So, 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 ministry - the Ministry of Communications.
Manoj Sinha who was a junior
Railways Minister so far has been promoted as a senior minister. No he has not
been made a Cabinet Minister. But he has been given the independent charge of
his ministry.
He is now the Minister of State
(Independent Charge), Communications.
Now what this Communications
Ministry would look after - that is the million dollar question.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior NDA
member was the 'Communications & Information Technology' minister so far.
The all important sectors of any country in the modern times - telecom and
information-technology - fell under his purview.
Now, after the reshuffle/expansion,
Mr. Prasad is the 'Electronics & Information Technology' minister - with
additional charge of 'Law & Justice'.
So, what will these two
ministries do - 'Communications' and 'Electronics & Information
Technology'?
Has telecom been removed from the
ambit of the 'Electronics & Information Technology' ministry and put under
the 'Communications' ministry?
Or this independent entity named
as the 'Communications' ministry would have some other sectors to cover?
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 telecom as well as computing technologies, i.e., internet
(means of sending or receiving
information). At least that should be the case - going by the available
definition in the related literature.
But then what Mr. Ravi Shankar
Prasad would do with his 'Electronics & Information Technology' ministry?
The 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 a way, the ministry of 'Electronics
& Information Technology' also concerns with telecom and computing technologies.
So, there is a clear case of
overlapping between the functional areas of the 'Communications' ministry and
the 'Electronics & Information Technology' ministry. It would create
problems if the roles are not properly demarcated and defined.
Obviously, the government would
have thought on this line. Let's see the blue-print it comes out with.
©SantoshChaubey
