India merges telecom and IT ministries

NEW DELHI: The Indian government announced on Saturday the merger of the
ministries of information technology and telecommunications to harness the
potential in the domestic telecoms sector.

"The new merged ministry will have three departments. The posts,
information technology and communications," a spokesman for the ministry
told Reuters. The government has maintained that its decision is in line with
similar moves elsewhere and will result in faster decision-making. India has the
world's eighth largest telecommunications network.

The union cabinet cleared in August the introduction of a convergence bill to
set up a new watchdog body to oversee the Internet, broadcasting and
telecommunications and ensure orderly regulation.

While the telecoms sector was opened to competition in the mid-1990s, growth
has been hobbled by disputes between private players and the government on
revenue-sharing and licensing fees.

India has more than doubled teledensity to 3.7 telephone fixed lines per 100
inhabitants in the past two years and plans to hike the number to seven by 2005
through investments of Rs 1.2 trillion ($25 billion).

Earlier in the year, it opened up the fixed-line sector to unlimited
competition.

(C) Reuters Limited.