INDIAN Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government had had a major reshuffle in what analysts said was an attempt at an image makeover ahead of general elections scheduled for 2014.
Salman Khursheed, 59, a lawyer and career politician who has held varied ministerial portfolios including law and commerce, was appointed foreign minister.
He replaces SM Krishna, 80, who resigned on Saturday saying he was making way for younger faces.
Shashi Tharoor, a former United Nations undersecretary-general who resigned in 2010 after a brief stint as junior minister for external affairs, and Manish Tiwari, a prominent spokesman of the Indian National Congress party, were among the new ministers.
Chiranjeevi, a popular film actor from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, whose party merged with Congress in 2011, was appointed junior minister with independent charge of the tourism ministry.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the 17 states where elections to legislative assemblies are due in 2013 and 2014.
A total of 22 ministers, including 17 new inductees, were sworn in at a ceremony on Sunday at the presidential palace.
Two new ministers were appointed to the cabinet and five ministers elevated to cabinet rank. The rest were sworn in as junior ministers.
"It (the ministry) is a combination of youth and experience," Singh told reporters after the ceremony. Singh also hoped it would be the last reshuffle before the 2014 general election.
Singh's Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance government has been mired in financial scandals over the past two years and has also been accused of failing to take correct policy decisions to speed up a slowing economy.
The prime minister said he was disappointed that Rahul Gandhi, a general secretary of the Congress Party and son of party president Sonia Gandhi, had once again turned down the offer of a cabinet position.
Rahul Gandhi - whose father, grandmother and great grandfather were all prime ministers of India - is widely seen as a future candidate of the Congress Party for the top job.
He has, however, said that for now he wishes to focus on reorganising and revitalising the Congress Party.
A major overhaul of the Congress Party organisational structure is also expected soon in view of the upcoming state assembly and general elections.
Several of the seven senior ministers who resigned on Saturday to make for the new ministers had said they were resigning to work for the party.
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