The Union Council of Ministers has been reshuffled with eight new faces in it. The new Ministers were administered oath of office and secrecy by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at an impressive function at Rashtrapati Bhavan last evening. In the reshuffle, three ministers were elevated to the cabinet rank and the resignation of seven ministers has been accepted. Jairam Ramesh is the new Rural Development Minister, who replaces Vilasrao Deshmukh. He described the Rural Development as a challenging ministry. M Veerappa Moily has been shifted from Law to Corporate Affairs and Salman Khursheed brought in his place. Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi has been elevated to Cabinet rank and given the Railways portfolio, Beni Prasad Verma is now a Cabinet Minister for Steel, a portfolio he earlier held as Minister of State with Independent charge. Jayanti Natrajan has been given Environment Ministry. She said told media persons that the UPA government is committed to sustainable development. Veteran Parliamentarian from Andhra Pradesh V Kishore Chandra Deo has been inducted into the Cabinet, making him the second minister from the state after S Jaipal Reddy. The other new faces in the Council of Ministers are Jayanthi Natarajan- Environment and Forests, Paban Singh Ghatowar-Development of North Eastern Region, Sudip Bandopadhyaya -Health and Family Welfare, Jitendra Singh -Home, Milind Deora-Communication and IT and Rajiv Shukla -Parliamentary Affairs. Charan Das Mahant has also made a debut as MoS in Agriculture and Food Processing, Anand Sharma has been given additional charge of Textiles and P.K. Bansal Water Resources. Anand Sharma, however, retains Commerce and Industry and Bansal Parliamentary Affairs. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal continues to hold additional charge of Telecom, while Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi continues to hold additional charge of Civil Aviation. Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has been shifted to Science and Technology and Earth Sciences.Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed has been given the additional charge of HRD, V Narayanasamy and Ashwani Kumar shed Parliamentary Affairs portfolios which have gone to new entrant Rajiv Shukla. Harish Rawat, retains MoS for Agriculture and Food Processing. Mukul Roy has been given Ministry of Shipping as Minister of State. Seven Ministers including Dayanidhi Maran have been dropped. There is no change in the portfolios of Finance, Home, Defence and External Affairs ministries. With this the strength of the Council of Ministers has gone up to 68. Two ministers, Srikant Jena and Gurudas Kamat did not take the oath.