The
much talked about second cabinet reshuffle and expansion of the Narendra Modi
government is over. And it has thrown some very curious talking points.
One
of them is about the introduction of an interesting innovation – a separate
Ministry of Communications.
The
routine practice so far has been about clubbing together these two elements of
the communication ecology – telecommunication and information-technology - in a
single ministry. Manmohan Singh had his Communications
& Information-Technology minister in the government that was followed
by Narendra Modi who appointed Ravi Shankar Prasad as the Communications & Information Technology minister when he formed
the government in May 2014.
That
is not the case anymore.
Manoj
Sinha who was a junior Railways Minister so far has been promoted as the
Minister of State (Independent Charge), Communications
in addition to his old portfolio, ie., MoS (Railways).
Ravi
Shankar Prasad, who was the Communications
& Information Technology minister so far, is now Electronics & Information Technology minister along with the
additional charge of the Ministry of Law
& Justice.
And
before the July 5 reshuffle, the economically vital sectors of any country in
the modern times - telecommunication and information-technology - fell under
his purview.
Now
that there is a separate Ministry of
Communications – the pressing question is - what this ministry would look
after?
As
telecommunication has been removed from the ambit of the Electronics & Information Technology ministry and put under the
Communications ministry, we come
across some pertinent questions.
A
Google search on the definition of Communications
says - "means of sending or
receiving information, such as telephone lines or computers".
Furthermore,
the Wikipedia writes about the Information
& Communications Technologies (ICT) as - "Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extended
term for information technology (IT) which stresses the role of unified
communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and
wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software,
middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access,
store, transmit, and manipulate information".
It
means the Communications ministry
should cover the telecommunication sector as well as the computing
technologies, i.e., internet (means of
sending or receiving information). At least that should be the case - going
by the available definitions in the related literature.
But
then what Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad would do with his Electronics & Information Technology ministry?
Google
search about the term information
technology returns with the following definition - "the study or use of systems (especially computers and
telecommunications) for storing, retrieving, and sending information."
While
it defines 'electronics' as - "the
branch of physics and technology concerned with the design of circuits using
transistors and microchips, and with the behaviour and movement of electrons in
a semiconductor, conductor, vacuum, or gas".
In
simple terms, the Ministry of Electronics
& Information Technology also concerns with the telecommunication
sector and the computing technologies. It would create problems if the roles
are not properly demarcated and defined then.
Also,
the Government of India web directory page on the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
shows that the Department of Electronics
& Information Technology (DeitY), Department
of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Department
of Posts together form the Ministry.
So,
there is a clear case of overlapping in the functional areas of the now
separated Communications ministry and
the Information Technology ministry.
And this functional overlapping has been the reason, so far, behind clubbing
all the communication technologies together in a ministry.
In
a communications ecology increasingly dominated by smartphones along with the
growing penetration of information technology in everyday life - something that
is again driven by telecom revolution in India - DeitY and DoT must coordinate
and act together to ensure an efficient monitoring environment. Also, we need
to keep in mind here that almost all the major telecom firms are also big
internet service providers.
How
would they feel if they are regulated by two separate ministries now – as DoT
is now under the Ministry of
Communications while DeitY remains under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology?
In
other words, there would be two ministries to approach now – one ministry for
the telecommunication related practices – and the other ministry for data
issues – and the related baggage of dealing with two functional heads and the
trail of manpower that follows them. It can simply turn out to be a too
difficult to handle.
And
where would the Department of Post would go?
A
separate Ministry of Communications
sounds good but the government needs to answer these questions first.
Obviously, the government would have thought on this line. Let's see the
blueprint it comes out with.
©SantoshChaubey
