Modi Cabinet Expansion Seen Paving Way for India Revival

By Unni Krishnan and Kartikay Mehrotra

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking to build on early steps to overhaul... Read More

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi expanded his cabinet for the first time since taking office in May as he seeks to accelerate growth in Asia’s third-largest economy and attract foreign investment.
Manohar Parrikar, formerly the chief minister of Goa state, became defense minister, allowing Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to focus solely on boosting the economy. Jaitley, who was hospitalized in September, has held the defense and finance posts since Modi won with the biggest Indian election mandate in 30 years. In total 21 ministers were sworn in yesterday.
“Modi has been able to get his key people into the team and that will boost the performance of the government,” Arun Kejriwal, a director at Kejriwal Research and Investment Pvt., said by phone yesterday. “With the complete team in place, it is expected that Modi will press the gas on reforms.”
Modi is looking to build on early steps to overhaul India’s economy, including more market-based energy pricing and a push to revive the manufacturing sector. His government has
vowed to press ahead with amending land, labor and foreign investment laws to make it easier for companies to do business.
Modi retains control of “all important policy issues and all other portfolios not allocated to any minister,” according to a statement from the president’s office last night. Suresh Prabhu, who advises Modi on the Group of 20 nations, joined the cabinet as railways minister. He took over from D. Sadananda Gowda, who was shifted to the Law and Justice Ministry.

‘No Excuses’

Modi has a sense of urgency and wants people in place who can deliver, according to Sandeep Shastri, director of the Centre for Research in Social Sciences and Education at Jain University in Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore.
“You are sending the sign that you mean business,” Shastri said. “Now there are no excuses.”
Parrikar, 58, a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, was elected to Goa’s legislative assembly in 1994. He’s been the state’s chief minister twice and is interested in genetics and cricket, according to a profile posted on a state website.
India, with border disputes with China in its east region and Pakistan to the west, is the world’s biggest arms buyer. It increased defense spending by 12 percent to 2.3 trillion rupees ($37 billion) from a year earlier as Modi seeks to modernize the armed forces and reduce India’s dependence on imports.

Coalition Partner

Prabhu, the G-20 adviser, is a chartered accountant who served as a minister in an earlier government led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party from 1998 to 2002, handling portfolios including heavy industries, environment and power. He had joined the BJP yesterday, quitting Shiv Sena, a regional party that had supported Modi’s government, Bloomberg India TV reported.
Shiv Sena, which boycotted the swearing-in ceremony, could leave the ruling coalition, party chief Uddhav Thackeray said in Mumbai yesterday. The party had sparred with the BJP over seat sharing in a Maharashtra state election last month.
Jaitley, who is 61 and has diabetes, spent more than a week in hospital in September following complications from surgery. He is trying to control an inflation rate and fiscal deficit that are among the highest in Asia.