The Modi Government upgrades the Tourism and Culture, giving it Cabinet status while appointing a new minister after the two-year tenure of outgoing minister Prahlad Singh Patel.

The importance of the Tourism sector was reflected by the move of the Narendra Modi government to upgrade the Tourism and Culture Ministry to Cabinet stature and appoint G Kishan Reddy from State Minister for Home to the new Cabinet Minister for Tourism, Culture. As part of bringing synergies between departments of the government, Prime Minister Modi clubbed the Department of DoNER (Development of North Eastern Region) with the Tourism & Culture.

The Narendra Modi government kept the record for the Minister of Tourism not staying in office for more than two years intact as Kishen Reddy replaced Prahlad Singh Patel as the new Tourism and Culture Minister of India in the cabinet reshuffle and expansion on Wednesday.

Apart from upgrading to Cabinet rank, the Tourism Ministry will have two Ministers of State to assist the Cabinet Minister—Ajay Bhatt and Sripad Yesso Naik.

The last two decades alone, starting 2000, has seen 11 tourism ministers, making the average tenure of less than 2 years. With a few exceptions like Jagmohan or Ambika Soni, who remained in the Tourism Minister’s post for more than two years, there are not many in that list. Prahlad Singh Patel also completed two years in office.

Elected from the Secunderabad constituency to the Lok Sabha in the 2019 general elections, Kishan Reddy was picked as a Minister of State for Home in 2019. It’s a big promotion for Reddy to be elevated to a Cabinet position within a short span of two years.