India’s Modi expands cabinet into one of biggest in recent years

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inducted 19 new ministers into his cabinet yesterday to bolster his two-year-old administration but drew criticism that he was backtracking on a promise of lean government.

The Indian government late yesterday released details of the new portfolios. Modi has moved his minister for human resources, Smriti Irani, seen as a close ally, to the textiles ministry. The minister of state for finance, Jayant Sinha, was shifted to aviation.

Prakash Javadekar, who was sworn in earlier in the day at a ceremony at the presidential palace, took on Irani’s former portfolio.

Among other big changes, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley dropped his additional charge as information and broadcasting minister.

Modi’s cabinet has now swelled to 78 – one of the biggest in years and a far cry from his 2014 election promise of “minimum government and maximum governance”.

“If this was a reform-minded government, you would be reducing the numbers of people and portfolios, shedding ministries,” said Manoj Joshi, a political expert at Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.