Prime Minister Narendra Modi has revamped his Cabinet By bringing in 19 new faces

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expansion of his Council of Ministers turned out to be a redrawing of his entire team, with major changes in portfolios held by senior members. This seems to be a consequence of a very thorough performance appraisal done by Mr.Modi of his Ministers over th last three months, during his monethly meetings with his entire council.

Prakash Javadekar, promoted on Tuesday morning to cabinet rank, was one of the biggest gainers in the prestigious Human Resource Development portfolio.  He replaces Smriti Irani, who has been handed the Textiles portfolio.  This brings to an end Ms. Irani’s controversyridden tenure, which saw unrest break out in campuses across the country.
By all accounts Modi’s Cabinet reshuffle is novel and major but it will not change the contours of the power balance at the top. For, he has left veterans Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari untouched. Arun Jaitley has lost I&B but this loss isn’t big enough to dent his position vis a vis Modi given that Finance, the all-powerful Ministry, remains firmly under him. Jaitley was considered a “reluctant” I&B Minister. The ministry, vital to shaping the public image of the Modi government, will have a relatively conservative but senior M Venkaiah Naidu.

Lionel Messi Announced His Retirement From International Football

Lionel Messi:

Lionel Andrés Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe, the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a steel factory manager, and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. On his father's side, he is of Italian and Spanish heritage, the great-grandson of immigrants from Marche and Catalonia, and on his mother's side, he is of primarily Italian descent Growing up in a tight-knit, football-loving family, "Leo" developed a passion for the sport from an early age, playing constantly with his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and his cousins, Maximiliano and Emanuel Biancucchi, both of whom became professional footballers. At the age of four years, he joined local club Grandoli, where he was coached by his father, though his earliest influence as a player came from his maternal grandmother, Celia, who accompanied him to training and matches. He was greatly affected by her death, shortly before his eleventh birthday; since then, as a devout Catholic, he has celebrated his goals by looking up and pointing to the sky in tribute of his grandmother.


 Born and raised in central Argentina, Messi was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child. At age 13, he relocated to Spain to join Barcelona, who agreed to pay for his medical treatment. After a fast progression through Barcelona's youth academy, Messi made his competitive debut aged 17 in October 2004. Despite being injury-prone during his early career, he established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, finishing 2007 as a finalist for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award, a feat he repeated the following year. His first uninterrupted campaign came in the 2008–09 season, during which he helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football. At 22 years old, Messi won the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year award by record voting margins.