Kerala- born Priyanca Radhakrishnan becomes Minister in New Zealand

Kerala- born Priyanca Radhakrishnan has been appointed a Minister in Jacinda Ardern ’s reshuffled Cabinet in New Zealand. Priyanca is the first ever Indian origin minister in  New Zealand. Jacinda Ardern inducted five new ministers into her executive including Priyanca.

Born in Paravoor in Ernakulam district, Priyanca completed her schooling in Singapore before moving to New Zealand for further studies.

After finishing her study she worked for the underprivileged-women survivors of domestic violence, and migrant workers etc- and in September 2017 became a Member of Parliament representing Labour Party.

She was also nominated as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Ethnic Communities.

Priyanca will occupy the Ministerial role of Community and Voluntary Sector and will be the Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment.

She has become New Zealand’s first-ever Kiwi Indian Minister, the New Zealand Herald newspaper quoted Indian Weekender as saying.

Declaring the names of the new ministers, Prime Minister Ardern said: “I am excited to be bringing in some new talent, with the first-hand experience in the areas that they will be working in, and reflecting the New Zealand that elected us on the 17th of October”.

“Within this lineup, I”m playing to people”s strengths,” she said.

“This is a Cabinet and an executive that is based on merit but also happens to be incredibly diverse,” Ardern said, days after her center-left Labour Party won a landslide victory in the country’s general election

The new executive will be sworn in on Friday, which will be followed by the Cabinet’s first meeting.