The Big Story: Maximum governance?

Eschewing his poll-time slogan of "minimum government, maximum governance", Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that there will be a cabinet "expansion", rather than a "reshuffle", on Tuesday. Nineteen new members will be added to the Union council of ministers, which currently has 66 members including the prime minister. But the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is still committed to maximum governance, Modi explained. Files now pass through the council much faster, attaining "moksh" in record time instead of meandering through various committees and groups of ministers, the "dhams" of the previous government.

Modi's first move after coming to power was to appoint a council of ministers that looked leaner, meaner, more poised for action. He stripped down the cumbersome apparatus set up by the United Progressive Alliance, abolishing the previous regime's numerous Groups of Ministers and Empowered Groups of Ministers. Ministries were merged, standing committees were vanished and the government seemed set to reverse the UPA's famous "policy paralysis". Where the previous council of ministers had had 77 members, this new dispensation started life with just 45. Since then, however, there has been a creeping spread of government, with new ministers being added in November 2014. If the NDA did away with superfluities like the ministry of overseas Indian affairs, it did not object to the attractively named new ministry of AYSUH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy). After today's expansion, the government could look as large as the UPA.

The changes to the ministry, Modi has argued, will import new efficiencies into government and create a more socially inclusive council of ministers. The list of new additions contains people chosen for their expertise in specific fields as well as five Dalit and two tribal ministers. Admirable sentiments all, but could the government please explain the heavy representation of Uttar Pradesh, which, purely coincidentally, of course, is set to go into polls next year? Some might argue that the expansion is driven by the need to appease allies and electoral constituencies rather than more virtuous considerations of governance.

The Big Scroll: Scroll.in on the day's big story

Yogi Adityanath's bid to become the Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial face in Uttar Pradesh and his party's attempt to pack him off with a ministerial berth at the Centre was holding up the cabinet reshuffle, writes Dhirendra K Jha.

Political pickings
1. After the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged a dark conspiracy at the Centre to "paralyse the Chief Minister's Office".
2. Maharashtra, too, is scheduled for a cabinet expansion on July 7. Nine new ministers are likely to be inducted, including three from the Shiv Sena.
3. The Kerala government has cleared an amendment to the Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualifications) Amendment Bill to enable VS Achuthanandan, veteran of Communist Party of India (Marxist), to serve as chief of the proposed fourth administrative reforms commission.

Punditry
1. In the Hindu, Bhaskar Dutta on how the Brexit was based on bad economic judgement and xenophobia, and a floundering Britain can expect no favours from the European Union.
2. In the Indian Express, Peter Ronald D'Souza on how the fun begins for Raghuram Rajan, who promises to go back into academia after his stint as Reserve Bank governor.
3. In the Economic Times, Tasleema Nasreen on how Bangladesh has degenerated into a fundamentalist country and its government is responsible.

Giggles

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Australia’s Shane Warne was proper Hollywood. Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan was a proper one-of-a-kind. Kumble was a proper workman. He didn’t get those 619 Test wickets, he earned them. While Warne and Murali were thinking of ways to get the ball to turn more, Kumble was trying to figure out how much turn would be enough.

Experts like to repeat that cricket is a game of angles. This engineer from Bangalore knew it better than most. He knew his probabilities too: bowl the same delivery on a good spot over and over, and the probability of a batsman making a mistake rises.