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Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected for the first time in 2014 on a slogan of "minimum government, maximum governance", which he explained as taking quick decisions and trying to sell off some businesses. The government has earmarked 23 public sector units (PSUs) for sale but so far its record has been anemic. It raised a total of Rs 180 billion in 2019-20, when the target was Rs 1.05 trillion in the 2019 Budget. But many of the so-called sales have been pure subterfuge. For example, ONGC, a PSU, was forced to buy the government's entire stake in HPCL, another PSU, for nearly Rs 400 billion, which was shown as revenue for the government but landed ONGC with an enormous debt. The government has become a tad smaller in that the Council of Ministers has shrunk from a total of 75, including the Prime Minister, in 2017 to a total of just 63 today. The United States with an economy 10 times the size of India has 23 cabinet members, plus President Donald Trump. Salaries of ministers maybe less than those in the US but the perks, with no questions asked, would make even Trump envious. In addition, even the minister with the most insignificant portfolio gets a bungalow in the center of Delhi, called Lutyens Delhi, where one bungalow sold for Rs 4.77 billion in 2018. The area is, therefore, also known locally as 'Lootyens Delhi'. Each minister has an office with civil servants, who also have enormous salaries and perks, especially after the Seventh Pay Commission, with Dearness Allowance at 17% of basic salary and power, with permanent jobs, pensions and healthcare, for life. Compared to countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other large countries, our government is apparently very small, wrote Ajit Ranade. India has about 7 taxpayers for every 100 voters. Which is about right because 92% of Indians have wealth less than $10,000, and 92% of women and 82% of men earn less than Rs 10,000 per month. The threshold for paying income tax is Rs 250,000, which is 400% of India's per capita income, among the highest in the world. That is because Indians earn so little. About 50 million Indians still live in extreme poverty defined as earning less than $1.9 per day, about $700 in a year. In Britain, with a comparable GDP at $2.8 trillion, income tax starts at 12,500 pounds (GBP) per year, which converts to Rs 1.1 million per year, for a single person. This is 50% of average salary of full time workers at 35,423 GBP. India has a "bloated bureaucracy" which costs over Rs 2.7 trillion in wages, pensions and establishment expenditure, wrote Omkar Goswami. Add in subsidies and interest payment on previous debt and revenue expenditure will be 74% of entire government spending. The government appears small to Ranade because the pot is small. Because people have nothing. It is all relative.