DMK leader MK Stalin, who will be sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister on Friday at a simple function in Raj Bhavan, will head a 34-member ministry.

He has retained the portfolio of Public, General Administration, Home, Special Initiatives, Special Programme Implementation and Welfare of Differently abled persons, according to a State government release.

Palanivel Thiagarajan will be the finance minister. An alumnus of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, he went on to do his Masters in Operations Research and doctorate in Applied Computers from State University of New York. This was followed by an MBA in Finance from the Sloan School of Management at MIT where Nobel laureate and renowned Italian economist Franco Modigliani was his teacher, according to information in public domain.

Thiagarajan had previously worked as an international investment banker for many years, in several trading, market sales, and management roles at Lehman Brothers (largely in New York), and Standard Chartered Bank (mostly based in Singapore) – where he last served as Senior Managing Director, Financial Markets, overseeing the sales of several fixed-income products globally, says information in his website.

Thangam Thennarasu will be in charge of industry; former Chennai mayor M Subramanian will be minister for medical and family welfare; senior leader Duraimurugan will be the number two in the Cabinet as Minister of Water Resources; other senior leaders in the cabinet are KN Nehru (Municipal Administration), I Periyasamy (Co-operation), K Ponmudi (Higher Education) and KKSSR Ramachandran (Revenue and Disaster Management). The ministry will have two women members — N Kayalvizhi Selvaraj as Minister for Adi Dravidar Welfare and P Geetha Jeevan as minister for Social Welfare and Women Empowerment.

Some of the other top ministers are Anitha R Radhakrishnan (Fisheries), K Ramachandran (Forests), R Sakkarapani (Food and Civil Supplies), V Senthil Balaji (Electricity, Prohibition and Excise), R Gandhi (Handlooms and Textiles) and T Mano Thangaraj (Information Technology), the release said.

Click for Ministers List and Portfolios

CII’s wishlist

Meanwhile, CK Ranganathan, Chairman, CII Southern Region, said that under the leadership of Stalin, Tamil Nadu would make rapid strides on the socio-economic development with focus on inclusive growth. One of the key priorities of the new Government should be to lay special focus on public health infrastructure to protect people from the pandemic which is shaking the whole nation. CII recommends to the new Government to adopt an economic agenda which would drive investment and create employment opportunities for the people of the State. Some of the priority sectors of focus includes Agriculture, Food Processing, Defence & Aerospace, Infrastructure, MSMEs, ICT, Automobile & Auto Components, Leather, Textiles, Light Engineering and Financial Services.

Ease of Doing Business is another important area CII would be working closely with the new Government. CII would push for an investor friendly policy regime to attract global players to start business in the State, he added. The new Government is taking over at a very challenging time for the State with the immediate priority of containing the pandemic, safeguarding its people and revitalizing the economy, said Srivats Ram, President, MCCI. He assured the fullest support from the Chamber and its members and stated that the Madras Chamber will stand by the government in its efforts, says a release from the chamber.

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