Indo-Canadian Anita Anand became just the second woman to be appointed Canada’s minister of national defence as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his new Cabinet on Wednesday.

The Ministers were sworn in by governor-general Mary May Simon in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

Anand, who was the first Hindu to be become a cabinet minister when she was appointed minister of public services and procurement in 2019, has been promoted to the critical defence portfolio after being praised by Trudeau for her success in procuring Covid-19 vaccines for the country. Anand, who is of Tamilian-Punjabi heritage, replaced incumbent Harjit Sajjan, who appears to have been demoted, as he was named minister of international development and and minister responsible for Pacific economic development Canada.

Sajjan’s departure from defence, which he held since 2015 when Trudeau first became PM, was widely expected as he was criticized for the institutional sexual misconduct crisis that erupted in the Canadian Armed Forces under his watch.

Anand, 54, was described by Trudeau as his minister for vaccines and was among the Liberal Party’s star campaigners for the September 20 elections. She is the first woman to serve as defence minister since Kim Campbell in the 1990s.

Surprisingly, Bardish Chagger, former minister of diversity and inclusion and youth, was dropped from the cabinet. However, making her debut as a minister is 32-year-old Kamal Khera, who was born in Delhi, and is from the Brampton in the Greater Toronto Area. A former parliamentary secretary, Khera won praise as she went back to her profession of nursing as the pandemic first arrived in Canada in the spring of 2020 and was the first Canadian MP to be infected.

However, there were only three Indo-Canadians named to the 38-member cabinet (not including Trudeau), which previously each new cabinet announced by the PM, in 2015 and 2019, had featured four.

The cabinet, as was the case earlier, has gender parity.

There were some major changes other than Sajjan being shifted. outgoing foreign minister Marc Garneau has not returned to the cabinet and has been replaced by Melanie Joly.

Outgoing health minister Patty Hajdu, often criticised for her handling of the coronavirus crisis, remains in the ministry but in charge of indigenous services and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario.Taking her place heading the health ministry is Jean-Yves Duclos.