Modi begins with a big bang

As he walks into a historic second term as the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi yesterday send clear signals of what he intends to do in his next five years with a major shakeup in his new Cabinet. Modi yesterday named his trusted aide Amit Shah to the key home affairs ministry while moving Nirmala Sitharaman from defense to finance ministry in a second shock. Career diplomat S. Jaishankar became the foreign minister.

Shah was the president of Modi’s rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party and had never served as a national minister. He was rewarded for the party’s second landslide victory in the country’s national election. Shah will now have to pursue Modi’s agenda insecurity, immigration, and other key national issues.

“Congratulations to @AmitShah ji who transformed BJP into one of the largest political organizations in the world & will now play a bigger role in building #NewIndia,” tweeted Shah’s cabinet colleague Smriti Irani. Modi replaced around three dozen ministers and deputy minister from the last administration, bringing in many new lawmakers.

The induction of Jaishankar, a China expert, as the new foreign minister was seen as a sign that Modi will put more emphasis on tricky diplomacy with neighboring countries in his second term. Jaishankar, who was the top foreign ministry official until his retirement last year, was an influential advisor to Modi on diplomacy during his first five years in power. Twenty four cabinet rank ministers and more than 30 deputy ministers were sworn in at the presidential palace on Thursday.

According to a top official at the government’s main think tank, in the first 100 days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term, a slew of ‘big-bang’ economic reforms are planned. The reforms will include changes in labor laws, privatization moves, and creation of land banks for new industrial development, said Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman of NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India), who reports directly to Modi.

“They (foreign investors) will have reasons to be happy. You will see a slew of reforms I can assure you of that. We are going to pretty much hit the ground running,” Kumar said in an interview. Modi is chairman of the think tank. Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were last weeks declared landslide winners of India’s general election with an increased majority in the Lok Sabha. He was sworn into office for his second term on Thursday night.

Niti Aayog, which now acts as the main center for policy making and for driving new ideas, was founded four years back when Modi scrapped the 65-year old planning commission, saying that India was stifled with Soviet-style bureaucracy