In a much awaited reshuffle of his council of ministers, the Prime Minister has elevated three Ministers of State – Praful Patel, Shriprakash Jaiswal and Salman Khursheed to the Cabinet rank and inducted – Beni Prasad Verma, K C Venugopal and Ashvini Kumar in a minor expansion. They were administered oath of office by the President Mrs Pratibha Devi Singh Patil at a simple ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan last evening. Major changes have been made in the portfolios of several ministers. No Minister has been dropped. Praful Patel has been shifted from Civil Aviation to Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. Vayalar Ravi, who is the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, gets additional charge of Civil Aviation. Jaipal Reddy is the new Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, whereas Murli Deora who earlier held this charge shifted to Corporate Affairs. Kamal Nath, who was the Road Transport and Highways Minister, has been given Urban Development. C.P. Joshi, who was Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, is the new Road Transport and Highways Minister, while Vilasrao Deshmukh is the new the Rural Development Minister with additional charge of Panchayati Raj. Salman Khursheed gets Water Resources with additional charge of Minority Affairs. Shriprakash Jaiswal retains Coal. Kapil Sibal retains Human Resource Development with additional charge of Communications and Information Technology. Sharad Pawar retains Agriculture, sheds Food and Public Distribution & Consumer Affairs but get Food Processing Industries as well. Prof. K. V. Thomas gets Independent Charge of Food and Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs as Minister of State. Mr. B. K. Handique has been divested of Mines portfolio but retains the charge of Development of North Eastern Region. Mr. Dinsha Patel gets Independent Charge as Minister of State for Mines. Ajay Maken gets Independent Charge of Youth Affairs and Sports, while M.S. Gill has been given Statistics and Programme Implementation. Vir Bhadra Singh has been shifted from Steel to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises whereas Beni Prasad Verma, who was earlier a minister in the United Front government, has been given the Independent Charge of Steel Ministry as Minister of State. K.C. Venugopal, the other new face, gets portfolio of Minister of State for Power. Mr. Ashvini Kumar has made a come back after a gap as the Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences. Km. Selja, retains Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation along with additional charge of Culture. Subodh Kant Sahai shifted to Tourism. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal gets the additional charge of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences. AIR correspondent says that no changes have been made at the Cabinet level in the key Ministries of Finance, Home, Defence, External Affairs, Railways and Commerce and Industry.