A number of key portfolios - including Health, Law, Information and Technology and Railways - have gone to new ministers and junior ministers who got a promotion in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers that underwent a reboot today.
The number of cabinet ministers has been boosted from 21 to 30 in the current reshuffle. The number of junior ministers has gone up too, from 23 to 45. There are fewer junior ministers with Independent Charge - the figure has dropped from nine to two.
Thirty-six new ministers joined the government and four high-profile ministers quit today in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mega cabinet reboot to offset criticism as the country emerges from a fierce second wave of Covid ahead of key elections.
PM Modi now has 77 ministers, nearly half of them new. Anurag Thakur and Hardeep Puri are among 15 new cabinet ministers.
Sarbananda Sonowal, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Narayan Rane, Bhupender Yadav and Ashwini Vaishnaw were also sworn in as cabinet ministers.
But the exits of IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar stood out on a day resignations made bigger news than new ministers.
This is PM Modi's first major overhaul of the Union Cabinet since he took office for a second term in 2019.
