Rajnath Singh assumes office of the Defence Minister

NEW DELHI: Rajnath Singh took over the responsibility as the Defence Minister, today. On his arrival at the Ministry of Defence in South Block, Singh was received by the Minister of State for Defence Shripad Yesso Naik, three Services? Chiefs, Defence Secretary Shri Sanjay Mitra, Chairman DRDO Dr G. Satheesh Reddy, Secretary (Defence Production) Dr. Ajay Kumar and Mrs S Kutty, Secretary ESW. Shri Rajnath Singh was Minister of Home Affairs since May 27, 2014.nnSingh was given a brief presentation on the functioning of the MoD and all the four Departments of the MoD namely Department of Defence, Department of Defence Production, Department of Ex-serviceman Welfare and Department of Research and Development Organization.nnSingh instructed the officers to prepare detailed presentations on all Divisions and set time bound targets to achieve the desired outcome.nnA Profile:nnSingh was born on 10 July 1951 in district Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh. He did his masters in Physics from University of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. He was teacher by profession.nnHe served as Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1977 ? 1980 and 2001 ? 2003. He was Minister of Education in Govt of Uttar Pradesh in 1991 -1992. He served as Minister of Surface Transport in the Union Cabinet from 1999 to 2000.nnLater he was elected as Chief Minister in the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2000 ? 2002. In 2003, he served as Minister of Agriculture in the Union Cabinet.nnHe was elected to Rajya Sabha 1994 -1999 and again for 2003-2008. In 2009 he was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha.nnHe also served as Member in the Committee on Ethics on 07 October 2009. Singh was inducted in the Union of India?s Cabinet in a Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 27 May 2014 as the Minister of Home Affairs.nnHe is married to Savitri Singh and they have two sons.