Narendra Modi 26 May 2014 at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He became the first Prime Minister born after India's independence from the British Empire. His first cabinet consisted of 45 ministers, 25 fewer than the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. 21 new ministers were added to the council of ministers in November 2014. During his premiership, India rose to the 77th rank from 142th in the 2018 Ease of Doing Business ranking by World Bank. The economic policies of Modi's government focused on privatisation and liberalisation of the economy, based on a neoliberal framework. Modi liberalised India's foreign direct investment policies, allowing
Narendra Modi favour of reservation based on income, a move supported by the RSS, but which was criticised as being discriminatory on the basis of caste. Foreign policy played a relatively small role in Modi's election campaign, and did not feature prominently in the BJP's election manifesto. Modi invited all the other leaders of SAARC countries to his swearing in ceremony as prime minister. He was the first Indian prime minister to do so. Modi's foreign policy, similarly to that of the preceding INC government, focused on improving economic ties, security, and regional relations. Modi continued Manmohan Singh's policy of "multi-alignment." The