BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The National People's Congress, the Chinese parliament, adopted a cabinet reshuffle plan at a plenary meeting here on Thursday in a bid to reduce bureaucracy and make the government more efficient in the world' most populous country.

The endorsement of the plan will bring down the number of ministries under the State Council to 25 from 27, with the breakup of the bulky Ministry of Railways and merger of several other government departments.