On Sunday, Narendra Modi, aged 73, was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the third consecutive term, leading the NDA parliamentary party. This makes him the second Prime Minister after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to achieve this feat. His third term has garnered widespread attention nationwide, sparking discussions about the differences between Modi government 3.0 and its predecessor. The average age of the new cabinet is 58 years, with Ram Mohan, aged 36, being the youngest and Jeetanram Manjhi, aged 79, being the oldest.
When the Modi 2.0 government was established in 2019 and ministers were sworn in, the average age stood at 61 years. However, with the cabinet expansion in 2021, the average age dropped by 3 years to 58 years. This suggests that the Modi government might replicate the previous record in terms of average age.
During the swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday, alongside Modi, a total of 71 ministers took their oath of office and secrecy. This encompasses 30 cabinet ministers, 5 ministers with independent charge, and 36 ministers of state. The majority of the appointees are familiar figures, with 33 newcomers joining the fold. Seven female Members of Parliament have been appointed as ministers, among them Rajya Sabha MP Nirmala Sitharaman.
In PM Modi’s second term, the four prominent members of the CCS (Home, Defense, Finance, and Foreign Affairs)—Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, and S. Jaishankar—have retained their cabinet positions. Additionally, Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Pralhad Joshi, and Hardeep Puri are included in the new government.
However, notable figures such as Anurag Thakur, Parshottam Rupala, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Smriti Irani, and Narayan Rane have not been included this time. Despite their election victories, Anurag, Rupala, and Rane are not part of the cabinet. Suresh Gopi, who achieved BJP’s first-ever win in Kerala, has been appointed to the cabinet. Ravneet Singh Bittu, who lost the election in Ludhiana, has also been given a cabinet position. Bittu had switched to the BJP from Congress before the elections.
The average age of the Modi 3.0 government stands at 58.70 years. Previously, this average was 61 years, but it dropped to 58 years following the cabinet expansion in 2021. This time around, the oldest minister is Jitan Ram Manjhi, aged 79. The youngest ministers are TDP’s K. Rammohan Naidu at 36 and BJP’s Raksha Khadse at 37. Including PM Narendra Modi, the NDA government has over 12 members who are 70 years or older.
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Ministers Aged 70 and Above
– Jitan Ram Manjhi (79 years)
– Rao Inderjit Singh (74 years)
– Ram Nath Thakur (73 years)
– V. Somanna (73 years)
– Giriraj Singh (72 years)
– Rajnath Singh (72 years)
– Hardeep Singh Puri (72 years)
– Shripad Naik (71 years)
– Dr. Virendra Kumar (70 years)
– Manohar Lal (70 years)
– Arjun Ram Meghwal (70 years)
– Bhagirath Choudhary (70 years)
Ministers Aged 60 to 69
– Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh (69 years)
– Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar (69 years)
– C.R. Patil (69 years)
– Nitin Jairam Gadkari (67 years)
– Dr. Jitendra Singh (67 years)
– Krishan Pal Gurjar (67 years)
– Shivraj Singh Chouhan (65 years)
– Suresh Gopi (65 years)
– Nirmala Sitharaman (65 years)
– H.D. Kumaraswamy (64 years)
– Ramdas Athawale (64 years)
– Sanjay Seth (64 years)
– Jagat Prakash Nadda (63 years)
– Jual Oram (63 years)
– Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao (63 years)
– S.P. Singh Baghel (63 years)
– George Kurian (63 years)
– B.L. Verma (62 years)
– Sarbananda Sonowal (61 years)
– Pralhad Joshi (61 years)
– Piyush Goyal (60 years)
– Durgadas Uike (60 years)
– Harsh Malhotra (60 years)
Ministers Aged 50 to 59
– Amit Shah (59 years)
– G. Kishan Reddy (59 years)
– Pankaj Chaudhary (59 years)
– Nityanand Rai (58 years)
– Kirtivardhan Singh (58 years)
– Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (57 years)
– Shobha Karandlaje (57 years)
– Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhania (57 years)
– Bhupati Raju Srinivas Varma (56 years)
– Tokhan Sahu (55 years)
– Dharmendra Pradhan (54 years)
– Bhupender Yadav (54 years)
– Annapurna Devi (54 years)
– Ashwini Vaishnaw (53 years)
– Kiren Rijiju (53 years)
– Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (52 years)
– Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya (52 years)
– Bandi Sanjay Kumar (52 years)
– Jitin Prasada (50 years)
– Ajay Tamta (50 years)
Ministers Aged 40 to 49
– Murlidhar Mohol (49 years)
– Satish Chandra Dubey (49 years)
– Pabitra Margherita (49 years)
– Dr. Chandrashekhar Pemmasani (48 years)
– Ravneet Singh (48 years)
– Dr. L. Murugan (47 years)
– Kamlesh Paswan (46 years)
– Raj Bhushan Chaudhary (46 years)
– Jayant Chaudhary (45 years)
– Savitri Thakur (45 years)
– Sukanta Majumdar (44 years)
– Anupriya Patel (43 years)
– Chirag Paswan (42 years)
– Shantanu Thakur (41 years)
Ministers Aged 30 to 39
– K. Rammohan Naidu (36 years)
– Raksha Nikhil Khadse (37 years)
This time, the Modi government has struck a balance between youth and women in its cabinet. Seven women have been appointed, making up less than 10 percent of the total ministers. Nirmala Sitharaman, Shobha Karandlaje, and Anupriya Patel have retained their positions. New female ministers include three-time MP Raksha Khadse (daughter-in-law of Maharashtra leader Eknath Khadse), Savitri Thakur from Madhya Pradesh, Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhania from Gujarat, and Annapurna Devi from Jharkhand.
Around 18 ministers are 50 years old or younger. Notable young ministers include K. Rammohan Naidu, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Savitri Thakur, Shantanu Thakur, L. Murugan, Kamlesh Paswan, Raksha Khadse, Satish Dubey, Rajbhushan Chaudhary Nishad, Jitin Prasada, Jayant Chaudhary, Chandrashekhar Pemmasani, and Chirag Paswan.
When Narendra Modi took office for the second time in 2019, the cabinet’s average age dropped by two years compared to the previous term. The oldest minister in the 2019 cabinet was Ram Vilas Paswan, while Smriti Irani was the youngest, followed by Minister of State Anurag Thakur. Among the central ministers, a dozen were aged between 60 and 70, eight were between 50 and 60, and two were under 50. For ministers with independent charge, all except Kiren Rijiju were over 50 years old. The average age of the Modi cabinet in 2019 was 59.36 years.
In 2021, when the council of ministers expanded, Nisith Pramanik (35 years) became the youngest minister, while the oldest was Som Prakash at 72. Other ministers under 50 included Smriti Irani (45 years), Kiren Rijiju (49 years), Mansukh Mandaviya (49 years), Kailash Choudhary (47 years), Sanjeev Balyan (49 years), Anurag Thakur (46 years), Dr. Bharti Pravin Pawar (42 years), Anupriya Singh Patel (40 years), Shantanu Thakur (38 years), John Barla (45 years), and Dr. L. Murugan (44 years). The average age of the 43 ministers sworn in 2021 was 56 years. However, the overall average age of the new council of ministers increased to 58 years. Before the reshuffle and expansion, the average age was 61 years.
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Like in 2014, the 2019 Modi cabinet did not include any MPs over 75 years old. In 2016, Najma Heptulla and Kalraj Mishra had to leave the cabinet. However, in the 2024 cabinet, Jitan Ram Manjhi (79 years) is the only minister over 75.
