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New Delhi: Hardeep Singh Puri, the former diplomat who displayed unflinching altruism in driving from the background the construction of new Parliament and navigating India through two back-to-back oil crises, seems to have been rewarded for scam-free tenure in ministries otherwise considered minefields. Puri, 72, a minister for housing and urban affairs and petroleum and natural gas in the outgoing Modi 2.0 government, was among the ministers sworn in on Sunday in Modi's new administration. Born in Delhi, the 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Puri claims to be affiliated to ABVP - the students' body aligned to BJP, during his student days at Hindu College of the Delhi University (DU), where he received his bachelor and master's degrees in history. He officially joined BJP in January 2014 after retiring from the service. He was inducted into the Council of Ministers as Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs in September 2017. He was given the additional charge of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Civil Aviation and the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry in May 2019. In July 2021, he was elevated as the Union Minister and given the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas alongside Housing and Urban Affairs. While Puri ensured the delivery of the new Parliament building on time as housing and urban development minister, he navigated the country through twin oil crises - an oil price spike and the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war on net importing nations like India. As the prices began to climb in the last quarter of 2021 and spiked after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he ensured Indian consumers of petrol, diesel, and LPG did not feel the heat. State-owned oil firms under his administrative control froze retail rates, suffering unprecedented losses. They were allowed to recoup them when rates fell. This ensured inflation did not heat up while oil profitability was maintained. In fact, oil PSUs booked record profits in the fiscal ended March 31, 2024. Puri also resisted Western pressure, allowing oil firms to buy oil from Russia that was being shunned by some in Europe and the US after the Ukraine invasion and was available at a discount. From minuscule levels in the pre-war era, Russian oil made up almost 40 per cent of all oil India imported. This helped cement India's ties with Moscow and provide oil firms cushion to absorb losses on selling petrol and diesel at rates below cost. Puri successfully defended India's stance and balanced it with continuing its engagement with Saudi Arabia-led OPEC, whose share in the country's oil imports fell drastically. All this he did while maintaining a scam-free administration. There has been no contracting scam in the award of any project in housing and urban development and no head-turning headlines in the oil ministry, which in previous regimes had seen multiple controversies. Before joining IFS, Puri worked as a history lecturer at the DU's St Stephen's College. In his four-decade-long diplomatic tenure, Puri served as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013. Previously, he had been the chairman of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, president of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from August 2011 to November 2012, secretary-general of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism in New York, and vice-president of the International Peace Institute. He was also stationed at important posts in Brazil, Japan, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom. Between 1988 and 1991, he was the coordinator of the UNDP/UNCTAD Multilateral Trade Negotiations Project to help developing countries in the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations. He also served as the chairman of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee from January 2011 to February 2013. Puri's last posting before his retirement was as a secretary (economic relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs from 2009 to 2013.

Narendra Modi on Sunday was sworn-in as the Prime Minister of India for the third consecutive time by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi.His swearing-in ceremony was followed by Cabinet ministers taking oath of office. Senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, JP Nadda and others were administered oath by the President. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under the leadership of PM Modi will be forming the government at the Centre for the third term in a row.Modi's team 1. Amit Shah 110860298Rajnath Singh 110860365Nitin Gadkari 110860376JP Nadda 110860391Shivraj Singh Chouhan 110860829Nirmala Sitharaman 110860843S. Jaishankar 110860952HD Kumaraswamy 110860975Piyush Goyal 110860994Dharmendra Pradhan 110860998Jitan Ram Manjhi 110861018Rajiv Ranjan Singh 110861031Sarbananda SonowalVirendra KumarKinjarapu Ram Mohan NaiduPralhad JoshiJual OramGiriraj SinghManohar Lal KhattarAshwini VaishnawJyotiraditya ScindiaBhupender YadavGajendra Singh ShekhawatAnnapurna DeviKiren RijijuHardeep Singh PuriMansukh MandaviyaG Kishan ReddyChirag PaswanCR PatilRao Indrajit SinghJitendra SinghArjun Ram MeghwalPrataprao Ganpatrao JadhavJayant ChaudharyJitin PrasadaShripad NaikPankaj ChaudharyKrishan PalRamdas AthawaleRamnath ThakurNityanand RaiAnupriya PatelV SomannaChandra Sekhar PemmasaniSP BaghelShobha KarandlajeKirti Vardhan SinghBL VermaShantanu ThakurSuresh GopiL MuruganAjay TamtaBandi Sanjay KumarKamlesh PaswanBhagirath ChoudharySatish Chandra DubeySanjay SethRavneet Singh BittuDurgadas UikeyRaksha Nikhil KhadseSukanta MajumdarSavitri ThakurTokhan SahuRaj Bhushan ChoudharyBhupathi Raju Srinivasa VarmaHarsh MalhotraNimuben BambhaniaMurlidhar MoholGeorge KurianPabitra MargheritaA historic moment for ModiThe event was considered as an extraordinary one since Narendra Modi is the only leader after former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who has been elected for a third consecutive term after completing the full tenure of each previous term.Meanwhile, posters featuring PM-designate Narendra Modi were put up in Delhi ahead of his swearing-in ceremony.Around 1,100 traffic police personnel of the Delhi Police were deployed and an advisory was issued to the public for the traffic movement. Route arrangements were also made for the delegates as part of the arrangements for the oath ceremony held on June 9, 2024.'Neighbourhood First'Several leaders and State heads of neighbourhood region and Indian Ocean region were invited for PM Modi's swearing-in ceremony as distinguished guests, a testament to India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy.The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in an official statement on Saturday said, "President of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe; President of Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu; Vice-President of Seychelles, Ahmed Afif; Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina; Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Kumar Jugnauth; Prime Minister of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'; and Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, have accepted the invitation to attend."Apart from the leaders and state heads, more than 250 workers who were involved in the construction of the Parliament also marked their presence in the ceremony.Meanwhile, highlighting the significance of the event, the MEA emphasised, "The visit of the leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his third consecutive term is in keeping with the highest priority accorded by India to its 'Neighbourhood First' policy and 'SAGAR' vision."Additionally, the MEA mentioned that besides participating in the swearing-in ceremony, the leaders will also grace a banquet hosted by President Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, later in the same evening.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also attended the ceremony. NDA's victoryIn the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 240 seats, with the NDA obtaining a total of 293 seats out of 543 in the lower house.Congress fought the election as part of the INDIA bloc and the parties together were able to prevent BJP from getting a majority on its own in Lok Sabha.The Congress, part of the INDIA bloc, managed to secure 99 seats, while other parties like Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, and DMK won 37, 29, and 22 seats respectively.

Former Union minister and National Congress Party (Ajit) member Praful Patel on Sunday expressed his reservations over being offered a Minister of State with independent charge position in the to-be- formed NDA cabinet under BJP leader Narendra Modi."Last night we were informed that our party will get a Minister of State with independent charge...I was earlier a Cabinet Minister in the Union Government, so this will be a demotion for me. We have informed the BJP leadership and they have already told us to just wait for a few days, they will take remedial measures," Patel said.Patel is former Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises. Patel was in-charge of civil aviation ministry between 2004 and 2011 under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led UPA governments.The ruling Mahayuti, which includes the BJP, Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the NCP headed by Ajit Pawar, won 17 out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Among these 17 states, NCP (Ajit) could win just one seat.The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Sharad Pawar-headed NCP (SP), won 30 seats.— ANI (@ANI) Earlier in the day, Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the Ajit Pawar faction of the party wanted a Cabinet berth in the new government."We had offered a Minister of State with independent charge. The NCP wanted a cabinet post for Praful Patel, they wanted a Cabinet berth for Patel as he had been a cabinet minister and it would be a problem for him to accept a MoS," Fadnavis said.— ANI (@ANI) "However in coalition politics a policy was put as to which allies would get how much and for one ally we could not change it, as there are other allies too. However they told us that consider our demand during the Cabinet expansion and they are willing to wait till then," Fadnavis added. A Mumbai court recently quashed an Enforcement Directorate (ED) order seeking the attachment of his properties worth over Rs 180 crore in connection with a money laundering case related to alleged illegal assets of late Iqbal Mirchi.

The incident where an IndiGo plane was seen landing and an Air India aircraft taking off from the same runway in less than a minute at the Mumbai airport is now under the lens of India's aviation watchdog.Soon after the said incident came into light, DGCA has derostered the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) who was on duty at the time of the incident on Saturday. Both airlines, IndiGo and Air India have initiated a probe into the matter. A video of one plane landing and another taking off from the same runway has been shared on social media. Response of DGCA and airlines on incident: "We are conducting a probe and have already de-rostered the ATCO involved in the incident," the DGCA official said. Mumbai airport is a single-runway operation with two crossing runways. On a single runway RW27 at the Mumbai airport, there are around 46 arrivals and departures per hour. IndiGo said its aircraft continued the approach and landing as per the ATC instructions. "On June 8, IndiGo flight 6E 6053 from Indore was given landing clearance by ATC at Mumbai Airport. The Pilot in Command continued the approach and landing and followed ATC instructions," IndiGo said in a statement. "AI657 from Mumbai to Trivandrum was on take-off roll on June 8. The Air India aircraft was cleared by Air Traffic Control to enter the runway and subsequently cleared for take-off. The Air India aircraft continued with the take-off roll in accordance with laid down procedures. An investigation has been initiated by the authorities to find out more about the clearance given to the airlines," said Tata-owned Air India.Can two flights operate on same runaway?Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) are allowed to clear up to two arrivals and two departures within three minutes as per standard operating procedures, subject to certain conditions. The separation between two aircraft can be reduced if the visibility is good, informed a source to PTI. "In this particular case that happened on Saturday at the Mumbai airport, the visibility was good and there was no air prox situation with respect to the landing IndiGo flight and the taking off Air India flight," said the source to PTI. "There might have been a delay in quite fair visibility. The tower controller is allowed to reduce separation minima between two aircraft's if reasonable assurance has been established by visualising both aircraft's. In the video it can be seen that departure has crossed V2 speed -- the speed at which the aircraft may safely climb with one engine inoperative and nosed up and on the other end of runway arrival is touching down," he explained. ATCs are under "significant pressure" when there is high density traffic at airports with the safety of aircraft and passengers, the source said, adding that the DGCA probe will be looking at whether all norms were followed by the ATC as well as the pilots concerned.According to an Airports Authority of India (AAI) source, as a rule, departing aircraft have to cross the end of the runway or take a turn, only after which the ATC can issue the landing clearance for arriving aircraft."However, in this case, this was not allegedly not followed," the source said."Mumbai airport is one of the high-density airports, which means that the number of flight movements is high. On a single runway RW27 at the airport, there are around 46 arrivals and departures per hour," said another source.(with PTI inputs)