureaucratic lethargy of Railways effectively.
The next five in the ranking are:
6. Nitin Gadkari (Surface Transort) – The many initiatives taken by his ministry along with the jump in road building makes him the next best performer.
7. Ravishankar Prasad (Law and IT) – Was expecting much more from his ministries but not so much of demonstrable achievements.
8. Prakash Javadekar (Environment) – Except for clearing lots of backlogs by UPA, haven’t seen much yet. But definitely a promising Minister.
9. Arun Jaitley (Finance) – Really one Ministry that did not catch up with many others. Especially on taxation and not going ahead with reforms in full blast. Though this budget sounds progressive, in reality has not shown much results yet.
Read our take on the new Service tax
10. Smriti Irani (HRD) – More sound than light
Those who really disappointed were Harsh Vardhan, Uma Bharati, Sadananda Gowda, Venkiah Naidu and Manohar Parikkar (though he is yet to get the bearings and did not get full year)
Do you all agree?
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