1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took oath today along with 71 ministers of the new coalition government. Thirty of them are Cabinet Ministers, five independent charge, and 36 Ministers of State. The portfolios will be announced later.
PM Modi, 73, will head a coalition government in his third term, or Modi 3.0, for the first time since he became Prime Minister in 2014 following a huge Brand Modi victory after 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance rule. 2. President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to PM Modi. Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah took oath after him. Nitin Gadkari was the fourth leader to be administered the oath of office by the President. JP Nadda, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, S Jaishankar, and Manohar Lal Khattar followed in taking oath. 3. As Narendra Modi took oath as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term, a number of global events are lined up, where India's participation will play a crucial role in shaping geopolitics.
India has emerged as a strong voice in the past decade. PM Modi has prioritised positioning India as the Voice of the Global South with the Vishwa Bandhu approach. The G20 Summit was held under India's presidency with the theme of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new Council of Ministers in his historic third term has laid an unprecedented emphasis on the southern part of the country, reflecting the outcome of the recently concluded assembly election. The new cabinet includes 13 ministers from south. This despite the BJP tally remaining exactly where it was in 2019-29 of the 129 southern seats.
Five of the 13 southern ministers including former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy are from Karnataka, BJP's only bastion in the south that delivered 19 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats to the NDA. The BJP won 17 seats and Mr Kumaraswamy's Janata Dal two. The state's ruling Congress won nine seats. 5. Nine people were killed and 33 injured after a bus full of pilgrims, attacked by terrorists, plunged into a gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi .
The bus was on its way to the Shiv Khori cave temple when it came under attack. As the terrorists opened fire, the bus fell into a gorge.