NEW DELHI: It’s not just the media contingent that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has avoided on his foreign tours. Modi has been keeping his own delegation thin as well, dropping officials and ministerial colleagues from the trips.A delegation of 42 accompanied Modi to Nepal on August 3-4, according to information available with ET. The team comprised top officials, personal secretaries, attendants and security officials. The delegation for his four-day visit to Japan beginning August 31 is also expected to be of similar size, but is likely to include a minister as key deals are expected to be signed during that visit, government sources told ET.Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh , often carried teams that had about 70 members, excluding the media party, on trips that were for two days. “The trimmer delegation is in keeping with the PM’s direction for cutting costs given the condition of the Indian economy ,” an official well versed with the mater said.Singh, on his last trip as PM to Myanmar for the BIMSTEC Summit on March 3-4, took an official delegation and accompanying delegations comprising several officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, secretaries, spokesperson, Press Information Bureau officers and a host of private secretaries, personal physicians and two cooks, government source said. Singh who had heart ailments avoided outside food on many occasions. His security team comprised 21 personnel.Modi’s official delegation to Nepal comprised nine people, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, according to sources. The PM did not take any ministers either to Nepal or earlier to Bhutan . Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Seetharaman had accompanied Modi during his Brazil trip where she led negotiations on the BRICS bank and contingency fund. Summits of multilateral organisations like BRICS and SAARC have a ministerial component too.The delegation that accompanied Modi to Nepal comprised physicians, personal secretaries, the PMO information officer, attendants and, interestingly, two paramedics besides a translator. Sources said Modi wants to cut time at mid-way halts on route to destinations that are far away, such as Brazil. He insisted on refuelling at Germany on way back from Brazil in July, instead of spending a night there unlike Singh, they said