Highlights of Cabinet Reshuffle
What are the major changes?
Level of Education
Of the 77 ministers, 7 hold PhDs, 3 have completed MBA, 13 are lawyers, 6 are doctors, 5 are engineers, and 7 are former civil servants.
All in all, 68 hold graduate degrees.
More women, but still a long road ahead
Seven more female ministers were inducted, taking the total to 11, the highest number in the union government since 2004.
However, female representation still remains low with only 14% of the Council of Ministers (77 ministers in total) being women.
Decent mix of castes; more minority representation needed
Health Minister gets axed
The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan, and his deputy, resigned ahead of the cabinet reshuffle in a move that some have described as an “indirect admission of the failure over handling the pandemic”.
He has been replaced by Mansukh Mandaviya.
Ravi Shankar Prasad booted amidst Twitter spat
The Minister for Communications, Electronics & IT has been replaced at a time when the government has been locking horns with Twitter over compliance with Indian laws.
The confrontation with Twitter is set to continue under the new minister.
Bad job managing public opinion?
Prakash Javadekar’s resignation as the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and the chief spokesperson for the government seemed unavoidable after the government drew much flak for the mishandling of the pandemic.
Javadekar was also Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and some have suggested that his resignation may be more linked to his performance under this portfolio.
The Big Four (Finance, Foreign Affairs, Home and Defence) ministers, however, remain the same.
What do you think are the implications of the cabinet reshuffle? Let us know in the comments below!