Ashwini Vaishnaw has retained the Railways Ministry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Vaishnaw has also been appointed the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, replacing Anurag Thakur, the BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh.
Vaishnaw held the Railway Ministry since July 2021. He had replaced Piyush Goyal, who led the Ministry from September 2017 to July 2021.
The Indian politician and former IAS officer served as the 39th Minister of Railways, 55th Communications Minister and 2nd Electronics & Information Technology Minister in Government of India from 2022–24 and a member of the Rajya Sabha representing Odisha since 2019.
Vaishnaw did his schooling at St. Anthony’s Convent School, Jodhpur and graduated from MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur in 1991 with a gold medal in an electronic and communications engineering course, before completing his M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur. He later joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1994 with an all-India rank of 27.
In 2008, he left for the US to do his MBA from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, following which he came back to India and joined GE Transportation as Managing Director. Later, joined Siemens as the Vice President – Locomotives & Head Urban Infrastructure Strategy.