Interior ministry

An interior ministry (sometimes ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, emergency management, national security, supervision of local governments, conduct of elections, public administration and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or a minister of home affairs. In some countries, matters relating to the maintenance of law and order and the administration of justice are the responsibility of a separate justice ministry.

In some countries, policing and national security belong to a separate ministry (often titled "ministry of public order", "ministry of security" etc.), with the interior ministry being limited to control over local governments, public administration, elections etc. Notable examples include Greece (ministry of citizen protection) and Israel (ministry of public security).

In countries with a federal constitution, an interior minister will often be found at both the federal and sub-national levels. Similarly, autonomous entities and dependent territories may also have interior ministers.

Union Council of Ministers of India

The Union Council of Ministers exercises executive authority in the Republic of India. It consists of senior ministers, called "Cabinet Ministers", and junior ministers, called "Ministers of State". It is led by the Prime Minister. A smaller executive body, called the Union Cabinet is the supreme decision-making body in India. Only the Prime Minister and ministers of the rank of "Cabinet Minister" are members of the Cabinet. The most senior civil servant in India, called the Cabinet Secretary, leads the Cabinet Secretariat, and provides administrative assistance to the Council of Ministers. Ministers of State are tasked with assisting Cabinet Ministers in their work.

Regulations

As a collective, the Council of Ministers is responsible to the lower house of the Indian Parliament, called the House of the People. According to the Constitution of India, the total number of ministers in the Council of Ministers must not exceed 15% of the total number of members of the House of the People. Ministers must be members of parliament. Any minister who is not a member of either the lower or upper houses of parliament for six consecutive months is automatically stripped of his or her ministerial post.

Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh (born 10 July 1951) is an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who currently serves as the Home Minister of India. He previously served as the Chief Minister of the state of Uttar Pradesh and as a Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee Government. He has also served as the President of the BJP twice, 2005–2009 and 2013–2014. He began his career as a physics lecturer and used his long-term connections with the hindutva organisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to become involved with the Janata Party.

Early life

Singh was born in the small village of Bhabhaura in Chandauli district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in a Rajput family. His father was Ram Badan Singh and his mother was Gujarati Devi. He was born into a family of farmers and went on to secure a master's degree in physics, acquiring first division results from the Gorakhpur University. Rajnath Singh had been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since 1964, at the age of 13 and remained connected with the organisation even during his employment as a physics lecturer in Mirzapur. In 1974, he was appointed secretary for the Mirzapur unit of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, predecessor of Bhartiya Janta Party.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː], born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir.

Since taking office as Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government, reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment, improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations. Modi has been appreciated for starting initiatives like Swachh Bharat Mission, Make in India and Digital India. Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies (credited with encouraging economic growth in Gujarat) have been praised, although his administration has also been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots. A Hindu nationalist and a former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Modi remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, despite his progressivism. Known for his tech savvy image, he is the second most followed politician on social media after U.S. President Barack Obama.