Prasad targets reviving telecom, reforming MTNL, BSNL

Bringing telecom industry to health and revive the ailing state-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL are some of the top priorities of Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Prasad, the new minister for Communication, IT and Law and Justice, said that he would soon take the data protection bill to Parliament and strengthen the rules around social media to curb spreading rumours. The Data Protection Bill, 2018, deals with privacy and security of data and information of Indian citizens.

“We will try to take long term view of the sectoral issues and address in the long-term interest of the sector,” he told reporters on Saturday.

In telecom, an industry, which is in throes of financial distress but at the same time, rolling up its sleeves for 5G play in the global arena, Prasad's top priorities will be to find ways and means to set the sector back to its growth trajectory.

As the telecom minister in the first half of the previous Modi government, Prasad led successful auction of telecom spectrum.

During his tenure as the Minister for Electronics and IT, the Cabinet approved a new electronics policy that aims to create a $ 400 billion electronic manufacturing ecosystem by 2025, and a separate policy for software to position India as a hub for product development.

Under his watch as IT Minister in the previous dispensation, the mobile phone and component manufacturing units in India increased to 268 in the last 3-4 years resulting in estimated employment for 6.7 lakh people (direct and indirect).