New Delhi: With a focus on delivery as he prepares for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday handed key portfolios to ministers with ‘proven’ track record and sprang a surprise by elevating Nirmala Sitharaman as the first full-time woman Defence Minister.
Modi also promoted three other junior ministers — Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi — to cabinet rank and inducted nine new faces as Ministers of State.
