| NEW
DELHI: Ambika Soni, who had served as Minister of Tourism and Minister of Culture
in the outgoing UPA Government, is the Information and Broadcasting Minister in
the Manmohan Singh cabinet. Soni
is from the Rajya Sabha like her predecessor Anand Sharma who was widely being
tipped to continue in the same portfolio.
Interestingly,
the present Council of Ministers has two Ministers of State in the Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting - Mohan Jatua and Dr. S Jagathrakshakan.
Sources in
the Prime Minister’s Office told indiantelevision.com that there was a general
perception that the UPA has been voted back to power partly because of the awareness
created about its programmes, and the aim of having two MoS was to strengthen
this communication. Elected
to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab in August 2004, the 67-year-old Soni has served
in various capacities after her election to the Upper House in March 1976. She
became President of the All India Mahila Congress in 1998 and has been a General
Secretary in the All India Congress Committee since 1999. She has also served
in many Parliamentary Committees. While
Jatua is the Trinamool Congress member from West Bengal, Jagathrakshakan is from
Tamil Nadu and is from the DMK. Both belong to the Lok Sabha, and were sworn in
today. | 
