Finance to foreign affairs: Modi's message in portfolios for new ministers

Ministers like Harsh Vardhan and Prakash Javadekar have returned to their initial portfolios of Modi government 1.0

The story of portfolio distribution of a Council of Ministers is as much in who the prime minister picked for a particular portfolio as it is in those he did not. On Friday afternoon, the Rashtrapati Bhavan released the list of portfolios allocated to 57 ministers — 24 of cabinet rank, nine ministers of state with independent charge, and 24 ministers of state.

The list of ministers sworn in on Thursday revealed that the prime minister rewarded MPs who won their respective Lok Sabha seats against heavy odds or included those known to hail from humble backgrounds.

He dropped those