India's ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government Sunday reshuffled its cabinet, inducting 22 ministers, out of which 10 are first-timers, in what is being touted as its latest attempt to overhaul its image ahead of the next general elections in 2014.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee administered the oath of office to seven new cabinet ministers and 15 other junior ministers, including two with independent charge, in a ceremony at his official residence at Rashtrapati Bhawan in the capital.

However, of the seven new cabinet ministers sworn in, only two are new faces. The rest, including junior Sports Minister Ajay Maken and junior Defense Minister M.M. Pallam Raju, have been elevated.

The most significant reshuffle was made in the External Affairs Ministry which is going to get 59-year-old Salman Khurshid as the new minister, replacing S.M. Krishna, who, along with six other ministers, quit the government Saturday to make way for the new faces.

The other significant change is Law Minister Veerappa Moily moving to the Petroleum Ministry while Ajay Maken is to take over Information and Broadcasting Ministry, along with Congress Spokesperson Manish Tiwari who has been also given independent charge of the ministry.

Shashi Tharoor, the country's former junior foreign minister, who was removed from his post for his controversial comments on social media, has been reinducted into the government as a Minister of State for Human Resource Development.

However, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi, though was not inducted into the cabinet, sources said that he would be made the Congress party's working president and play a key role in the run-up to the next general polls.

Experts say that the cabinet rejig is a huge recalibration by the UPA government mired in corruption scandals like the telecom scam, Commonwealth Games scam and coal scam, and criticism of inertia in policy-making.