Real winners of the reshuffle

New responsibilities for the finance minister and the home minister indicate the government's focus on privatisation and cooperatives

A week has gone by since Prime Minister Narendra Modi effected his biggest ministerial reshuffle in his seven-year-long tenure in South Block. A 45 per cent increase in the size of the Union Council of Ministers in one stroke is almost unprecedented — with its strength going up from 53 to 77, excluding the prime minister. About a dozen existing ministers were dropped earlier on July 7, making way for the expansion as well as promotion of about half a dozen ministers of state to Cabinet rank. Even after this massive reshuffle, Mr Modi has room for three more ministers