NEW DELHI - Following are the thumbnail sketches of the seven ministers of state (independent charge) in the new Manmohan Singh ministry:

Prithviraj Chavan

Age: 63 years

Academic qualifications: B.E.(Hons), M.S. Educated at BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan and University of California, Berkeley, US.

Experience: He was the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the previous government. He is a Rajya Sabha MP while his parents were parliamentarians for 17 years.

Dinsha Patel

Age: 72 years

Academic qualifications: Matriculate

Experience: A senior leader from Gujarat, he was elected to the state assembly for five terms from 1975 to 1996 and was a state PWD and parliamentary affairs minister from 1990 to 1995. A four-time MP since 1996, he was made a minister of state for petroleum and natural gas in February 2006. He has worked as a member of consultative committees of several ministries.

Salman Khurshid

Age: 56 years

Academic qualifications: Studied at Delhi Public School, St Stephen’s College, Delhi and St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was a Junior Research Fellow and then lecturer at Trinity College, Oxford. He is a practising Supreme Court lawyer.

Experience: Son of former external affairs minister late Khurshid Alam Khan and grandson of Zakir Hussain, India’s third president.

He was an officer on special duty in the PMO in the Indira Gandhi government and minister of state for external affairs from 1991-1996.

Jairam Ramesh

Age: 55 years

Academic qualifications: B.Tech., M.S. Educated at IIT, Bombay, Carnegie Mellon University and MIT, US.

Experience: A key member of the Congress think-tank. He belongs to Karnataka but was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2004 from Andhra Pradesh. Was minister of state for commerce when he quit to take charge of the Congress war room for the 2009 elections.

Sriprakash Jaiswal

Age: 64

Academic qualifications: Intermediate. Educated at DAV College, Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh)

Experience: Elected to the 13th and 14th Lok Sabha in 1999 and 2004. Was made minister of state for home affairs in 2004.

Krishna Tirath

Age: 54 years

Academic qualification: Master’s in Hindi and B.Ed. from Delhi University.

Experience: A social worker working for women empowerment and backward classes, Tirath was in the Delhi assembly for three terms (1984-2004) and held positions of deputy speaker and social welfare minister.

A close aide of chief minister Sheila Dikshit, she won in 2004 from the Karol Bagh seat and managed to secure a second term in parliament from the North West Delhi this time. She is credited for introducing the Rainwater Harvesting Bill in parliament in 2006.

Praful Patel (Nationalist Congress Party)

Age: 52 years

Academic qualifications: B.Com

Experience: He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996-97, 1998-99, and 2000. Elected to Rajya Sabha January 2001 and re-elected in 2006. He was minister of state (independent charge) for civil aviation in the previous government.