The 42-year-old Dayanidhi Maran was the minister of communications and IT in the previous Manmohan Singh Cabinet.  Dayanidhi Maran had reduced the mobile and landline call rates drastically during his tenure as Union IT and Communications minister.

Maran was instrumental in bringing big-ticket investments in the IT sector. He took various steps towards making India a chip manufacturing hub.  Maran, whose tenure was cut short in the previous government, has said this tenure is going to last for five years.

Issues

India's textiles industry is facing a major crisis. According to government estimates, about 5 lakh people have lost their jobs in this sector by March 31, due to economic slowdown which has drastically led to a fall in exports. However, industry groups, peg job loses at around 1 million.

The textiles and garments industry is the second-largest employer in India after agriculture. It directly employs 35 million people and indirectly provides livelihood to about 88 million people.

What he plans to do

"My agenda of creating one crore additional employment is for five years. I want to complete my five-year term this time," he said.

Build world-class, manufacturing capacities and achieve a dominant place in the manufacture and export of textiles and clothing.

Equip the textiles industry to withstand the pressures of import penetration, and maintain its dominance in the growing domestic market.

Enable small & medium enterprises (SMEs) to achieve competitiveness and enable them to face the global scenario with confidence.