Mandavia gets Health portfolio; Scindia gets aviation; Puri gets additional charge of petroleum In the most comprehensive reshuffle of his council of ministers in his seven-year tenure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sacked many senior colleagues, elevated some, and infused the government with new, young faces. A new ministry of cooperation was also created. In all, 43 ministers were sworn in, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 77. The reshuffle had politics at its heart, but the inclusion of several technocrats and former bureaucrats suggested that governance and efficiency were the immediate priorities after the devastation left behind by the Covid-19 pandemic . The government seemed to have accepted responsibility for lapses, but signalled the intention to move ahead aggressively. Battling the optics of Covid-19 mismanagement – the crisis faced by migrants that drew the ire of the judiciary; the oxygen and hospital bed shortages; and the extend...