Nirmala Sitharaman lands defence portfolio, Piyush Goyal gets Railway

Agencies

September 3, 2017

New Delhi, Sep 3: Nirmala Sitharaman emerged as the biggest gainer of the cabinet reshuffle today as Prime Minister Modi gave her the heavyweight Defence portfolio, while Piyush Goyal replaced Suresh Prabhu in the Railway Ministry in a major rejig, which saw nine new faces being inducted.

Sitharaman became the first woman Defence Minister of the country since Indira Gandhi held the charge.

Sitharaman, who was holding the Commerce portfolio as a Minister of State, was elevated along with Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to the cabinet rank.

As the Defence Minister, Sitharaman will be a member of the crucial Cabinet Committee on Security whose members include the Prime Minister, Home Minister, External Affairs Minister and the Finance Minister.

Prabhu was shifted to the commerce and industry ministry, while Pradhan and Naqvi retained their portfolios of Oil and Gas and Minority Affairs respectively. Goyal will continue to head the Coal Ministry along with Railways.

Modi stripped cabinet minister Uma Bharti of the charges of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation and handed them over to Nitin Gadkari. Bharti will take care of Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Pradhan was given the additional charge of Skill Development Ministry. The Prime Minister also reposed faith in the administrative capabilities of three former government officials by giving them independent charge of crucial portfolios.

Former diplomat Hardeep Puri and former IAS officer Alphons Kannanthanam have been made MoS (Independent charge) of Housing and Urban Development and Tourism respectively.

R K Singh, former Home Secretary, was given charge of Power and New and Renewable Energy portfolios. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore replaced Vijay Goel in the Sports MInistry.

Goel, who earlier held independent charge, has been shunted as the Minister of State for Parliamentary Afairs and Statistics and Programme Implementation.

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Film on Gaza girl ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ receives Oscar nomination

News Network

January 23,2026

The Voice of Hind Rajab, inspired by the tragic final moments of a young Palestinian girl killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best International Feature Film category.

Directed by Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, the film recounts the true story of five-year-old Hind Rajab, who lost her life in January 2024 while fleeing Israeli bombardment with her family.

The film features the real audio of Hind’s desperate call to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, where she pleaded for help moments before the vehicle she was in was struck by 355 bullets.

The haunting narrative begins with a brief call made from the besieged Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza, where gunfire and armored vehicles drowned out every sound.

After witnessing the brutal killing of her family, she made a trembling call, her voice reduced to a whisper as she spoke of the massacre and her unbearable loneliness as the sole survivor.

Premiering at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2025, The Voice of Hind Rajab garnered widespread acclaim, receiving a record-setting 23-minute standing ovation and the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, the festival’s second-highest honor.

In her acceptance speech, Ben Hania dedicated the film to humanitarian workers and first responders in Gaza, emphasizing that Hind's voice symbolizes countless civilians affected by war.

She aims to give voice to victims often reduced to mere statistics, highlighting the broader suffering of civilians in war zones.

The film’s Oscar nomination underscores its powerful storytelling and ethical approach to depicting real-life tragedy, making it a crucial piece of contemporary cinema.

It serves not only as a narration of individual tragedy but also as an artistic and documentary response to the silence and censorship that often overshadow West Asian struggles and wars.

Using an innovative method she calls docufiction, Ben Hania bridges unvarnished reality and narrative structure, creating a work that is both artistically valuable and socially impactful.

Born in 1977 in Sidi Bouzid—later the epicenter of the Arab revolution—her background profoundly influenced her worldview and artistic approach.

She is a graduate of the Higher School of Audiovisual Arts of Tunis, Pantheon-Sorbonne University, and La Fémis in Paris, where her studies equipped her with the technical and theoretical tools needed to address complex subjects.

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